"God's Christian Warriors" Battle Against Gay Rights

Before Falwell's recent death (his interview with Amanpour included in the documentary was his last), he was no longer the political force that he had once been, but his effect on American politics still resonates. As for Falwell himself, he surprised Amanpour with two statements he made during taping.

The first was that he again recanted his apology for the comments he made after 9/11 when he blamed the terrorist attacks on “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way…”

In an interview with AfterElton.com, Amanpour said that Falwell had in fact once again reaffirmed his blame of gays and lesbians for the September 11th attacks. “His stance was the same,” said Amanpour. “He did it again. And he stood by it.”

Falwell also surprised Amanpour by telling her he would support the Presidential candidate who was toughest not on social issues, but on security. “It surprised me,” she said. “Because, of course, the big hot button social issues are…gay marriage, abortion, things like that. But he actually says the ‘Presidential candidate we would be most likely to support is one who is tough on security.’”

While Falwell’s final years might not have included the political clout he once wielded, God’s Christian Warriors makes it clear he and other fundamentalists wield clout in other ways – specifically through the courts and the schools, including his own Liberty University.

Just this year, Liberty graduated its first class of lawyers whose main mission is to use the judicial system to change American society more to their liking. For most fundamentalists, that means a government based on “biblical” principles.

God’s Christian Warriors also documents how the issue of gay marriage may have helped the Right reelect Bush to a second term in 2004. As Amanpour explains, Ohio was a battleground state in the last presidential election and Republican activists there placed a state constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage on the ballot. It is estimated that 3.3 million voters turned out specifically to vote for it and that those who did so voted 6-1 for Bush, giving him the electoral votes that pushed him over the top in the Electoral College.

As Amanpour’s reporting shows, it’s not just in the courts that fundamentalists wage their battle against secular influences. Fundamentalists have also fight in the classroom over the teaching of evolution and sex education. In fact, God’s Christian Warriors shows how one such safer-sex curriculum brought Pastor Rick Scarborough of Pearland, Texas into the religious wars.

Scarborough – the author of Liberalism Kills Kids – became infuriated when his daughter’s high school class discussed HIV and the use of condoms to prevent its spread. He also rails against what he calls “activist” judges such as those in Massachusetts who ruled in favor of gay marriage in that state. Scarborough believes such judges should be impeached.