Falwell literally advocates Holy War

Thanks to David Currie of Texas Baptists Committed for calling my attention to the debate between Jerry Falwell and Jessie Jackson that was on CNN's Late Edition Sunday night. Here's a link to the transcript of that program (You'll have to scroll down to nearly the bottom of the page to get the dialogue between Falwell and Jackson). Here's an excerpt from that transcript:

JACKSON: Let's stop the killing and choose peace. Let's choose negotiation over confrontation.

FALWELL: Well, I'm for that too. But you've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops. And I'm for the president to chase them all over the world. If it takes 10 years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord.

JACKSON: That does not sound Biblical to me. And that sounds ridiculous.

I suspect Jackson was so shocked by Falwell's rhetoric that he conflated what sounds "biblical" with what sounds "Christian." There is a lot of "holy war" rhetoric in the Old Testament. In the New Testament such rhetoric, and the actions incited by it, are unwaveringly denounced and rejected by Jesus.

Even taking into account Falwell's penchant for rhetorical exaggeration, Falwell's statement reveals a mindset more comfortable with "Dominionist" thought than with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

CNN is an international stage. Falwell's statements are being translated and broadcast to people around the world. Falwell's is one of the most prominent faces of Christianity being broadcast to the non-Christian world. Now that Fundamentalists like Falwell have hijacked our faith and turned the "good news" about God's love and grace into an explicit threat to "blow them all away in the name of the Lord," why would any unbeliever care to know Jesus?
Now, more than any other time in American history, it is time for faithful Christians to join those of us who are Confessing Christ in a World of Violence.