Was Falwell astroturf? Money from Moon & jet from Likud

[yurbud]

I have wondered if the rise of the political activism of the religious right wasn't given a shot in the arm and herded in certain directions by the same people who funded Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan & elsewhere in the 80s.

Oddly enough, Israel at one time thought backing Islamic fundamentalists was a good idea too, since the PLO was secular.

Now it seems Falwell got money from Rev. Moon, a major conduit of cash to far right political causes, and a jet from Israel. When Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear power plant, Begin called Falwell to spin it to American Christians.

I don't blame Israel for doing PR work here (except for calling anyone who disagrees even a bit an anti-Semite), but it seems like a serious conflict of interest for a religious leader to be paid on the QT to advocate for a foreign country.

Obviously, there were evangelicals well before the rise of the political religious right and their concern about issues like abortion is mostly naturally occurring. But their views on foreign policy, taxes, regulation of business and the destruction of social infrastructure don't seem to as obviously flow from their theology and could partly be the results of "incentives" from people like Moon.

http://www.trustme.com/story.php?title=mystery-men-behind-Jerry-Falwell-1