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  • Born: 11 August 1933
  • Birthplace: Lynchburg, Virginia
  • Died: 15 May 2007
  • Best Known As: Founder of the Moral Majority

Jerry Falwell was the evangelical minister who founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia (1956) and gained national prominence through television and radio on the Old Time Gospel Hour. In the late 1970s he became active in politics, founding and leading the Moral Majority, a lobbying group made up of conservative Christians. Falwell also founded Liberty University (originally called Lynchburg Baptist College) and headed a variety of educational organizations that include a theological seminary and a correspondence school. Outspoken and charismatic, his sometimes controversial opinions often made national headlines. In 2001 he was vilified in the press for blaming terrorist attacks in the United States on pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the American Civil Liberties Union and People For The American Way, saying "I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" He later amended his statements, saying that secularization had "created an environment which possibly has caused God to lift the veil of protection which has allowed no one to attack America on our soil since 1812." Falwell died in 2007 after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University.

Falwell famously sued Hustler publisher Larry Flynt over a 1983 cartoon. The incident was depicted in the 1996 feature film The People v. Larry Flynt.

 
 
Biography: Jerry Falwell

Jerry Falwell (born 1933) is a fundamentalist religious leader who combined his religious activities, which included a nationwide television program, with promotion of a variety of right-wing political causes. He is perhaps best known as the founder of Moral Majority, Inc.

Jerry Falwell was born on August 11, 1933, in Lynchburg, Virginia. He attended public schools, excelled at sports, and earned a 98.6 percent average in high school before entering Lynchburg College in 1950. Midway through his sophomore year, on January 20, 1952, he underwent a religious conversion. Declining an offer to play baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals, Falwell transferred to the Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. On April 12, 1958, he married Macel Pate, a church pianist.

Ministry's Humble Origins

Ordained to the ministry in 1956, Falwell founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church in his home town of Lynchburg with an initial congregation of 35 adults and their families, using an abandoned building owned by the Donald Duck Bottling Company. Their first project was to scrub cola off the old brick walls. From this modest start the Thomas Road Church grew to a membership of 22,000, and eventually included a day school, a live-in rehabilitation center for alcoholics (Falwell's father drank excessively, and died when his son was just 15), a summer camp for children, a transportation service, and missionary and relief work in Guatemala, Haiti, South Korea, and elsewhere. A half-hour daily radio broadcast, "The Old-Time Gospel Hour," launched when the church was only a week old, grew into a television show which went national in 1971 and soon reached an audience estimated in the millions.

Mixing Church and State

The religion preached from Falwell's pulpit was what used to be called "fundamentalist." "The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation," Falwell said, "is the inerrant Word of God, and totally accurate in all respects." At times he sounded an apocalyptic trumpet: "This is the terminal generation before Jesus comes." Unlike the folkish "oldtime religion" formerly practiced in some rural areas, Falwell's gospel employed modern urban methods of persuasion. A symposium in June 1972 on "how to build a superaggressive local church" drew 5,000 Baptist church workers from all over the United States to hear one of Falwell's close associates declare: "God is impressed with a growing church. We believe Jesus must be sold as effectively as Coca-Cola."

By the late 1970s the conservative Christian movement had grown substantially, and Falwell's television ministry was just one of several thriving media pulpits. He had taken on a series of political causes: for voluntary prayer in schools, free enterprise, balanced budgets, military strength, and aid to Israel and against the Equal Rights Amendment, pornography, abortion, homosexuality, parimutuel betting, and rock and roll music.

Recognizing the political potential of his flock and others like it, Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979. The lobbying group's aim was to "reverse the politicization of immorality in our society," and it aimed to impel America's political leadership to demonstrate whether or not they were indeed religiously and morally committed, according to Falwell. The news magazine Time (October 1, 1979) described him at one rally holding up a Bible and saying, "If a man stands by this book, vote for him. If he doesn't, don't." He was also quoted as saying, "The liberal churches are not only the enemy of God but the enemy of the nation." This citizen action group soon operated with an annual budget of some $7 million.

The Reagan Years

It is difficult to assess the extent of Jerry Falwell's contribution to the wave of political conservatism that crested in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and the first Republican-controlled Senate in 26 years, but it was surely substantial. Certainly he (and ministers like him), using his slogan "Get them saved, baptized, and registered," compelled many Americans to register as voters - citizens who, in some cases, had never participated in politics at any level before. During the Eighties, Republican politicians seemed to heed Falwell's warnings, and toeing the conservative line on a number of controversial issues (such as opposition to reproductive rights) became virtually obligatory in campaign strategies against Democrats.

