Posted on 05/20/2007 5:09:18 AM PDT by Nextrush
Ultimately, Jerry Falwell was a man who loved God and who loved people, one who tried to live out the greatest Commandment in his life.
Comparisons have been made between Falwell and his contemporary (they both were in the spotlight in the early 1980's) President Ronald Reagan.
Both men shared something in common from their early lives. They grew up in homes where their fathers were addicted to alcohol and their mothers were addicted to prayer.
And they both went on to great achievement while being known as followers of Jesus Christ.
Jerry Falwell's mother listened to a preacher on the radio who was probably the most well known radio preacher of his time (the 1940's) Rev. Charles Fuller.
Falwell grew up hearing Fuller, who was a powerful and determined radio preacher-evangelist. Fuller fought for years to get his preaching program on as many radio stations as possible in spite of liberal opposition.
Fuller created his own independent network of stations using recorded broadcasts when network radio refused to carry him because liberal church leaders objected to his "sectarian" broadcasts.
Fuller preached on radio and built a church. He taught theology and was the founder of Fuller Theological Seminary.
When Jerry Falwell arrived in Lynchburg, Virginia in the 1950's he embarked on a path that emulated Fuller.
The Thomas Road Baptist Church grew into tens of thousands of members and Jerry Falwell took his ministry onto television, first locally, then nationally.
He founded a college that is today's Liberty University.
Jerry Falwell founded ministries that have had a world-wide reach and drew support from viewers everywhere.
What inspired people to give?
One relative of mine may explain the situation some. He worked two jobs, teaching in a public school daytime and working in a factory weekends, etc.
He saw the world change and moral values decline. Public schools changed from the 1950's to the 1970's as well. Jerry Falwell created Liberty University to present a Christian worldview to students, something desperately needed and something he was glad to support.
During the mid 70's (the nation's Bicentennial) Liberty University students toured the country giving patriotic concerts at all 50 State Capitols. At the same time, Jerry Falwell was networking with other people concerned about moral issues and public policy.
While some of these were intellectually deep but controversial figures like Dr. William Steuart McBirine, others were writer-teachers like Dr. Francis Schaeffer. Schaeffer stood for evangelical adherance to biblical truth and its application to defend human life and religious freedom.
Jerry Falwell made practical this deeper Christian involvement in public life with the founding of Moral Majority. Falwell took intellectual ideas and converted them into practical action.
The liberal establishment (political, media) trashed him for that, but Jerry Falwell never sought conflict with anyone and often tried to dampen it.
Falwell even invited Ted Kennedy and his family down to Lynchburg so Kennedy could speak at Liberty and the families eat dinner together.
He was ready, willing and able to apologize for any comments including ones involving people like Ellen Degeneres for whom many of us would see no need to apologize for.
Jerry Falwell grew up in a home with "domestic violence" and God made something good out of it. Falwell was man who lived his life in a way to avoid conflict. That is something that we can all be thankful for.
Jerry Falwell, here was a man who loved God and loved people in the spirit of Jesus Christ.
Jerry Falwell lived by his convictions. Many of us don’t have the courage or the CONVICTION.
Falwell was a great man of courage and conviction. This country is a better place because of him.
Many of the things he said were RIGHT. They just rubbed the LEFT the wrong way.
I was born in Lynchburg, and I can tell you that Jerry Falwell made college a reality for countless local kids who could never have afforded to go otherwise. God rest his soul.
I, a Catholic, loved Jerry Falwell!! He handled his bitter, hatefilled enemies with Christain love and understanding and kindness.....hale fellow, well met. He will be missed.
Getting a kick out of Falwell’s death
By Robert Knight
Sunday, May 20, 2007
In many of his talks to Liberty University students, the Rev. Jerry Falwell emphasized the importance of “finishing well.”
On Tuesday, he was at the top of his game when he unexpectedly died in the college office where he was planning more expansions of the fast-growing university that he founded in 1971.
The Rev. Falwell did a lot of things well, ticking off liberals right up to the end. How else would he have garnered the kind of tribute from a major newspaper’s religion writer that was headlined, “Sigh of relief over Falwell death.”
To make sure no one mistook her, Chicago Sun-Times Religion Writer Cathleen Falsani’s May 18 column explains her reaction to the news about Dr. Falwell on May 15.
“…My very first thought upon hearing of the Rev. Falwell’s passing was: Good. And I didn’t mean ‘good’ in a oh-good-he’s-gone-to-be-home-with-the-Lord
kind of way. I mean ‘good’ as in ‘Ding-dong, the witch is dead.’”
Falsani, who claims to be a Christian, learned of this apparent good news in the airport departure lounge in Key West, a place where Jerry is not held in great esteem.
