Sourced

• I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!
  • America Can Be Saved! (1979) Sword of the Lord Publishers, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, p. 52-53, quoted at "The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party"

• If one removes the first two letters from this word 'spoil' he soon realizes what Russia will really be after — obviously, oil.
  • Interpreting the significance of the English version of Ezekiel 38:12 as evidence of the USSR's belligerence toward Israel, on the Old Time Gospel Hour (1979); as quoted in What Should We Believe? (1987) by Aurelia T. Fule, Ch. VIII: "Why Should the "New Teaching" Trouble Us?"

• The Jews are returning to their land of unbelief. They are spiritually blind and desperately in need of their Messiah and Savior.
  • Listen, America! (1981)

• You'll be riding along in an automobile. You'll be the driver perhaps. You're a Christian. There'll be several people in the automobile with you, maybe someone who is not a Christian. When the trumpet sounds you and the other born-again believers in that automobile will be instantly caught away - you will disappear, leaving behind only your clothes and physical things that cannot inherit eternal life. That unsaved person or persons in the automobile will suddenly be startled to find the car suddenly somewhere crashes... Other cars on the highway driven by believers will suddenly be out of control and stark pandemonium will occur on ... every highway in the world where Christians are caught away from the drivers wheel.
  • Nuclear War and the Second Coming of Christ (1983) as quoted in "Does Reagan Expect a Nuclear Armageddon?" by Ronnie Dugger in Washington Post Outlook (8 April 1984)

• I do question the sincerity and non-violent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mr. James Farmer, and others, who are known to have left wing associations.
  • As quoted in A Testament of Hope: the essential writings of Martin Luther King (1990) by James M Washington, pub Harper Collins, San Francisco ISBN 0060646918

• Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them.
  • Crossfire (17 May 1997)

• If the American Atheists Society or Saddam Hussein himself ever sent an unrestricted gift to any of my ministries, be assured I will operate on Billy Sunday's philosophy: The Devil's had it long enough, and quickly cash the check.
  • Christianity Today (9 February 1998)

• God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.
  • As quoted in "God Gave US 'What We Deserve,' Falwell Says" by John F Harris, in The Washington Post (14 September 2001)

• The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.
  • On responses to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, as quoted in AANEWS #958 (14 September 2001) and at Positive Atheism

• Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU, and all the Christ-haters, People For the American Way, NOW, 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 on 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.
  • On responses to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, as quoted in AANEWS #958 (14 September 2001)

• 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.
  • Remarks to Pat Robertson after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on The 700 Club (13 September 2001) (audio recording); more at "Falwell and Above" at Snopes.com Falwell later told CNN:

I would never blame any human being except the terrorists, and if I left that impression with gays or lesbians or anyone else, I apologize.

• CNN (14 September 2001)

Falwell: "If we decide to change all the rules on which this Judeo-Christian nation was built we cannot expect the Lord to put his shield of protection around us as he has in the past."

Amanpour: "So you still stand by that."

Falwell: "I stand right by it."

• Interviewed by CNN's Christiana Amanpour about his current feelings regarding blame for the September 11th attacks, and whether or not he still feels as he did when he made the conversial statement cited above (8 May 2007) (video recording). This statement attesting that he still blamed so many was made one week before his death.

• The true Negro does not want integration... He realizes his potential is far better among his own race... It will destroy our race eventually... In one northern city, a pastor friend of mine tells me that a couple of opposite race live next door to his church as man and wife... It boils down to whether we are going to take God's Word as final.
  • Quoted in "The Nation's Best Bible College Gets Low Grades on Racial Diversity" The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, vol. 31 (2001), pp.43-45

• I think Muhammad was a terrorist. I read enough by both Muslims and non-Muslims, [to decide] that he was a violent man, a man of war.
  • An interview given on 30 September 2002, for 60 Minutes (6 October 2002). The following Friday, Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, the spokesman of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a fatwa for Falwell's death, saying that Falwell was a "mercenary and must be killed," and, "The death of that man is a religious duty, but his case should not be tied to the Christian community."

