Freedom Writer - September 1994 [ref001] Is Jerry Falwell a liar? By Jerry Sloan For over

Freedom Writer - September 1994

[ref001]

Is Jerry Falwell a liar?

By Jerry Sloan

For over 25 years the Rev. Jerry Falwell has been spewing forth his 
"gospel" of misinformation and vindictiveness over the radio and TV 
airwaves. His latest venture in his chosen occupation of TV huckster 
(If I take two Vegematics, will you throw in a set of Ginsu knives?) 
is a vitriolic attack on President and Mrs. Clinton. It is done through 
an hour-long informercial in which he hustles two video tapes accusing 
the President of a variety of crimes.

While many have accused Falwell of stretching the truth or outright 
lies, a confrontation occurred ten years ago that set in motion a 
lawsuit which would prove in two courts of law that Jerry Falwell 
is not a man of his word.

It was Friday, July 13, 1984. Jerry Falwell, who was riding high as 
the head of the Moral Majority, appeared in person on a live talk 
show, "Look Who's Talking," produced by Sacramento's KCRA-TV. I was 
in the studio audience.

During a broadcast of the "Old Time Gospel Hour" on March 11, 1984, 
Falwell spoke about the predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Church, 
of which I am a former minister:

"But these things speak evil of those things, verse 10 [reading from 
Jude] which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute 
beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Look at the Metropolitan 
Community Church today, the gay church, almost accepted into the World 
Council of Churches. Almost, the vote was against them. But they will 
try again and again until they get in, and the tragedy is that they 
would get one vote. Because they are spoken of here in Jude as being 
brute beasts, that is going to the baser lust of the flesh to live 
immorally, and so Jude describes this as apostasy. But thank God this 
vile and satanic system will one day be utterly annihilated and there'll 
be a celebration in heaven."

Falwell became infuriated when I tried to question him about his statement. 
He repeatedly denied making it, saying it was "a lie." When I said 
I had a tape of the statement, Falwell countered by saying he would 
pay me $5,000 if I could produce such a tape.

The following Wednesday I took two audio tapes to the KCRA-TV studio. 
One was a tape I had made as the "Old Time Gospel Hour" was broadcast 
in Sacramento. The second tape was produced by the "Old Time Gospel 
Hour" itself and obtained by sending $4.00. KCRA-TV did a follow-up 
by playing portions of the tapes related to my accusations and concluded 
Falwell had been quoted accurately and probably owed me $5,000.

My attorney sent a letter to Falwell telling him he could find the 
statement on his "Old Time Gospel Hour" audio tape #590 and to please 
send a check for $5,000 by return mail. Through an "Old Time Gospel 
Hour" attorney, Falwell continued to deny making the statement and 
accused me and KCRA of tampering with the tapes. He refused to pay.

On November 30, 1984, Falwell returned to Sacramento on a fundraising 
junket. Two hours prior to Falwell's landing at the Sacramento airport, 
I filed a lawsuit through my attorney, Rosemary Metrailer, in municipal 
court against Falwell for breach of an oral contract. He was greeted 
by the Sacramento press corps and a process server as he alighted 
from his multi-million-dollar shiny red, white, and blue private jet. 
The next day the front-page headline in _The_Sacramento_Union_ read, 
"A bad day for Jerry Falwell."

The trial was eventually presided over by municipal court judge Michael 
S. Ullman, who heard the case because the assigned judge was engaged 
in another trial. It was unique in that both sides agreed there was 
no need for witnesses as everything in dispute was contained on several 
hundred feet of TV and audio tape.

During the course of preparing for the trial, I suggested to Metrailer 
that there was a similarity between this case and that of the Holocaust 
revisionist Institute for Historical Review in Los Angeles, who offered 
$50,000 to anyone who could prove the Holocaust actually happened. 
When presented the proof, the organization reneged on its offer and 
refused to pay. A lawsuit was filed and the institute was ordered 
to pay the $50,000. Metrailer told me the case was not a precedent 
for this jurisdiction, but she would use it. If Falwell's attorney, 
Weldon Reeves, didn't object, it would stand. Unfortunately, Reeves 
caught it, objected, and the judge sustained the objection and threw 
it out.
	
Judge Ullman decided the case in my favor in an unusual -- for municipal 
courts -- seven-page opinion.

That should have been the end of it but Falwell didn't want to give 
up the $5,000 without further fight. He chose to appeal and through 
his attorney made an astounding accusation that during the trial Metrailer 
tried to appeal to Judge Ullman's "sympathy and prejudice" by citing 
the Institute for Historical Review case. Just before the trial Judge 
Ullman revealed he was Jewish by stating that he hoped the trial would 
not take more than one day as he wanted to spend the next day with 
his family celebrating Rosh Hashanah. In essence they were asserting 
that Judge Ullman was Jewish and prejudiced against Falwell, a gentile. 

	
Rabbi David Saperstein of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations 
said:

	
"The contention that a Jewish judge will be swayed by a precedent 
of law based on a case that involved Jews or Jewish concerns is an 
irresponsible legal assertion and an outrageous moral affront to our 
judiciary system and the Jewish people."
	
The appellate court found Falwell's appeal to be "wholly frivolous 
and totally without merit." It also ordered him to pay additional 
sanctions (money) for wasting the court's valuable time. He had no 
ground for further appeal. Finally in September of 1986, he sent me 
a check for $8982.90. The endorsement on the check admonished me not 
to call a press conference and gloat.

A portion of the money was used to help open the Lambda Community 
Center as a resource for the gay and lesbian people of Sacramento. 
The Lambda Center has a room dedicated to Falwell. It was a closet 
and is now a toilet.

As stated earlier, it has been proven in not one but two courts of 
law that Jerry Falwell reneges on his word, lies about what he has 
said, and is not above using slimy tactics, even if they cause him 
to appear anti-Jewish.

Falwell has a documented record of making statements then dodging 
and denying he said them. Why would anyone give an iota of credence 
to anything he propagates? This certainly speaks to the character 
of Falwell and reminds one of certain injunctions in the inerrant 
scriptures he claims to believe, such as not judging others, looking 
after motes and beams in one's own eye before worrying about others, 
and speaking the truth in love. It also reminds us that it is indeed 
difficult for the leopard to change its spots.

Jerry Sloan attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, 
with Jerry Falwell. He and Marghe Covino head the California-based 
Project Tocsin, a group which researches the religious right. Copyright 
1994 Jerry Sloan. 

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