To broaden his advocacy of purely political issues Falwell founded the Liberty Federation in 1986. Other victories directly and indirectly attributed to the influence of the Moral Majority included the election of President George Bush in 1988 and a number of conservative Supreme Court decisions beginning in the late 1980s. The Moral Majority's success was repeated in a number of offshoot groups, including the powerful Christian Coalition.

Projects Faltered

However, by the late 1980s Christian televangelism was suffering from serious blows to its credibility. While Falwell himself remained untainted by scandal, the names of other prominent ministers - most notably Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart - appeared in newspaper headlines that included the words "prostitute," "adultery," and "payoff." Bakker's Praise the Lord (PTL) ministry, which included its own cable television network, was accused of financial mismanagement, and Falwell took over the organization in 1987, ostensibly in an effort to rescue it. This was ideologically akin to a Protestant becoming Pope; some within the organization later asserted that Falwell had deliberately mismanaged PTL, his ministry's main competition, to steer it into bankruptcy.

Falwell also made headlines when he sued a pornographic magazine and its publisher for a vicious parody that appeared in it. He was awarded $200,000 in emotional damages, but the case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, who struck down the previous verdict. The incident was woven into the plot of a 1996 feature film, The People vs. Larry Flynt.

In 1989 Falwell announced the dissolution of the Moral Majority, asserting its political aims had succeeded to such an extent that the organization was no longer necessary. He planned to concentrate on his other projects, most notably his Thomas Road Baptist Church, where he remained senior pastor, and Liberty University, a full-fledged educational institution he had founded in 1971. But Falwell, as chancellor, had pushed for an expansion of the university during the 1980s, and built facilities on borrowed money. The school also issued bonds and sold them on "The Old-Time Gospel Hour," later defaulting on interest payments to bond-holders, many of whom were elderly and poor. Scholarships to Liberty were given away freely, and by 1990 the school was $110 million in debt. Repeated requests on "The Old-Time Gospel Hour" for donations to shore up the faltering ministry sent Falwell's trio of organizations into a downward spiral. Contributions dropped, and his financial troubles multiplied. His long-running show even went off the air for a time.

A New Direction

By the mid-1990s Falwell had ventured into political issues once again, selling a video that accused President Bill Clinton of a number of crimes; elsewhere, the minister described Clinton in one sermon as an "ungodly liar," (Christianity Today, December 9, 1996, p, 63). Falwell appeared on an infomercial for a videocassette bible-study course sold by his ministry, in which he asserted that it was possible that human beings and dinosaurs once coexisted. Marking his return to the political arena, Falwell delivered the benediction at the Republican National Convention in 1996, and launched his God Save America tour later that year.

Falwell also began to ally with powerful Southern Baptist leadership, who would exhibit a more conservative and outspoken outlook by their 1997 national convention. Now in his sixties, Falwell still preaches Sunday services at the Thomas Road church, and there are hints that the youngest of his three children, Jonathan, may someday assume its pastorship. The younger Falwell was appointed administrator of the church in 1995; his brother Jerry Jr. serves as in-house counsel for his father's projects, and Falwell's only daughter is a surgeon in Richmond, Virginia.

Further Reading

Falwell and his Moral Majority were the subjects of a shrewd and pertinent essay by Frances Fitzgerald, "A Disciplined, Charging Army," in the New Yorker (May 18, 1981). There is an admiring and uncritical biography by Jerry Strober and Ruth Tomczak, Jerry Falwell: Aflame for God (1979). Journalist Dinesh D'Souza is the author of Falwell: Before the Millennium (1984). Falwell was frank and self-revelatory in his books, such as How You Can Clean Up America (1978), America Can Be Saved (1979), and especially Listen, America (1980). He has also written The Fundamentalist Phenomenon (1981), Strength for the Journey (1987), and The New American Family (1992). Falwell: An Autobiography, was published in 1996. Contemporary appraisals are in Newsweek (July 24, 1972), and September 15, 1980), Time (October 1, 1979), and Christianity Today, December 9, 1996.

