response 1 of 4:

Sep 15 21:11 UTC 2001

Falwell is of course claiming he never said it, or he was quoted out of 
context.  Here's what he says on his web site:

--------------------------

STATEMENT BY JERRY FALWELL ON 700 CLUB COMMENTS

Senior Pastor, Thomas Road Baptist Church and Chancellor, Liberty 
University
Lynchburg, Virginia

September 14, 2001

Despite the impression some may have from news reports today, I hold no 
one other than the terrorists and the people and nations who have 
enabled and harbored them responsible for Tuesday's attacks on this 
nation.

I sincerely regret that comments I made during a long theological 
discussion on a Christian television program yesterday were taken out 
of their context and reported, and that my thoughts--reduced to sound 
bites--have detracted from the spirit of this day of mourning.

Today, I join millions of people throughout this nation and around the 
world in remembering all those who died, and praying for our nation, 
the victims of this travesty, and their loved ones. 

--------------------------

In other words, Falwell is a coward and a liar.  But a couple of items 
down the Google page on which I found the above site, I found the 
following interesting story:

--------------------------

Is Jerry Falwell a liar? 

By Jerry Sloan

For over 25 years the Rev. Jerry Falwell has been spewing forth 
his "gospel" of misinformation and vindictiveness over the radio and TV 
airwaves. His latest venture in his chosen occupation of TV huckster 
(If I take two Vegematics, will you throw in a set of Ginsu knives?) is 
a vitriolic attack on President and Mrs. Clinton. It is done through an 
hour-long informercial in which he hustles two video tapes accusing the 
President of a variety of crimes.

While many have accused Falwell of stretching the truth or outright 
lies, a confrontation occurred ten years ago that set in motion a 
lawsuit which would prove in two courts of law that Jerry Falwell is 
not a man of his word.

It was Friday, July 13, 1984. Jerry Falwell, who was riding high as the 
head of the Moral Majority, appeared in person on a live talk 
show, "Look Who's Talking," produced by Sacramento's KCRA-TV. I was in 
the studio audience.

During a broadcast of the "Old Time Gospel Hour" on March 11, 1984, 
Falwell spoke about the predominantly gay Metropolitan Community 
Church, of which I am a former minister:

"But these things speak evil of those things, verse 10 [reading from 
Jude] which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute 
beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Look at the 
Metropolitan Community Church today, the gay church, almost accepted 
into the World Council of Churches. Almost, the vote was against them. 
But they will try again and again until they get in, and the tragedy is 
that they would get one vote. Because they are spoken of here in Jude 
as being brute beasts, that is going to the baser lust of the flesh to 
live immorally, and so Jude describes this as apostasy. But thank God 
this vile and satanic system will one day be utterly annihilated and 
there'll be a celebration in heaven."

Falwell became infuriated when I tried to question him about his 
statement. He repeatedly denied making it, saying it was "a lie." When 
I said I had a tape of the statement, Falwell countered by saying he 
would pay me $5,000 if I could produce such a tape.

The following Wednesday I took two audio tapes to the KCRA-TV studio. 
One was a tape I had made as the "Old Time Gospel Hour" was broadcast 
in Sacramento. The second tape was produced by the "Old Time Gospel 
Hour" itself and obtained by sending $4.00. KCRA-TV did a follow-up by 
playing portions of the tapes related to my accusations and concluded 
Falwell had been quoted accurately and probably owed me $5,000.

My attorney sent a letter to Falwell telling him he could find the 
statement on his "Old Time Gospel Hour" audio tape #590 and to please 
send a check for $5,000 by return mail. Through an "Old Time Gospel 
Hour" attorney, Falwell continued to deny making the statement and 
accused me and KCRA of tampering with the tapes. He refused to pay.

On November 30, 1984, Falwell returned to Sacramento on a fundraising 
junket. Two hours prior to Falwell's landing at the Sacramento airport, 
I filed a lawsuit through my attorney, Rosemary Metrailer, in municipal 
court against Falwell for breach of an oral contract. He was greeted by 
the Sacramento press corps and a process server as he alighted from his 
multi-million-dollar shiny red, white, and blue private jet. The next 
day the front-page headline in The Sacramento Union read, "A bad day 
for Jerry Falwell."