• This is probably as bad a day as the court has had on social issues since Roe v. Wade.
  • On the US Supreme Court's ruling in Lawrence V. Texas regarding sodomy laws, as quoted in "Conservatives condemn 'error of biblical proportions'" in The San Francisco Chronicle (27 June 2003)

• You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops and I am for the President — chase them all over the world, if it takes ten years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord.
  • CNN Debate with Jesse Jackson (24 October 2004)

• And the fact that John Kerry would not support a federal marriage amendment [prohibiting gay marriage], it equates in our minds as someone 150 years ago saying I'm personally opposed to slavery, but if my neighbor wants to own one or two that's OK. We don't buy that.
  • CNN : Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees (3 November 2004)

• The fact that Marc Cherry's a gay Republican means he should join the Democratic Party.
  • Meet the Press (28 November 2004)

• Civil rights for all Americans, black, white, red, yellow, the rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, et cetera, is not a liberal or a conservative value. It’s an American value that I would think that we pretty much all agree on.
  • "The Situation with Tucker Carlson" on MSNBC (5 August 2005)

• Regardless of the response from the Jewish person, we remain friends in support of the State of Israel as required by scripture.
  • "Hagee, Falwell deny endorsing 'dual covenant'" in The Jerusalem Post (2 March 2006)

• I have been on record all 54 years of my ministry as being opposed to dual covenant theology... I simply cannot alter my deeply held belief in the exclusivity of salvation through the Gospel of Christ for the sake of political or theological expediency. Like the Apostle Paul, I pray daily for the salvation of everyone, including the Jewish people.
  • Response to a Jerusalem Post (1 March 2006) article which portrayed him as endorsing a "dual covenant" theology in which Jews are saved with a "special relationship with God and so need not become Christians to get to heaven." in The Jerusalem Post (2 March 2006)

• Today the world has gone sex crazy. Illicit sex has become the downfall of many in the Bible. Movie stars not married to each other, having babies and making headlines all over the world as though they were doing some great thing. Big deal! Just another moral pervert. And for them to become heroes for our kids. My wife and I will be married 49 years the next anniversary.
  • Televised sermon at the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia (25 June 2006), as quoted in "Falwell on the "moral pervert[s" in Hollywood: "[Y]ou almost got to be a homosexual to be recognized in the entertainment industry anymore" at Media Matters for America (27 June 2006)]

• You know, you almost got to be a homosexual to be recognized in the entertainment industry anymore. Ellen [Degeneres], and all the rest. I love them, pray for their souls, but they're immoral. And the Hollywood scene — five and eight and 10 marriages — not something to be emulated.
  • Televised sermon at the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia (25 June 2006), as quoted in "Falwell on the "moral pervert[s]" in Hollywood: "[Y]ou almost got to be a homosexual to be recognized in the entertainment industry anymore" at Media Matters for America (27 June 2006)

• Thank God for these gay demonstrators. If I didn't have them, I'd have to invent them. They give me all the publicity I need.
  • As quoted by Falwell's ghostwriter Mel White in "Religion, Politics a Potent Mix for Jerry Falwell" by Steve Inskeep in Morning Edition on NPR (30 June 2006)

• Since Jesus came to the earth the first time 2,000 years ago as a Jewish male, many evangelicals believe the Antichrist will, by necessity, be a Jewish male. This belief is 2,000 years old and has no anti-Semitic roots. This is simply historic and prophetic orthodox Christian doctrine that many theologians, Christian and non-Christian, have understood for two millennia.
  • Quoted in "Religion, Politics a Potent Mix for Jerry Falwell" by Steve Inskeep in Morning Edition on NPR (30 June 2006)

• I believe in the premillenial, pre-tribulational coming of Christ for all of his church, and to summarize that, your first poll, do you believe Jesus coming the second time will be in the future, I would vote yes with the 59 percent and with Billy Graham and most evangelicals.
  The second question, you asked, "Do you think he is coming in your lifetime?" I would vote neither yes nor no. I would vote I do not know, because Jesus said, "No man knows the day or the hour." So the bottom line is, I believe that we ought to be living every day as though this is the crowning day. But we should also be planning and working with the next generation in mind, because we do not know.
  • Paula Zahn Now (31 July 2006), as quoted in "CNN still fixated on Apocalypse predictors, still ignoring alleged invitation to White House, Capitol Hill" at Media Matters for America (1 August 2006)

Quotes about Falwell

• I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.
  • Barry Goldwater July, 1981, in response to Falwell's opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court, of which Falwell had said, "Every good Christian should be concerned"; quoted in Ed Magnuson, "The Brethren's First Sister," Time Magazine (1981-07-20)

• If you gave Falwell an enema he could be buried in a matchbox.
  • Christopher Hitchens, on Fox News Channel's Hannity and Colmes (16 May 2007)

• I recognize and celebrate that our country is founded upon Judeo-Christian values, and I have pledged my life to defend America and all her values, the values that have made us the noblest experiment in history. But public — but political intolerance by any political party is neither a Judeo-Christian nor an American value. ... The political tactics of division and slander are not our values. They are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country.
  Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right.
  • John McCain, quoted in "Sen. John McCain Attacks Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Republican Establishment as Harming GOP Ideals" (28 February 2000)