Posted on 05/17/2007 10:18:50 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
A lot of ink has been spilled, and a lot of electrons spent, in the past 24 or so hours, on this topic. And it would be very easy for me to simply sit down and write a defense of Jerry, or a critique, or to simply post a rant against the people who (as happened last night on Anderson Cooper 360) will simply choose to call names and hate, even as they cry out against his "hatred."
But that's all been done before. Ever since I walked on campus at Liberty University in August of 1986, I've been defending my chancellor. And it often wasn't an easy job. When my sister called me yesterday at about 2 and said "Did you hear about Jerry Falwell?" my gut reaction (though thankfully unspoken) was "Oh, no. What did he say this time?"
Jerry had a habit of speaking what was on his mind, without realizing (or, sometimes, caring, I guess) what it would sound like. Just a few weeks ago, he announced that he considered the doctrine of limited atonement (a cornerstone of Calvinist theology) "heresy." Immediately, I thought of people like Charles Spurgeon, William Carey, Al Mohler, and John MacArthur — all good men, men of faith and conviction, and all fervent five-point Calvinists. All heretics, I guess, according to Jerry.
Needless to say, I didn't always agree with Jerry Falwell. But one of the things I learned in my time at Liberty was that that was OK. I attended classes with people from all over the evangelical spectrum — old-school fundamentalists, Southern Baptists, evangelical Methodists, Pentecostals, you name it. Even when Jerry didn't always express tolerance in minors, the culture at Liberty thrived on it.
People enjoyed attacking Jerry Falwell. And I could tell that they really didn't know the man — the man, not the preacher. The preacher preached against all forms of vice. The man, the Christian, often loaned his ministry's plane to Larry Flint (yes, that Larry Flint), who Jerry was actually friends with. People attacked Jerry for his lack of compassion, but Jerry rather quietly founded and operated the Elim Home for alcoholics and the Liberty Godparent Home for unwed mothers. Jerry was pro-life — he was more than willing to take care of young women who made a mistake, and wanted to do the right thing — including offering scholarships to Liberty for those who wanted it.
But I got to know a Jerry Falwell that the media and the casual observers would never get to know. I knew the man who, long before Springer made it popular, would walk into a basketball game to a thunderous chant of "Jerry! Jerry!" Whose students often referred to themselves (both ironically and proudly) as "Jerry's Kids." Who found time to talk to students as he walked across campus. Who was really interested in those students.
My mother-in-law spent a lot of time on campus when my wife and I were students there. She saw Jerry, and he saw her. He never knew her name, but any time he saw her in Lynchburg, he came over and poke to her, or waved. He knew that she was an LU mom, and he wanted to show her he appreciated her.
The Jerry Falwell that the media never got to know threw toilet paper rolls at basketball games. He threw snowballs in chapel — at the president of the college. He told incoming freshmen, "When Dr. Guillernam is around, you have to observe protocol and call me Dr. Falwell. But when he's not around, call me Pastor. Or heck, you can just call me Jerry."
That's the Jerry Falwell I got to know. And that's the one I will miss. Rest in Peace, Jerry. You've earned that reward.
His mention about attending LU with students of different backgrounds interested me. Back in the early ‘80s, when I was growing up near Lynchburg, there was a story making the rounds that two students at what was then Liberty Baptist College were thrown out because they were found to be distributing Pentecostal literature. I was never able to find any proof for it, though. There WAS a confirmed incident where at least one student was expelled for watching soapoperas, though!
Lynchburg’s no one-horse town, but it’s not that big. Any LU student who thought they could get away with breaking the school’s morality rules did it at their own risk, and not that many got away with it, that I ever heard of.
}:-)4
RIP Jerry Falwell. He was a far greater man than any of his dectractors.
That sounds like the case of Lynn Ridenhour, who's most recent claim to fame is that he's a licensed Southern Baptist minister who equally embraces the Book of Mormon.
Part of his backstory is that he says he was a professor at Liberty Baptist College in the 80s, and was booted for speaking in tongues. He claims Falwell (falsely) accused of writing articles for Penthouse magazine. He also claims to have sung in the Old Time Gospel Choir on national TV every Sunday for over a year. My own research shows that he only taught there for a year, at best, and that he left because his contract wasn't renewed. You can read all of his claims here, but you should also know that he's a convicted con-artist, so there's no telling how much spin he's put on his Lynchburg days.
I don't get that, frankly. Why would a person attend a college with a moral code if they didn't intend to abide by it?
I’ve known a couple of people who went to Liberty Univ and they always had kind words about Jerry Falwell.
Some times kids go to a christian college because they get alot of pressure from their parents to go to a certain christian school.
I don’t know, TC, I don’t grok it either, but it happened.
Lynchburg, for a long time, only had one dance club (for a metro area of well over 150,000 people...it’s NOT a very happening town). One time when I was on a contract job, a bunch of us took some out-of-town folks from the company there for a few beers one night. One of the local employees along with us was a VERY attractive recent Liberty grad (this was 1992, she’d gotten out in ‘91). Not only did she put back a few drinks herself, let her hair down, and get into the dancing—not sloppy drunk, but definitely lubricated and shaking what God gave her all over the dance floor—she was pointing out literally over a dozen people that she’d known at Liberty. And more than one of them was trashed.
She said that there were LU students, and maybe staff or alumni, who regularly dropped in the place and kept an eye out. If they spotted other students in there, and they knew them, they’d rat them out to the university. There wasn’t a paranoid sense about things, but there was a definite vibe that if a student crossed the line, it wasn’t going to take long for him/her to get caught. Lynchburg is not a big city (it’s a good bit smaller than Durham, for comparison) and talk gets around.
From what little I know about the two places, the rules at LU are a bit less strict than the rules at Bob Jones. I do know that dates at LU require chaperones, dorm visitation is extremely controlled, the dress code is very conservative (men used to have to wear ties, I’m not sure they still do), and of course, chapel is mandatory. And yet you never heard a lot of talk about students giving up on LU because of the restrictions. The place attracts a caliber of student that really wants to be there, and it’s academically excellent in several areas. It’s a great part of Rev. Falwell’s legacy.
}:-)4
I don’t think that’s him, though I’ve heard the name before. The story I heard was just that two female students got the boot after getting ratted out for handing out Pentecostal Holiness literature somewhere. I don’t think LU used to be as welcoming to other denominations as it might be now.
Every single LU student or grad I ever met really did love Rev. Falwell. Not in a creepy “cult of personality” way, but with genuine affection and respect.
}:-)4
Good point. I thought about that after I posted, but my internet connection was flaked out and I couldn’t add anything.
Haha, this was the case maybe in the 80's. The rules have long since changed. I think the only rule that is still the same is the dorm visitations.
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