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Jerry L. Falwell

(born 1933, Lynchburg, Va., U.S. — died May 15, 2007, Lynchburg) Protestant evangelist. An engineering student before turning to religion, he founded Thomas Road Baptist Church in 1956 and Lynchburg Baptist College (later Liberty University) in 1971. His Old-Time Gospel Hour television show served as outreach for his church. In 1979 he organized the Moral Majority to encourage his followers to become involved in politics; he withdrew from its leadership in 1990 to return to preaching. A fundamentalist interpreter of the Bible, Falwell was known for his sometimes extreme conservatism.

For more information on Jerry L. Falwell, visit Britannica.com.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Falwell, Jerry Lamon
(fôl'wĕl, –wəl) , 1933–2007, American fundamentalist Baptist pastor, b. Lynchburg, Va. A popular preacher and founder of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Falwell began (1968) airing his services on television on a program that was later named “The Old-Time Gospel Hour.” Falwell also founded (1979) and led (1979–87) the Moral Majority, an organization devoted to reestablishing traditional religious values in the national consciousness through support of conservative political candidates (see also fundamentalism). In 1980 he founded the Liberty Baptist Fellowship, a fundamentalist Baptist denomination, and he was chancellor of Liberty Univ., which he founded as Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971.

Bibliography

See W. H. Capps, The New Religious Right (1990).

 
Wikipedia: Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry_Falwell_portrait.jpg
Born August 11 1933(1933--)
Lynchburg, Virginia,
United States
Died May 15 2007 (aged 73)
Lynchburg, Virginia,
United States
Occupation Protestant Christian Evangelist
Website http://www.falwell.com/
This article is about Jerry Falwell, Sr. For the article about his son, see Jerry Falwell, Jr.

Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. (August 11 1933 – May 15, 2007)[1] was an American fundamentalist Christian pastor and televangelist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded Liberty University in 1971 and co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979.

Falwell led services at Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He changed affiliations from Baptist Bible Fellowship International to the mainly conservative Southern Baptist Convention, and ended his self-identification with fundamentalism in favor of evangelicalism.

Personal life

Part of a series on
Southern Baptists
Background

Christianity
Protestantism
Anabaptists
General Baptists & Particular Baptists
Landmarkism
Conservative/Fundamentalist Ascendance

Baptist theology

London Confession, 1689
New Hampshire Confession, 1833
Baptist Faith & Message

Doctrinal distinctives

Biblical inerrancy
Autonomy of the local church
Priesthood of believers
Two ordinances
Individual soul liberty
Separation of church and state
Two offices

People
Deceased

John Spilsbury • Lottie Moon • B. H. Carroll
W.A. Criswell • Adrian Rogers • Jerry Falwell, Sr.

Living

Billy Graham • Franklin Graham • Duke K. McCall
Richard Land • Paige Patterson • Albert Mohler
Mark Dever • Jonathan Falwell
Related organizations

Cooperative Program
North American Mission Board
International Mission Board
LifeWay Christian Resources
Women's Missionary Union
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Baptist Press
Canadian Convention

Seminaries

Golden Gate
Midwestern
New Orleans
Southeastern
Southern
Southwestern

Falwell was born in Lynchburg, Virginia to Helen and Carey Hezekiah Falwell[2]. His father was an entrepreneur and one-time bootlegger who was not very religious.[2] His grandfather was a staunch atheist.[2][3] Falwell was born with a twin brother, Gene.

Falwell married the former Macel Pate on April 12, 1958, and had two sons (one, Jerry Falwell, Jr., is a lawyer and the other, Jonathan, a pastor) and one daughter (Jeannie, who is a surgeon).

Prior to the founding of his church, Falwell attended Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia, but left during his sophomore year. He then transferred to and graduated from Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri in 1956.[4][5]

Although he sometimes used the title "Doctor," Falwell held no earned doctorate. He held three honorary degrees: an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Tennessee Temple Theological Seminary [6], an honorary Doctor of Letters from California Graduate School of Theology, and an honorary Doctor of Laws from Central University in Seoul, South Korea.[4]

Associated organizations

Thomas Road Baptist Church

Main article: Thomas Road Baptist Church

In 1956, at age 22, Falwell became the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church of Lynchburg (TRBC).

