Jerry Falwell

Earlier today, I felt it inappropriate to write about Jerry Falwell’s death because of the nature of the feelings and thoughts that I have on his life and career. Then, I started to hear more and more folks on the radio (NPR) talking about his life an career, lauding him for being a great, compassionate, caring man who loved his family and his savior.

I changed my mind.

Jerry Falwell was a mean-spirited bigot. He may have been a kind man when he was baptizing your grandson or consoling you after your mother’s death, and you can cry about his untimely death on the radio all you want, but he was not a good man when he claimed: “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’” with regard to the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on 11 September 2001. He was also not a good man when he pointed out that the AIDS epidemic was an example of “God’s wrath against homosexuals.” When he said these things and many others, he was a hateful, cruel bigot, and his death is only as untimely as any other hateful, cruel man.

Thankfully, the leaders of movements like the one that Falwell started are usually the charismatic, motivated individuals involved and the followers are not so energetic in their bigotry. They need someone to listen to, someone to look up to, someone to follow. Now that their leader is gone, perhaps those who supported Falwell’s mission will get distracted by some other hateful discipline and move on to that instead.

While it would also be shameful to celebrate the death of any man, it has been said that we should never lament the death of an old man, because he has lived a full life. We certainly shouldn’t lament the death of a man like Falwell. Rather, we should take pity on him, because if he truly believed in the doctrine which he purported to, then it is most likely that he is burning in the hell that he promised would be the inevitable home of so many good people the world over.

So, here’s to you Jerry, keep that fire stoked. I am going to go have a nice cold beer in your memory.

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