The Revealer: Falwell Took 13 Years to Decide He Was Straight

A daily review of religion and the press

Falwell Took 13 Years to Decide He Was Straight

05 December 2004
The Revealer has been under fire for publishing the United Church of Christ's press release about NBC's and CBS's refusal to run their ad depicting a gay couple, turned away from a church guarded by bouncers, finding welcome at a UCC church. Even though The Revealer has made a policy of occasionally publishing press releases as primary sources, and even though we've published as many conservative releases as liberal ones (that is, one each), some readers have accused us of liberal bias. Well, the truth is that here at The Revealer we swing both ways. Which is why, in our crusade against commercial censorship, we're delighted to find ourselves in bed with the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Rev. Falwell -- now that we're sleeping together, we call him "Jer" -- came out on Chris Matthews' "Hardball" on "our side" -- the side that thinks the ad should have run. Not that Jer isn't solidly homoph -- "biblical." "Handicaps," he says, should be welcome in any church, since their condition is "beyond [their] power." But gay couples can be bounced, since they "choose" their sexuality. Matthews asked if Jer "chose" his heterosexuality. Yes, but -- bombshell! -- it took him 13 years to do so. As we can attest, Jer is a guy who likes to investigate every position. P.S. The Revealer has also been accused of failing to be nonpartisan. That's arguable, but we think our critics have a point: "nonpartisan" is a stupid word. From now on, we're going to be promiscuously polypartisan. With preferential treatment for free speech, and disdain for dualism.