Liberty University

Main article: Liberty University

In 1971, Jerry Falwell founded Liberty University, a Christian liberal arts university in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Moral Majority

Main article: Moral Majority

In 1979, Falwell founded the Moral Majority, one of the largest political lobby groups for evangelical Christians in the United States. The group is credited with delivering two-thirds of the white, evangelical Christian vote to Ronald Reagan during the 1980 presidential election.[7]

Social and political views

Families

Falwell strongly advocated beliefs and practices he felt were taught by the Bible.[8] He believed in the quintessential patriarchal family in which, ideally, the father is the primary bread-winner and the wife takes care of the home and raises the children until they’re old enough to attend a Christian school. The entire family was expected to play an active role in their local church. Falwell's company "The Moral Majority" was founded on four basic tenets, 1) pro-family, 2) pro-life, 3) pro-defense and 4) pro-Israel.[9]

The church, Falwell asserted, was the cornerstone of a successful family. Not only was it a place for spiritual learning and guidance, but also a gathering place for fellowship and socializing with like-minded individuals. The dialogs started one-on-one after service among parishioners would often build into more focused speeches or organized goals Falwell could then present to a larger audience via his various media outlets.

Civil rights

During the appearance on MSNBC, Falwell said he was not troubled by reports that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts had done volunteer legal work for gay rights activists on the case of Romer v. Evans. Falwell told MSNBC's Tucker Carlson that if he were a lawyer, he too would argue for civil rights for gays. "I may not agree with the lifestyle, but that has nothing to do with the civil rights of that... part of our constituency," Falwell said. When Carlson countered that conservatives "are always arguing against 'special rights' for gays," Falwell said that equal access to housing and employment are basic rights, not special rights. "Civil rights for all Americans, black, white, red, yellow, the rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, et cetera, is not a liberal or conservative value. It's an American value that I would think that we pretty much all agree on."[10] However, this apparent support for the civil rights of gays and lesbians is in sharp contrast to most of the statements Fallwell made throughout his lifetime that were harshly critical of gays and lesbians. [2]

Falwell supported Anita Bryant's 1977 movement to overturn an ordinance in Dade County, Florida that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and a similar movement in California.[2]

Falwell grew up in a strongly segregationist setting and supported racial segregation. In 1965, he gave a sermon at his Thomas Road Baptist Church criticizing Martin Luther King and the Civil rights movement, which he sometimes referred to as the "Civil Wrongs Movement". On his Evangelist program The Old-Time Gospel Hour in the mid 1960s, he regularly featured segregationist politicians like Lester Maddox and George Wallace.[11] Falwell's views eventually shifted and he opposed segregation in his later years.[12]

He said this about Martin Luther King: "I do question 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."[13]

Israel

The Anti-Defamation League, and its leader Abraham Foxman, have expressed strong support for Falwell's staunch pro-Israel stand, sometimes referred to as "Christian Zionism," despite repeatedly condemning what they perceive as intolerance towards Muslims in Falwell's public statements.[14]

Education

Falwell repeatedly denounced certain teachings in public schools and secular education in general, calling them breeding grounds for atheism, secularism, and humanism, which he claimed to be in contradiction with Christian morality. He advocated that the United States change its public education system by implementing a school voucher system which would allow parents to send their children to either public or private schools. Jerry Falwell wrote in America Can Be Saved that "I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them."[15]

Falwell supported President George W. Bush's Faith Based Initiative, but had strong reservations concerning where the funding would go and the restrictions placed on churches. "My problem is where it might go under his successors... I would not want to put any of the Jerry Falwell Ministries in a position where we might be subservient to a future Bill Clinton, God forbid... It also concerns me that once the pork barrel is filled, suddenly the Church of Scientology, the Jehovah Witnesses [sic], the various and many denominations and religious groups — and I don’t say those words in a pejorative way — begin applying for money — and I don’t see how any can be turned down because of their radical and unpopular views. I don’t know where that would take us."[16]

Apartheid

In the 1980s Jerry Falwell was critical of sanctions against the apartheid regime of South Africa. He stated that while he was opposed to apartheid, he feared that sanctions would result in a worse situation, with either a more oppressive white minority government or a Soviet-backed revolution. He drew the ire of many when he called Nobel Peace Prize winner and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu a phony "as far as representing the black people of South Africa."[17] He later apologized for that remark and claimed that he had misspoken.[18] He also urged his followers to buy up gold Krugerrands and push U.S. "reinvestment" in South Africa.[19]

Controversies

Election fund improprieties

In 1987, the Federal Election Commission fined Falwell US $6,000 for illegally transferring US$6.7 million in funds intended for his religious ministry to his political action committees.[citation needed]

