Verbatim 'ACLU's . . . to . . . blame ...'

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority and a force in American politics for more than three decades, died Tuesday. Here is an excerpt from a transcript of the Sept. 13, 2001, edition of the CBN program "The 700 Club," in which Falwell discusses with the show's host, the Rev. Pat Robertson, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks of two days before.

Jerry Falwell: . . . [T]he Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, [Sept. 11, 2001] is the first time that we've been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results. And I fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, said yesterday, that this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available to these monsters - the Husseins, the bin Ladens, the Arafats - what we saw on [Sept. 11], as terrible as it is, could be minuscule if, in fact - if, in fact - God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.

Pat Robertson: Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population.

Falwell: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.

Robertson: Well, yes.

Falwell: And I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that 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 - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say, "You helped this happen."

Robertson: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is, we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system.

Falwell: Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU, and all the Christ-haters, People For the American Way, [the National Organization for Women], etc., were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they went out on the steps and called out to God in prayer and sang "God Bless America" and said, "Let the ACLU be hanged"? In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time - calling upon God.

Robertson: Amen.