Lucifer Politics

Peter Wallsten writes in today's LA Times that Jerry Falwell has been brushing up with Hugo Chavez on his speech techniques:

Nothing will motivate conservative evangelical Christians to vote Republican in the 2008 presidential election more than a Democratic nominee named Hillary Rodham Clinton — not even a run by the devil himself.

That was the sentiment expressed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the longtime evangelical icon and founder of the once-powerful Moral Majority, during private remarks Friday to church pastors and activists as part of the Values Voter Summit hosted this weekend by the country's leading Christian conservatives.

[...]

"I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate," Falwell said, according to the recording. "She has $300 million so far. But I hope she's the candidate. Because nothing will energize my [constituency] like Hillary Clinton."

Cheers and laughter filled the room as Falwell continued: "If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't."

At that moment in the recording, Falwell's voice is drowned out by hoots of approval. But two in attendance, including a Falwell staff member, confirmed that Falwell said that even Lucifer, the fallen angel synonymous with Satan in Christian theology, would not mobilize his followers as much as the New York senator and former first lady would.

This is par for the course in what are thought to be off-the-record sessions among the religious right. They follow the Yassir Arafat strategy of saying one thing in public, and another to their constituents in private, sometimes at the same time (see dog-whistle politics). These are the same people that will turn around and decry "vicious" comments made by their political enemies in public, while sending out direct mailers suggesting Democratic candidates will burn Bibles, or making comments like how a US Senator is "worse than Lucifer".

Indeed, hours later, in a PUBLIC speech made by SpongeDob, he stuck to the script:

About two hours after Falwell's speech at the Values Voter Summit, James Dobson, founder of the influential group Focus on the Family, spoke publicly at the same conference. Dobson denounced what he said was a limp response by both political parties to Chavez's comment. Dobson, whose group was a sponsor of the weekend gathering, told the nearly 2,000 activists crammed into a hotel ballroom near downtown Washington that Chavez had "attacked our president viciously."

"And there has hardly been a statement of defense out of members of Congress about that," Dobson said. "There's been [only] a few pantywaist comments."

So it's vicious to call the President the devil, but OK to call a sitting Senator worse than the devil. OK. And Falwell's spokesman actually said this:

An aide to Falwell said Saturday that the Lucifer reference was an "off the cuff" comment and that Falwell "had no intentions of demonizing her."

He didn't want to demonize her, he just wanted to state for the record that she was worse than a demon. See?

It's all rhetorical garbage without much substance. But it's important to both note this hypocrisy, and to understand what happens behind closed doors in the conservative evangelical movement. I went to a screening of Jesus Camp this week, and believe me, what really happens out there, with the indoctrination of children as young as 6 to an authoritarian religious worldview mixed very directly with a political agenda (the kids lay hands on a cardboard cutout of President Bush and pray to it) should be well known to everybody. There is a very distinct, aggressive, determined strategy by the Christianist movement to mobilize their charges by intertwining religious and political imagery, exhorting them to be "warriors in the Army of God" and do whatever it takes to make America the Christian theocracy they feel it always was from the beginning. You can laugh off a comment about Hillary and Lucifer by Jerry Falwell but it springs out of a very specific strategy that demands a wide spotlight.

(Here's the trailer for Jesus Camp. Go see it.)

There's another aspect to this. The Values Voter Summit featured some of the top Republican candidates for President, including one VERY noteworthy individual up for re-election this year:

But Falwell's speech captured the spirit of much of the weekend, which was devoted to revving up the GOP base for November and beyond, and included appearances from several prospective Republican presidential candidates — Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sens. George Allen of Virginia and Sam Brownback of Kansas.

Somebody needs to ask George Felix Allen if he agrees with Jerry Falwell that his colleague Hillary Clinton is worse than Lucifer. And if there are two sets of rhetorical boundaries, where it's OK to call a Democratic Senator the devil but not a Republican President.

You'd think that with all of Allen's problems this week with regard to religion, he'd stay away from something like this. It's not like Senator Macaca has any chance at ever being President anymore. But he can't help himself. And the Webb campaign should make him pay.

I know Falwell has practically endorsed Jim Webb but they can talk about this in context of the double standard.