The Clinton Chronicles

Main article: Clinton Chronicles

In 1994, Falwell promoted and distributed the straight-to-video documentary The Clinton Chronicles: An Investigation into the Alleged Criminal Activities of Bill Clinton. The video connected Clinton to a theoretical conspiracy involving Vincent Foster, James McDougall, Ron Brown, and an alleged cocaine-smuggling operation. Despite the theory having been discredited by all major investigations, the video's sophisticated production techniques served as effective exposure, and it sold over 150,000 copies.[20]

Funding for the film was provided by "Citizens for Honest Government," to which Jerry Falwell paid $200,000 in 1994 and 1995.[20] In 1995 Citizens for Honest Government interviewed two Arkansas state troopers regarding the conspiracy about Vincent Foster. These two troopers Roger Perry and Larry Patterson also gave information regarding the allegations in the Paula Jones (See: Troopergate) claims.[20] In March 2005, trooper Patterson was convicted of lying to the FBI about an unrelated incident.[21]

Falwell's infomercial for the 80-minute tape included footage of Falwell interviewing a silhouetted journalist who claimed to be afraid for his life. The journalist accused Clinton of orchestrating the deaths of several reporters and personal confidants who had gotten too close to his illegalities. It was subsequently revealed, however, that the silhouetted journalist was, in fact, Patrick Matrisciana, the producer of the video and president of Citizens for Honest Government.[20] "Obviously, I'm not an investigative reporter," Matrisciana admitted [to investigative journalist Murray Waas [20] Later, Falwell seemed to back away from personally trusting the video. In an interview for the 2005 documentary The Hunting of the President, Falwell admitted, "to this day I do not know the accuracy of the claims made in The Clinton Chronicles."[22]

Homosexuality

In 1977 he supported Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" campaign based on "Christian beliefs regarding the sinfulness of homosexuality and the perceived threat of homosexual recruitment of children and child molestation" in Dade County, Fla., in order to repeal an ordinance that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In urging the repeal of the ordinance, Falwell told one crowd, "Gay folks would just as soon kill you as look at you."[23]

Falwell has been called an agent of intolerance[24] and the founder of the anti-gay industry[25] who regularly demonized and dehumanized gays and fought against gay rights. In the early 1980s when the AIDS pandemic was still in its early years and could have been addressed more proactively as a national health crisis he swayed public opinion against people with AIDS (PWAs) saying “AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals, it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.”[26]

On Falwell's "Old Time Gospel Hour" broadcast (March 11, 1984), when the mostly gay Metropolitan Community Church was almost accepted into the World Council of Churches, Falwell called them "brute beasts" and stated, "this vile and satanic system will one day be utterly annihilated and there'll be a celebration in heaven."[27]

Falwell's ghostwriter, Mel White, said Falwell remarked about gay protesters, "Thank God for these gay demonstrators. If I didn't have them, I'd have to invent them. They give me all the publicity I need."[28]

Teletubbies

In February 1999 an unattributed National Liberty Journal article[29] claimed that Tinky Winky, a Teletubby, was intended as a gay role model. (NLJ was not the first source to make this association; a 1998 Salon.com article had previously noted Tinky Winky's status as a gay icon.[30]) The immensely popular UK show was aimed at pre-school children, but the article stated "he is purple - the gay pride color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle - the gay-pride symbol." Apart from those characteristics Tinky Winky also carries a magic bag which the NLJ article said was a purse. Falwell added "role modelling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children." In response, Steve Rice, spokesperson for Itsy Bitsy Entertainment, which licenses the Teletubbies in the US, said, "I really find it absurd and kind of offensive."[31][32]

September 11th attacks

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Falwell said on the 700 Club, "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.'" Fellow evangelist Pat Robertson concurred with his sentiment. After heavy criticism, Falwell apologized,[33], though he later said that he stood by his statement, stating "If we decide to change all the rules on which this Judeo-Christian nation was built, we cannot expect the Lord to put his shield of protection around us as he has in the past."[34]

Labor unions

Falwell has also said, "Labor unions should study and read the Bible instead of asking for more money. When people get right with God, they are better workers."[35]

Legal issues

SEC and bonds

In 1972 , the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation of bonds issued by Falwell's organizations. The SEC charged Falwell's church with "fraud and deceit" in the issuance of $6.5 million in unsecured church bonds.[36] The church won a 1973 federal court case prosecuted at the behest of the SEC, in which the Court exonerated the church and ruled that there had been no intentional wrong-doing.