She went on to compare the good reverend to the foul-mouthed TV mobster Tony Soprano, and accused Falwell of saying “insensitive, mean-spirited, sometimes downright hateful things …in the name of Christ.” She did do a bit of backing up, saying that maybe, in his own way, God used Jerry so that “lives were changed for the better by his ministry, his college, and the flip side of the endeavors he made in Jesus’ name.”
Meanwhile, she informed readers of her own apparent spiritual superiority, noting that “not all of us are that self-righteous, judgmental and holier than thou.”
I guess that openly enjoying the death of a fellow Christian and utterly distorting his Christian message into a caricature of hate is the mark of the nonjudgmental. I think it’s somewhere in the Sermon on the Mount.
Of course, Falsani is not the only journalist to use Rev. Falwell’s death as one more opportunity to cast fiery darts at him.
Virtually every major news outlet made sure that Falwell’s controversial comment following 9/11 and his notorious “outing” of the “gay Teletubby” Tinky Winky got ink and airtime.
The New York Times noted that it was an article in the National Liberty Journal, which Falwell published, that touched off the Teletubbies ruckus. But the article failed to mention that the Liberty Journal piece quoted The Washington Post’s outing of Tinky Winky, and that the gay press and several other mainstream outlets had cheered openly for a year that the boy in the purple suit, carrying a purse and bearing the homosexual symbol, an upside down triangle, on his head, was clearly the first openly “gay” character in a children’s program.
I recall faxing The Washington Post article to the National Liberty Journal back in February 1999. I had also faxed an article from a gay newspaper in which one of Teletubbies’ creators boasted openly that Tinky Winky’s character, which combines a deep daddy’s voice and mommy’s handbag, was a deliberate attempt to make children think differently about gender. The Liberty Journal editors decided to stick with the Washington Post as the main source, which seems like a wise thing to do. But in the end, it didn’t matter.
In the 10 years since, the press magnified and sustained the myth that Jerry Falwell “outed” Tinky Winky with no apparent evidence. He just did it for the heck of it, to be mean to gays. As smears go, it made him easy to ridicule. Try as they might, that was the best they could do, since they unearthed no hint of scandal involving his integrity. In March 1999, Liberty Journal Senior Editor J. M. Smith pointed out the media’s distortions, but the myth continued to gain strength. Dr. Falwell himself took it in stride, even placing a stuffed Tinky Winky on top of his computer as a joke. Given his own generous spirit and lack of vitriol, he didn’t seem to understand the damage that was done to his reputation.
Over the years, I’ve tried to set some of my media friends straight about the inception of the myth, but the response has been pretty much, “That’s our story, and we’re sticking with it.” And why not? It’s a very useful device. It’s so good that even many conservative commentators have bought into it, pointing it out from time to time in order to polish their own images as more reasonable people than someone like Jerry Falwell.
There’s a word for folks like that, but you wouldn’t hear the Rev. Falwell using it. It’s more along the lines of something Tony Soprano might say.
Or a religion writer from the Chicago Sun-Times.
Words well said my friend....
.
Praise GOD that...
LOVE is the only reality and
...GOD is LOVE..?
.
That “Tinky Winky” myth started with an AP reporter based in Roanoke. I was really aroused when it got repeated on the “Today” show with Katie and Matt kicking it around, then some sort of “punch line” from Al Roker like “what was he drinking” or something like that.
I’ve despised the “Today” show since and especially Roker.
I’ll never appear on that show although I don’t ever expect to be asked.
This truth is “The Advocate” reported it “Tinky Winky gay” with mention spreading eventually to “National Liberty Journal,” but Jerry Falwell never said anything personally about it, although if he had it would have been the truth based on the report of “The Advocate.”
Back in the 1980’s Interior Secretary James Watt decided to invite Wayne Newton instead of the Beach Boys to sing on the Mall July 4th. Watt made some comment about a better crowd being drawn to Wayne Newton instead of the Beach Boys.
The Beach Boys turned it into “James Watt banning the Beach Boys.” Mike Love of the Beach Boys admitted they made it up as a publicity stunt. Their publicist Howard Grossman called it a publicity stunt when he was interviewed by his hometown paper in my town (”York Daily Record”).
The myth about Jerry Falwell making the “Tinky Winky” comment has never been corrected by the Associated Press, much less the “Today” show and the rest of the media.
Ready to step up to the plate, Associated Press......
I’ll never appear on that show although I don’t ever expect to be asked.
Oh I would...although I suspect I’d never be asked back. :-)
“Excuse me Al, but I was wondering...are you normally this stupid or are you making a special effort today just to show America what a complete and total idiot you can be?”
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