American leaders across the political spectrum are eulogizing the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, albeit with some criticism of his tendency to lash out at his adversaries.

But lost in this desire not to speak ill of the dead is the troubling story of Falwell’s secret financial dealings with South Korean cult leader Sun Myung Moon and how Moon’s mysterious money bailed out Falwell’s Liberty University.

For the full story of Falwell’s Faustian bargain, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority and built the religious right into a destructive political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said, according to the AP. He was 73, and obviously didn’t live to see Jesus come back as he often said he would.

Falwell, a televangelist who helped elect Ronald Reagan president in 1980 in a major setback for the seperation of church and state in the United States, probably did more to set back Enlightenment thought than any American since Cotton Mather.

To the Editor:

The death of Senator Eugene McCarthy should not pass without noting his service to freedom, and to freedom in Alabama in particular.

In 1968, leading up to the infamous Democratic Convention in Chicago, we had been forced to organize a new Democratic Party in Alabama so as to be able to run black candidates for office as Democrats. The “Wallace Party” was refusing to qualify them, saying it was too soon.

I was the Executive Director of the new party, the “real Democratic Party,” named the National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA). We were preparing to go to Chicago and challenge the seating of the Wallace Party at the convention, with the intent of replacing it with the NDPA, a real state-wide democratic party.

I got a call from our state chair telling me that the McCarthy campaign was sending some people down to meet with us, and we arranged to meet them in Birmingham. The delegation consisted of the actresses Shirley McLaine and Whitney Blake (the mother on the TV series Hazel), and their campaign escort. While talking, we showed them some of the city, including an evening dancing at Tito’s, an integrated club on 1st Avenue North.

We agreed that we would not commit our delegation to any candidate, but we agreed on all important matters. In response, Senator McCarthy would (and did) support our being seated, replacing the “Wallace Party.” Note that he did this without a commitment on our part to support his candidacy.

In Chicago, we worked for promises of votes to replace the “Wallace Party,” and we were assured of a majority, including the entire delegations of California and New York. We had an easy win coming.

When the credentials vote came to the floor, (the first vote of the convention), the New York delegation was no where to be seen. We found them in a caucus room. It seems that Hubert Humphrey had made a deal with George Wallace. Humphrey would support the seating of the all-white “Wallace Party” delegation in return for their votes for the nomination.

(The “Wallace Party” had already voted to have its electors vote for Wallace for President in the Electoral College, whoever the actual nominee was. The deal between Humphrey and Wallace was a marriage of convenience for both, without a single principle except self-service. It was a deal with the devil.)

In that caucus room was the New York delegation, meeting with Big Tom Foley, former corrupt head of the Tammany Hall machine, just out of prison, but still wielding great personal power in the New York Democratic Party.

Foley went around the room, threatening the delegates thusly: If you support the NDPA’s challenge, you will never get the nomination to run for Buffalo mayor; your husband will never get that judgeship he covets; you will never become New York City Comptroller, etc.

The delegation was in a dilemma - renounce principle to preserve their careers, or sacrifice themselves on the sword of freedom.

They did neither. They compromised. They decided to stay in the caucus room and skip the vote altogether. The NDPA lost the votes of the more than 100 delegates from New York and the “Wallace Party” was seated. Racism won, with its long-time allies, power politics and self-service.

The entire time, McCarthy worked to support our challenge and our seating. For him, it was not about himself, but freedom.

Had we been seated, I think that the peace plank would have been passed (it failed due to Humphrey’s commitment to the war) and McCarthy would have been nominated. In my opinion, in the America of the time, McCarthy would have beaten the deeply unpopular Richard Nixon, the war would have ended, and a new era of peace, freedom and progress would have been born in America.

As far as our party went, we returned to Alabama and elected the first black office holders to be elected as Democrats since Reconstruction. Six years later, we had over 100 black office holders, more than any other state in the union.

The NDPa and integration in Alabama won. America lost. Gene McCarthy stood for peace and freedom. Hubert Humphrey had sold out the freedom movement, the nation and the world.

Gene McCarthy should be remembered as one who stood for right no matter what.

Rev. Jack Zylman
Birmingham, Ala.