According to Falwell, the survival of the University could be attributed to the work of Daniel Reber and Jimmy Thomas, as leaders of the non-profit Christian Heritage Foundation in Forest, Virginia.

Falwell versus Penthouse

Falwell filed a $10 million lawsuit against Penthouse Magazine for publishing an article based upon interviews he gave to freelance reporters, after failing to convince a federal court to place an injunction upon the publication of that article. The suit was dismissed in Federal district court on the grounds that the article was not defamatory or an invasion of Falwell's privacy; Falwell ultimately dropped the suit.[37][38][39]

Hustler's parody ad of Falwell
Enlarge
Hustler's parody ad of Falwell

Falwell versus Hustler

Main article: Hustler Magazine v. Falwell

In November 1983, Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine Hustler carried a parody advertisement of a Campari ad, featuring a fake interview with Falwell in which he admits that his "first time" was incest with his mother in an outhouse while drunk. Falwell sued for $45 million in compensation alleging invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.[40] A jury rejected the invasion of privacy and libel claims, holding that the parody could not have reasonably been taken to describe true events, but ruled in favor of Falwell on the emotional distress claim. This was upheld on appeal. Flynt then appealed to the Supreme Court, winning a unanimous decision on February 24, 1988. The ruling held that public figures cannot circumvent First Amendment protections by attempting to recover damages based on emotional distress suffered from parodies. The decision in favor of Flynt strengthened free speech rights in the United States in relation to parodies of public figures.

After the death of Falwell, Larry Flynt released a comment regarding his friendship over the years with Falwell.

"My mother always told me that no matter how much you dislike a person, when you meet them face to face you will find characteristics about them that you like. Jerry Falwell was a perfect example of that. I hated everything he stood for, but after meeting him in person, years after the trial, Jerry Falwell and I became good friends. He would visit me in California and we would debate together on college campuses. I always appreciated his sincerity even though I knew what he was selling and he knew what I was selling." - Larry Flynt [41]

Sloan versus Falwell and The Old-Time Gospel

In 1984, Falwell was ordered to pay gay activist and former Baptist Bible College classmate Jerry Sloan $5,000 after losing a court battle.

In July, 1984 during a TV debate in Sacramento, California, Falwell denied calling the mostly gay Metropolitan Community Churches "brute beasts" and "a vile and Satanic system" that will "one day be utterly annihilated and there will be a celebration in heaven." When Sloan insisted he had a tape, Falwell promised $5,000 if he could produce it. Sloan did, Falwell refused to pay, and Sloan successfully sued. The money was donated to build Sacramento's first gay community center, the Lambda Community Center, serving "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex" communities.[42]

Falwell appealed the decision with his attorney charging that the judge in the case was prejudiced. He lost again and was made to pay an additional $2,875 in sanctions and court fees.

Falwell versus Christopher Lamparello

On April 17 2006, the US Supreme Court refused to grant review of a lower court ruling that Christopher Lamparello's usage of the Internet domain Fallwell.com (note: the extra "L") was legal. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit had held that Lamparello "clearly created his Web site intending only to provide a forum to criticize ideas, not to steal customers".[43] Lamparello's website describes itself as not being connected to Jerry Falwell and is critical of Falwell's views on homosexuals.[43] Previous to this, "Falwell's attorneys have fought over domain names in the past" with a man turning over jerryfalwell.com and jerryfallwell.com "after Falwell threatened to sue for trademark infringement."[43] Lawyers for Public Citizen Litigation Group's Internet Free Speech project represented the domain name owners in both cases.

Apocalyptic beliefs

On July 31 2006, Cable News Network's (CNN) Paula Zahn Now program featured a segment on "whether the crisis in the Middle East is actually a prelude to the end of the world," "marking the third time in eight days that CNN ha[d] devoted airtime to those claiming that the ongoing Mideast violence signal[ed] the coming of the Apocalypse."[44] Falwell was interviewed claiming, "I believe in the premillennial, pre-tribulational coming of Christ for all of his church, and to summarize that, your first poll, do you believe Jesus coming the second time will be in the future, I would vote yes with the 59 percent and with Billy Graham and most evangelicals."

