Jerry Falwell is dead. Like Dick Nixon, they can't kick him
around anymore.
For that matter I can't kick him around anymore. Neither can
the rest of the Christian community. How many of us for the last
three decades have prefaced a statement of our religious commitment
with a disclaimer that we aren't like Jerry Falwell or Pat
Robertson?
These men stepped out front early and they took an incredible
amount of fire. Some self-inflicted. A lot of it because members
of the fashionable class hated them and hated what they stood
for.
I've complained before that too much attention has been paid of
late to Jerry Falwell and that more should be focused on Chuck
Colson and James Dobson, but in terms of history, Jerry Falwell
deserves his day. I'm not sure we'll ever know exactly how much
his efforts swayed Christians and encouraged them to enter the
political process on the side of conservatives. His example,
however, was undeniable. The Moral Majority preceded a vast
network of policy shops, mini-think tanks, and advocacy
organizations.
There are a couple of things I'll always remember about Jerry
Falwell.
First is that the celebrated Catholic author and National Book
Award winner Walker Percy once wrote about watching a debate
between Falwell and Bob Guccione, publisher of Hustler magazine. He remarked that he heard the Gospel
according to Guccione and the Gospel according to Falwell and had
no difficulty at all choosing the latter.
Second is that although he ended his career calling himself an
evangelical Christian, he was truly a fundamentalist in the old
time tradition. That word took on so many negative associations
during the years that neither he nor anyone else much cared for it.
Now, calling someone a fundamentalist is like using the N-Word.
Alvin Plantinga said it has become a reference to any S.O.B. to the
right of the person using it. But Falwell was a fundamentalist
Christian who became convinced of the need to abandon
fundamentalist isolationism. He answered evangelical Carl F.H.
Henry's call to Christian political engagement about a quarter
century late, but when he stepped in he made a big splash.
Blessings to you, Jerry Falwell. I pray you are now with the
Lord in whom we Christians have placed our hope.
