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Jerry Falwell changed my life

By 1979 all that changed. You see my family had committed a sin that thanks to Jerry Falwell could no longer be overlooked. We were Democrats. In fact as people of faith we loved Jimmy Carter and considered him a true man of God. Suddenly we were ostracized, a project in fact. I was bombarded with political literature from my church while I was away at school, my mother was counseled and prodded to change and my brother who was 12 at the time was pressured. A retired Lieutenant Colonel who ministered to fatherless boys demanded that my young brother defend a woman’s right to choose and we were summarily dismissed from his ministry. Suddenly Christianity required a political affiliation above all else and the church that meant so much to us now shunned us.

 

It took me nine years to find my way back. While attending the Cornerstone Festival sponsored by Jesus People USA  in Chicago, I discovered Evangelicals for Social Action. Its leader Ron Sider lamented the partisan box the religious right had created and encouraged a consistent ethic of life, opposing the death penalty, practicing pacifism and not demonizing woman who make difficult choices. Within months I found the labor movement; considering it a more relevant force than the church as defined by the religious right.

 

It’s a shame that Jerry Falwell taught the church to shun the likes of me, but in a sense it led me to a truly relevant movement that impacts the daily lives of workers and their families around the world. I’m sure as followers of Falwell and Bush read this they expect a difficult afterlife for me. But I’m changing the world in this life and isn’t that what the Great Commission is all about?