In 1999, Falwell declared the Antichrist would probably arrive within a decade and "Of course he'll be Jewish."[45] After anti-Semitism charges Falwell apologized and explained that he was simply expressing the theological tenet that the Antichrist and Christ share many attributes.[46][47]

Failing health and death

In early 2005, Falwell was hospitalized for two weeks with a viral infection, discharged, and then rehospitalized on May 30 2005, in respiratory arrest.[48][49] President George W. Bush contacted Falwell to "wish him well."[49] He was subsequently released from the hospital and returned to his duties. Later in 2005, a stent was implanted to treat a 70% blockage in his coronary arteries.[50]

On May 15 2007, CNN and USA Today[51] reported Falwell had been found without pulse and unconscious in his office about 10:45 am after missing a morning appointment and was taken to Lynchburg General Hospital.

"I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast… He went to his office, I went to mine and they found him unresponsive." said Godwin, the executive vice president of Falwell's Liberty University.[52]

His condition was initially reported as "gravely serious"; CPR was administered unsuccessfully.[52][53] As of 2:10 pm, during a live press conference, a doctor for the hospital confirmed that Falwell had died[54] of "cardiac arrhythmia, or sudden cardiac death." A statement issued by the hospital reported he was pronounced dead at Lynchburg General Hospital at 12:40 pm, EST.[55] Falwell’s family, including his wife Macel and sons Jerry Falwell, Jr. and Jonathan Falwell, were with him at the hospital.[56]

Falwell's funeral took place at 1:00 PM EDT on May 22, 2007 at Thomas Road Baptist Church after lying in repose at both the church and Liberty University.[57] Falwell's burial service was private. It took place at a spot on the Liberty University campus near the Carter Glass Mansion, near his office.[58] Buried nearby is the late B. R. Lakin.[59]

After his death, his two sons succeeded him at his two posts; Jerry Falwell, Jr. took over as Chancellor of Liberty University while Jonathan Falwell became the Senior Pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church.

The last televised interview with Jerry Falwell was conducted by Christiane Amanpour for the CNN original series CNN Presents: God's Warriors.[60]He had been interviewed on May 8th, one week before his death.

Publications

  • Achieving Your Dreams. Thomas Nelson (January 30, 2006) ISBN 0529122464
  • Building Churches of Dynamic Faith: A Five-Session Study Guide. Thomas Nelson (October 17, 2005) ISBN 0529121336
  • Capturing a Town for Christ. Fleming Revell, 1969.
  • Champions for God. Victor Books, 1985.
  • Church Aflame. (co-author Elmer Towns) Impact, 1971.
  • Dynamic Faith Journal. Thomas Nelson (64 pages) (January 30, 2006) ISBN 0529122456
  • Falwell: An Autobiography. Liberty House, 1996. (Ghost written by Mel White [61]) ISBN 1888684046
  • Fasting Can Change Your Life. Regal, 1998.
  • Finding Inner Peace and Strength. Doubleday, 1982.
  • If I Should Die Before I Wake. Thomas Nelson, 1986. (ghost-written by Mel White)
  • Liberty Bible Commentary on the New Testament. Thomas Nelson/Liberty University, 1978.
  • Liberty Bible Commentary. Thomas Nelson, 1982.
  • Listen, America! Bantam Books (July 1981) ISBN 0553149989
  • Stepping Out on Faith. Tyndale House, 1984.
  • Strength for the Journey. Simon & Schuster, 1987. (ghost-written by Mel White)
  • The Fundamentalist Phenomenon. Doubleday, 1981.
  • The Fundamentalist Phenomenon/the Resurgence of Conservative Christianity. Baker Book House, 1986.
  • The New American Family. Word, 1992.
  • When it Hurts Too Much to Cry. Tyndale House, 1984. ISBN 0842379932
  • Wisdom for Living. Victor Books, 1984.