The trial was eventually presided over by municipal court judge Michael 
S. Ullman, who heard the case because the assigned judge was engaged in 
another trial. It was unique in that both sides agreed there was no 
need for witnesses as everything in dispute was contained on several 
hundred feet of TV and audio tape.

During the course of preparing for the trial, I suggested to Metrailer 
that there was a similarity between this case and that of the Holocaust 
revisionist Institute for Historical Review in Los Angeles, who offered 
$50,000 to anyone who could prove the Holocaust actually happened. When 
presented the proof, the organization reneged on its offer and refused 
to pay. A lawsuit was filed and the Institute was ordered to pay the 
$50,000. Metrailer told me the case was not a precedent for this 
jurisdiction, but she would use it. If Falwell's attorney, Weldon 
Reeves, didn't object, it would stand. Unfortunately, Reeves caught it, 
objected, and the judge sustained the objection and threw it out.

Judge Ullman decided the case in my favor in an unusual — for municipal 
courts — seven-page opinion.

That should have been the end of it but Falwell didn't want to give up 
the $5,000 without further fight. He chose to appeal and through his 
attorney made an astounding accusation that during the trial Metrailer 
tried to appeal to Judge Ullman's "sympathy and prejudice" by citing 
the Institute for Historical Review case. Just before the trial Judge 
Ullman revealed he was Jewish by stating that he hoped the trial would 
not take more than one day as he wanted to spend the next day with his 
family celebrating Rosh Hashanah. In essence they were asserting that 
Judge Ullman was Jewish and prejudiced against Falwell, a gentile. 

Rabbi David Saperstein of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations 
said:

"The contention that a Jewish judge will be swayed by a precedent of 
law based on a case that involved Jews or Jewish concerns is an 
irresponsible legal assertion and an outrageous moral affront to our 
judiciary system and the Jewish people."

The appellate court found Falwell's appeal to be "wholly frivolous and 
totally without merit." It also ordered him to pay additional sanctions 
(money) for wasting the court's valuable time. He had no ground for 
further appeal. Finally in September of 1986, he sent me a check for 
$8982.90. The endorsement on the check admonished me not to call a 
press conference and gloat.

A portion of the money was used to help open the Lambda Community 
Center as a resource for the gay and lesbian people of Sacramento. The 
Lambda Center has a room dedicated to Falwell. It was a closet and is 
now a toilet.

As stated earlier, it has been proven in not one but two courts of law 
that Jerry Falwell reneges on his word, lies about what he has said, 
and is not above using slimy tactics, even if they cause him to appear 
anti-Jewish.

Falwell has a documented record of making statements then dodging and 
denying he said them. Why would anyone give an iota of credence to 
anything he propagates? This certainly speaks to the character of 
Falwell and reminds one of certain injunctions in the inerrant 
scriptures he claims to believe, such as not judging others, looking 
after motes and beams in one's own eye before worrying about others, 
and speaking the truth in love. It also reminds us that it is indeed 
difficult for the leopard to change its spots.

Jerry Sloan attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, 
with Jerry Falwell. He and Marghe Covino head the California-based 
Project Tocsin, a group which researches the religious right. Copyright 
1994 Jerry Sloan.

response 3 of 4:

Sep 16 21:06 UTC 2001

He might've put his foot in it this time.  Twice yesterday, at a swim 
meet and then at a band invitational, a song I think called "God Bless 
the USA" was played after the national anthem.  It's the one with "And 
I'm pround to be an American," and "And I'm proud to stand up," etc.  I 
always thought of this song as a kind of proletarian anthem beloved by 
the very people who support Falwell, and here it was being sung in 
tribute to the terrorist attack victims.  I believe with those remarks 
of Robertson's show Falwell might've lost much of his audience.