Defending Jerry Falwell

Weeks after Jerry Falwell made the

for which he has since

, he is getting flak from unlikely quarters. Rev. Falwell, you'll recall, was on Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network show The 700 Club, when he said that God might be punishing America for the actions of liberal groups that have promoted the evils of abortion, homosexuality, promiscuity, pornography and the like. You know, the stuff that Pope John Paul II repeatedly calls "the culture of death."

Rev. Falwell himself acknowledged that he had overreached in saying, "I point the finger" at the ACLU, People for the American Way, homosexual activists and other liberals. For an unequivocal apology, see Rev. Falwell's Web site. As a preacher, Rev. Falwell knows that no human can fathom the doings of Almighty God: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord (Isaiah 55:8).

On October 23, Tod Lindberg, who also edits the Heritage Foundation's Policy Review, sent forth this Washington Times column: "Osama bin Laden, meet Jerry Falwell: Extremism must be defanged."

"I, for one," Mr. Lindberg writes, "expect [that] damage control in response to this spectacularly offensive episode is going to be an exercise in futility." He should have added, "At least, if I have anything to say about it."

Mr. Lindberg went on: "There is a gulf of civilization separating Mr. Falwell from decent Americans who couldn't imagine blaming their countrymen for the terror attack. But even this is small compared to the vast gulf of civilization that separates bin Laden and Mr. Falwell. Mr. Falwell lives in a time and place in which those harboring his view of fellow human beings are constrained to express it in the marketplace.... There will, for a while to come anyway, probably be ample rewards for those best able to articulate this point of view, on account of its lingering (if diminishing) resonance with some Americans." Translation: Jerry Falwell is pretty much like bin Laden, but the system prevents him from doing violence, so I guess he's more civilized.

We've seen radical homosexual groups make these kinds of arguments, but it's shocking when they come from a mainstream Republican conservative, as Mr. Lindberg appears to consider himself.

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