See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Footnotes

  1. ^ Jerry Falwell Told Followers He Was at Peace With Death. Associated Press via Fox News (16 May 2007). Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
  2. ^ a b c d
  3. ^ Televangelist, Christian Leader Falwell Dies, by www.NPR.org, retrieved May 15, 2007
  4. ^ a b Jerry Falwell's Official Biography July 1, 2006; Falwell left Lynchburg College, which was accredited at the time for Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri which was then non-accredited. Baptist Bible College became accredited in 2001.
  5. ^ http://www.ncahlc.org/index.php?option=com_directory&Action=ShowBasic&instid=2797
  6. ^ Meet Jerry Falwell
  7. ^ "When worlds collide: politics, religion, and media at the 1970 East Tennessee Billy Graham Crusade. (appearance by President Richard M. Nixon)", Journal of Church and State, March 22, 1997. Retrieved on 2007-08-18. 
  8. ^ The Fundamentalist Phenomenon et al, Baker Publishing Group, 1986)
  9. ^ Falwell.com
  10. ^ Eartha Jane Melzer, Falwell hints support for some gay rights, The Washington Blade, August 26, 2005.
  11. ^ http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=522
  12. ^ http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/01/09/justice_sunday/index_np.html
  13. ^ Washington, James M. (1990). A Testament of Hope: the essential writings of Martin Luther King. San Francisco: Harper Collins. ISBN 0060646918. 
  14. ^ http://www.adl.org/PresRele/DiRaB_41/4168_41.htm
  15. ^ http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/western/bldef_falwelljerry.htm
  16. ^ http://www.beliefnet.com/story/70/story_7040_1.html
  17. ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959695,00.html
  18. ^ FALWELL DENOUNCES TUTU AS A 'PHONY'
  19. ^ OSTLING, RICHARD N.. "Jerry Falwell's Crusade", Time Magazine, 1985-9-2. Retrieved on 2007-05-17. 
  20. ^ a b c d e The Falwell connection by Murray Waas Salon.com
  21. ^ Satter, Linda. "Ex-trooper sentenced for lying to FBI agent 3 years’ probation, fine ordered in Quitman case", Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 12, 2005. 
  22. ^ The Hunting of the President (DVD) 2005
  23. ^ Johnson, Hans and Eskridge, William. The Legacy of Falwell's Bully Pulpit. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
  24. ^ Agent of Intolerance. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
  25. ^ Anti-gay evangelist dies at 73. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
  26. ^ Press: The Sad Legacy of Jerry Falwell. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
  27. ^ Burns, Katy. Jerry Falwell's greatest hates. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
  28. ^ Steve Inskeep. Religion, Politics a Potent Mix for Jerry Falwell NPR June 30, 2006
  29. ^ PARENTS ALERT . . . PARENTS ALERT. Retrieved on 2007-05-30.
  30. ^ 'Tubbythumping '. Retrieved on 2007-05-30. | last=Millman | first=Joyce
  31. ^ 'Gay Tinky Winky bad for children'. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
  32. ^ Burke, Heather. Jerry Falwell, Evangelist, Political Activist, Dies. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
  33. ^ http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/14/Falwell.apology/
  34. ^ http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=69715
  35. ^ http://www.wisaflcio.org/political_action/rightwing.htm
  36. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5522064
  37. ^ "Falwell Says He Will Press $10 Million Penthouse Suit." The New York Times, 5 February 1981.
  38. ^ "Penthouse Wins in Court Against Falwell Suit." The New York Times, 7 August 1981.
  39. ^ "Falwell Won't Pursue Suit." The New York Times, 10 September 1981.
  40. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0283658/bio
  41. ^ http://www.accesshollywood.com/news/ah5356.shtml
  42. ^ about Lambda Community Fund. Retrieved on 2007-05-24.
  43. ^ a b c Supreme Court declines Falwell Web appeal Associated Press. April 17, 2006
  44. ^ CNN still fixated on Apocalypse predictors. Media matters for America. Aug 1, 2006
  45. ^ Cohen, Debra Nussbaum. Falwell Antichrist remark sparks anti-Semitism charges. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
  46. ^ Kampeas, Ron. Falwell Left Jews With Mixed Feelings. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
  47. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6160167
  48. ^ http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8P4UVFO1&show_article=1
  49. ^ a b Falwell is taken off ventilator, upgraded to stable condition USA Today May 30, 2005
  50. ^ Rev. Jerry Falwell Dies - breitbart.com
  51. ^ Evangelist Jerry Falwell dies at 73. USA Today/Associated Press (2007-05-15). Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
  52. ^ a b Falwell dies at age 73.
  53. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070515/ap_on_re_us/jerry_falwell
  54. ^ Rev Jerry Falwell Has Died: Rev Dead After Being Found Unconscious. PostChronicle.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-10.
  55. ^ http://www.centrahealth.com/news/pressrelease78.aspx
  56. ^ http://www.liberty.edu/administration/index.cfm?PID=14092
  57. ^ Falwell funeral arrangements (Liberty University)
  58. ^ Thousands Line Up To Attend Jerry Falwell's Funeral
  59. ^ [1]
  60. ^ [http://www.hvc-inc.com/clients/cnn/warriors/for.html#pr CNN Press Release
  61. ^ http://www.npr.org/tem