A Funeral for Jerry Falwell

He blamed the so called "pagans" of the world for the atrocity of 9-11. He claimed a Teletubby signified homosexuality. He declared AIDS as a wrath of God. By all accounts, many people make the claim that the Reverend Jerry Falwell was a bigoted minister who simply wanted to control religion.

In the 73 years of his life, which ended suddenly on May 15 due to cardiac arrest, Rev. Falwell was your true Baptist fundamentalist, a man who spent it all in Baptist churches, actually led services at a Lynchburg, Virginia megachurch, and flip-flopped between Baptist organizations in order to tell the tales of evangelicalism. But this did not mean he led a pius life either, as his strict religious principles counteracted with the national standard of belief and made a lot of people throughout North America very angry at him.

He was born on August 11, 1933 to Helen and Carey Falwell in Lynchburg, which would be his hometown all his life, and the site for his grandest achievement, Liberty University. His family included his twin brother, Gene.

He calls Brookville High School his alma mater, where he started on the football and basketball teams during his time in the Lynchburgh school.
But, it wasn't until he started college that he truly went before God. Before he began his church, Falwell matriculated in a community college in Lynchburgh, but midway through his collegiate studies he transferred to a small Bible college in the Missouri, where he graduated in 1956. He then set out an attempt to convert all of his home city into a truly Christian community. Using his degree from Springfield, Missouri's Baptist Bible College, he came back to Lynchburg, started a church, and declared himself to be God's number two. Later he added three honorary doctorates to his resume, two of which came from seminaries. And, although he did not truly earn a doctorate, he added "Doctor" to his name throughout his life.

He created the Thomas Road Baptist Church of Lynchburg, and became a pastor and took in 35 adults to his first ever church service, held in the elementary school he went to. The offering: $175. He then bought the building that housed a "Donald Duck" Bottling Company plant. The church grew within an excess of 24,000 members and has grown into a super church with a 6,000 seat auditorium.

When he was 25, he married Macel Pate, and with her he had two sons and a daughter.

Then came his big daddy. In 1971, he set out to create an institute for higher learning, using his methods of living and education. He founded Liberty University, which is now a fully accredited school with over 50,000 students in both its main campus and online learning programs. Students who live on campus are required to attend motivational speaker-clad convocations three times a week. Everything from drinking to smoking to parties to even entering a room with the opposite sex in it is strictly prohibited at Liberty. Even R-Rated movies, viewing of them both on and off campus, is forbidden. There is even a curfew. Yet, the rules are easilly followed by 25,000+ students every day.

Falwell's evangelical days started in the 1960s with the Old-Time Gospel Hour. The show dealt with every issue and person, and no single person was left out of what man clamed to be the "nonsensical ravings" of a "overfearing maniac". He even used the show to support segregation, even degregading Martin Luther King in a sermon at his church. He constantly had segregationists on his show and decried the moment that blacks recieved equal rights protection.
Falwell also decried the teachings of public schools, claiming them to be in contradiction with morality. He called upon the United States to change its system to allow more parents to send their childern to private schools. He even wrote about it in his book "America Can Be Saved. He wrote: "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."
His plan was sort of put into fruition through President Bush's current and former. The Elder Bush led America in a "Faith Based Inititive" while the current president has been staunch on his "No Child Left Behind" policy that tightens the rope for public schools by allowing dissatisfied public school parents to send their kids to private school with the use of a voucher.

His somewhat racist ways continued in the 1990s when UN legislation against apartheid reached his ears. He instantly decried that as well, poking fun at Reverend Desmond Tutu, a fighter against the anti-black policy in South Africa. Falwell was later made to apologize for calling Rev. Tutu a phony.
He then began to attack presidents. He released a straigh-to-video documentary unveiling his belief that President Clinton committed crimes. He later backed up his hatred for Clinton when he kept discussing the events that led to Clinton's impeachment hearings in 1999.

In the late stages of his life, he set his target to the adult industry and homosexuality. He sued Penthouse magazine for $50 million over slander. The case was dropped and dismissed. Also dropped was his suit against "Hustler", which in 1983 featured a fake interview with Falwell in which he admits that his "first time" was incest with his mother in an outhouse while drunk. While Falwell won the case, the magazine successfully appealed based on First Amendment rights issues. His homosexuality stance was brought out all over. He lost three cases involving homosexual slander, but what shocked everyone was when he claimed the "Tinky-Winky" doll, purple with a triangle on top of its head, as the ultimate symbol of homosexuality, and urged everyone to boycott the "Teletubbies" show because of it. People responded angrily by sending him Tinky-Winky dolls, which he gave to his grandchildern.

His health began to weaken around 2005. Doctors declared his arteries as 70% blocked, and urged him to take better care of himself.

On May 15, however, he was found unconscious, and a short time later, he died at a Lynchburg hospital.

Rev. Falwell will be remembered for his shocking stances and his utterly christian way about him. Call him a bigot, call him a loudmouth, call him an over-fearing madman. But, mainly, many will remember him as a true man of God, a man who set out to make sure God was there.