THE Rev. Michel Faulkner is emerging as Mayor Giuliani’s most interesting, quirky, friendly critic — and his volunteer pastoral conscience on repentance and atonement.
Faulkner, 43, has an interesting résumé.
He’s played a season for the Jets, served an apprenticeship to the Rev. Jerry Falwell at Liberty Baptist College and been appointed by Giuliani to both the post-Louima police task force and the Charter Revision Commission.
He is one of the few black ministers who supported Giuliani over David Dinkins in 1993. He is registered as an independent.
Yesterday, Faulkner was in the 10th day of his prayer fast to convince the mayor to “either have a religious conversion or resign.”
Faulkner is angry over a series of Giuliani actions involving the police that started with his scorning the recommendations of the Louima task force, and climaxed with the release of Patrick Dorismond’s sealed juvenile record.
“The immorality of what the mayor did superseded the illegality of it,” Faulkner says.
In an interview yesterday at his West Side church, Faulkner quoted the Bible in response to questions about police practices, federal intervention, racial profiling and the mayor’s psychological make-up
At one point, I asked Faulkner, who would not comment on specific police reforms, how he could tell if the mayor made a sincere atonement and apology.
“Godly sorrow leads to biblical repentance,” he replied. “A person has to be genuinely sorry for what they did, not just sorry they got caught.”
Giuliani tends to marginalize, politicize and demonize his critics by saying they are “reading from Al Sharpton’s script.”
He can’t do that with Faulkner, who says “I am reading from scripture. From God’s script.”
Faulkner regularly used to defend the mayor on the New York 1 cable channel during the deliberations of the Louima task force, although he never became friendly enough with the mayor to share a meal.
But when Giuliani demeaned the work of the diverse and constructive Louima task force, Faulkner developed his first doubts about the man he twice supported for mayor.
“Rudy was wrong. You always affirm and appreciate volunteers. We put blood, sweat and tears into that report and he disregarded our opinions and efforts.
“He didn’t like the fact we urged higher pay for the police, so he blew off our report. I’m a spiritual leader. I know that how you treat people is what you get back. If you treat people like crap, they will treat you the same way.”
Unexpectedly, about a year ago, after the killing of Amadou Diallo, Faulkner found himself again on New York 1 — and this time, he was criticizing the mayor.
“I felt a sense of anger,” Faulkner recalls. “The Bible says when you get angry, don’t sin.”
Last April, Faulkner says he almost got arrested during Sharpton’s civil-disobedience campaign outside 1 Police Plaza. But he says, “My personal motives stopped me. I felt I was doing it just because everyone else was doing it.”
The mayor’s release of Dorismond’s sealed juvenile record was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Faulkner.
“Dorismond’s life was stolen, then the dignity of his family was stolen,” he said. “The mayor was wrong.”
Two days later, Faulkner decided to go on a 39-day fast, “just like Jesus, Moses and Dr. King fasted.”
Last week, Giuliani called Faulkner and they met privately for 45 minutes at Gracie Mansion.
“I made my case for justice,” he says. “I don’t know if he will listen. It was not argumentative. But he was legalistic and I was biblical. He said he would call me for a second meeting, but I haven’t heard from him yet.”
Faulkner seems less programmatic than other leaders of the black clergy like the Revs. Floyd Flake, Calvin Butts and Sharpton.
He certainly has not reached Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visionary synthesis of Scripture, voting rights, labor rights and strategic originality.
“We need moral solutions, not political solutions,” he says. “Others are calling for help from the federal government. I’m calling for help from heaven, the supreme government.
“Only the power of God can cause the healing that needs to take place in our city.”
So what is he praying for during this fast?
“I’m praying for the mayor to have a change of heart,” he said.
“Rudy is my friend, but he has become an obstruction to justice. It would be good for Rudy’s soul if he apologized for releasing Dorismond’s record. It would free him to move on.”