‘Cause of Christ Is Better Off,’ Falwell Says of Scandals

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, one of the few big-name television evangelists still on the video screen, says “the cause of Christ is better off” because of the recent evangelist scandals.

In his first-ever appearance before the National Assn. of Evangelicals, the fundamentalist leader also stated his preference for Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) as a running mate for Vice President George Bush, the man whom Falwell has long backed for the Republican presidential nomination.

Although praising ex-religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, who has stayed in the Republican primary race despite poor showings, Falwell said, “I’d love to see a Bush-Kemp ticket.”

On the other side, “I can’t think of a single Democrat running this year who I could hold my nose and vote for,” Falwell said.

The convention, which closed Thursday night, had only 750 registrants, but it represents about 50,000 member churches in 72 evangelical and Pentecostal denominations and agencies.

Falwell accepted an invitation to speak before the convention in 1983 but withdrew after criticism from fellow fundamentalists. The fundamentalist side of Protestant Christianity maintains a theological separation from the more broadly based evangelical organization.

In his speech to a luncheon sponsored by the National Religious Broadcasters, a National Assn. of Evangelicals affiliate, Falwell likened the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s to the TV evangelist scandals. The crisis that ended the Nixon Administration “made it much tougher for politicians since then,” he said.

“In the days ahead, it is going to be tougher for national (ministry) leaders to misbehave,” he said. “Not impossible, but tougher.”

An admission of sin last month by TV preacher Jimmy Swaggart and allegations last year of sexual and financial misconduct by Jim Bakker have led to a new code of moral and financial ethics for religious broadcasters, Falwell said.

“I think the days of the Rolls-Royces and Rolexes . . . the days in which social status is gauged by financial trappings are over,” Falwell said.

Falwell said that the Swaggart controversy had little effect on his own ministry and that he did not believe it had equaled the general impact of the Bakker revelations on the religious broadcast industry.

“It seems that all the fallout that was going to occur occurred last year,” he said at a news conference after the luncheon.

In a presidential preference poll conducted Wednesday night, 101 National Assn. of Evangelicals board members favored Bush but again put Robertson in fourth, indicating the relatively weak support the ex-minister has had among conservative Protestant leaders.

Last October in Washington, about 70 National Assn. of Evangelicals board members--believed to be mostly Republicans--preferred Kansas Sen. Robert Dole by 43%, followed by Kemp at 21%, Bush at 19% and Robertson 17%.

Following the Super Tuesday landslide for Bush in Republican primaries, board members picked Bush (40%) over Dole (32%) with Kemp getting 17% and Robertson 12%. Among Democrats, they favored Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri (37%) over Sen. Albert Gore of Tennessee (33%).

The last-place finish for Robertson “confounded conventional wisdom that he would be the near-unanimous choice of evangelical leaders,” said Richard Cizik, research director for the National Assn. of Evangelicals in Washington.

“They just don’t consider Robertson to be the most qualified for the job,” Cizik said.

The board members are largely middle-aged and older white males plus “some women and a few blacks and Hispanics,” said Brad Davis, an National Assn. of Evangelicals spokesman.