Bearding the Bible bashers
Christopher Hitchens
Lynchburg, Virginia T n his novel 1985, Anthony Burgess has a lcharacter who says: 'A tyranny can come about through the American democratic process, with a president as American as ap- ple pie, as they say — a kind of crackerbar- rel Will Rogers type appealing to the philistine anti-intellectual core of the American electorate. Core? More than the core, the whole fruit except for the thin skin of liberalism. My old Pappy used to say: Son, there ain't no good books except the Good Book. Time these long-haired in- terlettles got their comeuppance,' and so on. And so, book burning, shooting of radical schoolmasters, censorship of pro- gressive newspapers. Every repressive act justified out of the Old Testament and ex- cused jokingly in good spittoon style.
A few months ago, there were not a few Americans who genuinely feared that something of that sort was happening. Ronald Reagan had come to power and ap- parently owed a lot of votes to the fun- damentalist, redneck lobby. With their radio and TV stations, their impressive fund-raising and direct-mail facilities, and their apparently inexhaustible energy, the self-avowed Moral Majority seemed to hold a lot of cards. No teachers were shot, but quite a few books were burned and libraries purged (the American Library Association reported a trebling of complaints from librarians resisting intimidation). Authors like Kurt Vonnegut and J. D. Salinger were `targeted', as were works of non-fiction dealing with the Vietnam war.
Worse, Ronald Reagan felt obliged to say in public that he was dubious of the theory of evolution. And the list of Moral Majori- ty demands grew ever more exorbitant. Creation to be taught in schools. The foetus to be given citizen's rights from the moment of conception. Divorce, adultery and homosexuality to be outlawed. Less ex- plicit, but audible even to the untrained ear, were overtones of white supremacy and anti-semitism.
Here in Lynchburg — the very name is like a knell — is the seat of the Reverend Jerry Falwell. He, more than any other, is associated with the religious New Right. His
`Liberty Baptist College', a mill for churn- ing out evangelical degrees, is one of the town's dominant institutions, producing well-drilled short-haired youngsters who believe that the world is 4,000 years old. (Not all of them can take the strain. Last Christmas a young male alumnus was shot dead while holding up a bank — in drag) Every Sunday, millions tune in to hear Falwell's Old Time Gospel Hour, a fiery and bigoted binge, full of raw humour and off-the-cuff allusions. Local liberals and amoralists are often singled out, and their names and addresses given over the air. BY a system of 'tithing' his electronic congrega- tion, Falwell has raised many millions of dollars and has a mansion and a private jet to show for it, as well as a long list of voters and donors which has made aspirant Republican candidates drool. Local businesses and newspapers tremble at the thought of a Moral Majority consumers boycott. Senators and the White House return Falwell's calls.
For all that, there are a few signs that he may have gone too far. The more polished conservative newspaper columnists have ex- pressed distaste for Falwell's tactics. His, remark that God did not hear the prayers 01 a Jew has not been forgiven him. His broadcast boasts about his hot line to Reagan have irritated senior presidential advisors. Recently, in Arkansas of all places, a local court ruled that 'creationism was not a fit subject to be taught in the public schools. Worst of all, the governor- ship of Virginia has just gone to the Democrats for the first time in over 12 years, despite direct endorsement of the GOP from Falwell's pulpit. A local newspaper poll found that he was one of the least trusted men in the state. His one- time allies are beginning to wonder if he isn't more trouble than he is worth. So perhaps it was a propitious week to challenge him on his own turf. On the first day of February, a group of Lynchburg teachers and preachers got together, hired a hall and invited Gore Vidal to come and lec- ture on 'the state of the Union'. Vidal, who is currently running for the Senate from California, agreed with some relish. He is; without doubt, the very embodiment of all that the Moral Majority abominates — patrician, sexually libertarian, prone to sneer at the flag and associated with both Hollywood and New York, those twin cen- tres of race-mixing, drugs and faggotry. An open invitation was issued to all members of Liberty Baptist College, but they all stayed away. Instead, a capacity crowd laughed and cheered as Vidal pulled Falwell's nose. He called Falwell 'Reagan's vicar' and said with a curl of the lip that his Nod- raising made him more like 'the banker t,°, the Lord'. He called for the repeal of all legislation governing private morality (`get the government off our fronts'). He ridicui- ed Alexander Haig's recent claim that America's task in the world was to uphold monotheism. Most outrageously of all, he, suggested farming the huge earnings °I America's tax-exempt religions. 'It's been
calculated that you could raise a hundred billion dollars — enough to service 'the na- tional debt. and it would be such a pleasant way to make money.' Very loud cheers for this — Middle America is worried about the mounting deficit. Despite all Vidal's goading (he said he liked Falwell's 'fat little smile), no dissenting voice was heard in the hall.
More trouble awaits the Ayatollah of 1-Ynchburg. Two local pastors are pro- !noting a book they have written about him, full of quotable indiscretions (such as U Falwell's blasphemous comparison of himself to Jesus Christ). Many of the facul- ty at neighbouring Lynchburg College are joining in protests at his crude tactics one of them dates his own outrage to the day when Falwell described a plane crash as God's will, because two Playboy executives were among the 250 dead. And now he has been publicly bearded in his home town. In the end, Americans are much more tolerant and humorous than the bigots among them — and if anyone can sense that, Ronald Reagan can or should.
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