Armed And Dangerous?: Falwell Receives Life Membership In NRA.

National Rifle Association President Wayne LaPierre traveled to Lynchburg, Va., in October to appear on the Rev. Jerry Falwell's television program and present him with a life-time membership in the NRA.

In a laudatory article about the meeting published in Falwell's National Liberty Journal, the televangelist noted that "many of our fellow Americans have formed a negative opinion of the NRA, but the truth is that the NRA is helping to train millions of people to safely use their guns."

During the broadcast, LaPierre accused former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore of doing "everything they can do not to enforce existing federal firearms laws against the people doing the killing. What they've done instead is try to restrict the rights of honest people to own firearms in our nation."

Falwell replied, "It is up to America's patriots -- those people who cherish our constitutional freedoms -- to stand against leftist lawmakers and advocates who are resolved to eradicate our right to protect our families the way we see fit."

This is not the first time Falwell has recommended keeping firearms around. Throughout 1999, he sold a video claiming that the "Y2K" bug might spawn chaos in American cities. On the video, Falwell urged viewers to stockpile guns alongside food and water, saying, "If I'm blessed with a little food and my family is inside the house with me, I've got to be sure that I can persuade others not to mess with us."

In other news about the Religious Right:

* A California pastor who frequently prays for God to smite his enemies has issued a statement calling for a "prayerful Cleansing [sic] of the Whitehouse [sic] in light of occult and demonic activities that have been going on in the past."

The Rev. Wiley Drake, a proponent of so-called "imprecatory prayers," says the White House must be cleansed with prayer because former President Ronald Reagan received an honorary Masonic membership there and his wife, Nancy, practiced astrology. Drake also accused President Bill Clinton of seeking "help from New Age environmentalism people" and said First Lady Hillary Clinton "called for seances and necromancy in the Whitehouse [sic] Solarium to commune with the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt."

Drake, who founded an organization called Americans United For The Unity Of Church and State, says the White House must be spiritually made pure "for our new born again President to move in." Last year Drake announced plans to use imprecatory prayers against AU Executive Director Barry W. Lynn and the entire AU staff.

* TV preacher D. James Kennedy paid CBS Television an unspecified amount of money to run a video about the life of Jesus on Dec. 26. CBS ordered the 16 affiliates it owns to cancel regular programming and air the Kennedy video "Who Is This Jesus?" Some stations were forced to cancel the evening news to run the program.

Kennedy decided to produce the video, which he claims proves that the Gospel accounts of the life of Christ are literally true, after ABC Television ran a two-hour program last summer called "The Search for Jesus" that examined the life of Christ as a historical figure and featured some scholars casting doubt on the literal truth of the Gospel accounts.

* Promise Keepers, the evangelical men's group, has announced its 2001 line-up. The organization, founded by ex-football coach Bill McCartney, will meet in 18 cities, six of which are new locations. The cities are: Grand Forks, N.D.; Rapid City, S.D.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Baltimore; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Auburn Hills, Mich.; Providence; Nashville; Indianapolis; San Jose, Calif.; Kansas City, Mo.; Charlotte, N.C.; Houston; Tacoma, Wash.; Anaheim, Calif.; Nampa, Idaho and Oklahoma City.

The theme for this year's meeting will be "Turn the Tide: Living Out an Extreme Faith." Said McCartney, "Men should position themselves to deal with the prevailing currents of relative truth, pleasure at all costs and spiritual apathy. Extreme sports are the rage these days, but an extreme faith can change our families, our churches and our cities."