Falwell apologizes

[Guest guest]

Falwell apologizes for 'insensitive' remarks

 

KEVIN HALL, Associated Press Writer

Monday, September 17, 2001

(09-17) 18:46 PDT RICHMOND, Va. (AP) --

 

The Rev. Jerry Falwell apologized Monday for saying God had allowed

terrorists to attack America because of the work of civil liberties groups,

abortion rights supporters and feminists. Falwell said his comments were

ill-timed, insensitive and divisive at a time of national mourning.

President Bush had called the minister's statement inappropriate.

 

"In the midst of the shock and mourning of a dark week for America, I made

a statement that I should not have made and which I sincerely regret,"

Falwell said. He added: "I want to apologize to every American, including

those I named."

 

In an interview Thursday during religious broadcaster Pat Robertson's TV

program "The 700 Club," Falwell blamed the devastation on pagans,

abortionists, feminists, homosexuals, the American Civil Liberties Union

and the 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,"' he said.

 

Falwell, a Baptist minister and chancellor of Liberty University in

Lynchburg, Va., also expressed a belief shared by other evangelicals that

divine protection is withdrawn from nations that violate God's will.

 

However, some Christian thinkers warned there was no way to know which sin

led to which punishment.

 

On Monday, Falwell agreed. "When I talked about God lifting the curtain of

protection on our nation, I should have made it very clear that no one on

this earth knows whether or not that occurred or did not occur," he said.

He said if the destruction was a judgment from God it was a judgment on all

sinners, including himself.

 

Falwell told The Associated Press that no one from the evangelical

community or the White House pressured him to apologize. However, he said a

White House representative called him Friday while he was driving to the

National Cathedral memorial service in Washington, and told him the

president disapproved.

 

Falwell said he told the White House that he also felt he had misspoken.

Falwell made his apology minutes after Robertson's Christian Broadcasting

Network released its own statement calling Falwell's on-air remarks "severe

and harsh in tone and, frankly, not fully understood" by Robertson and his

two co-hosts.

 

During last week's broadcast, Robertson had agreed when Falwell said, "God

continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us

probably what we deserve." Angell Watts, a spokeswoman for Robertson's

network, did not return calls Monday seeking comment.