Jerry Falwell RIP (1933 – 2007)
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, a well known and controversial Christian fundamentalist pastor and televangelist died at the age of 73 a few hours ago after collapsing at his campus office in Liberty University which he founded as the Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971 and was serving as its Chancellor.
He was found without a pulse at his office around 10.45am Eastern Standard Time (EST) after missing an appointment and was sent to the Lynchburg General Hospital where CPR was administered unsuccessfully. At 2.10pm EST, a press statement was issued that Jerry Falwell had died and hospital records show that he was pronounced dead at 12.40pm EST. Dr. Carl Moore, Falwell’s physician, said he had a heart condition and presumably died of a cardiac arrhythmia.
Falwell was born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1933. According to Falwell’s autobiography, his father was an entrepreneur, who made his money from, among other ventures, bootlegging during the Prohibition. Both his father and grandfather were militant atheists. Falwell himself was a star athlete and a prankster who was barred from giving his high school valedictorian’s speech after he was caught using counterfeit lunch tickets. He admitted to having run with a gang of delinquents prior to becoming a Christian at the age of 19.
Falwell had a very interesting, and very controversial career. In 1956 at the age of 22, he founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church in his hometown of Lynchburg, with 35 adults recorded as being in attendance. The church now claims a membership of more than 24,000 based in a 6,000 seat auditorium.
He founded the Moral Majority in 1979, a movement which was credited for helping to bring about Ronald Reagan’s victory in the US Presidential elections of 1981 by mobilising millions of conservative voters. It was also accredited for bringing religious conservatism (or the religious right) into the mainstream of American politics.
In 1987, he took over the ministry of Jim Bakker in what was explained as “an effort to avoid what he called a “hostile takeover” of the television ministry by people threatening to expose a sexual encounter Bakker admitted to having seven years earlier with church secretary Jessica Hahn”. Soon after Bakker’s indictment for fraud, tax evasion and racketeering and public condemnation for his sexual misconduct, support for the ministry fell. Falwell himself had resigned within months of taking over the ministry due to the mounting debts that had been incurred over the years.
According to the 2000 documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Falwell manipulated the Bakkers into giving up control of PTL, and then publicly attacked Jim Bakker for greed and alleged homosexuality. Tammy Faye Bakker and husband Roe Messner both allege that Falwall instructed her to write down details of the salary package provided to the Bakkers, and Falwell then characterized the list as the demands of the Bakkers. Falwell always denied these allegations.
Although he resigned as the president of the Moral Majority movement as well in 1987, he remained a controversial figure, making statements which blamed homosexuals, liberals and feminists for the terrorist attacks of September 11 and earlier suggesting that a purse-carrying Teletubbies character was gay and an insidious influence on children.
He had also made controversial statements in the past by once making statements after visiting South Africa when Apartheid was still in place, that sanctions be removed; despite his own proclaimed disagreement with Apartheid; and that Archbishop Desmond Tutu was “a phony, period, as far as representing the black people of South Africa” (see Time Magazine’s 1985 article). This might have been a legacy of the days when he supported racial segregation and openly questioned the “the sincerity and non-violent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. James Farmer, and others, who are known to have left-wing associations“.
Much more can be said about this man, both positive and negative, but I guess one has to leave it to history to define his legacy. Personally, I do not know how many Christian minorities suffered heavier persecution due to some of the more insensitive statements made by vocal and high profiled Christian leaders like Falwell et al. I do know that many would choose not to ascribe blame to him and if they ever did, chose to forgive him. All things having being said and done, this is one man who wore his faith on his sleeves and spoke his mind. Whether or not what he spoke was generally faithful to the overall perspectives of the faith he chose to uphold, only God can be the judge of that.
My condolences to the family of Jerry Falwell. May God continue to grant his peace and grace to all of you in this moment of sadness and pain.
Update – 17 May 2007
I found this post on Think Christian saying what I really wanted to say:
It was very hard to think of nice things to say about Falwell but I think Jim said it very well:
Jerry Falwell inspired evangelicals to get involved in their world. He sought to bring biblical principles to the public square. And while he tended to embarrass me in public, I share Christ’s DNA with him. And he deserves , if not my agreement, at least my respect. He’s family!
