Jerry Falwell Dies at Age 73

LYNCHBURG, VA-The controversial and influential evangelist Rev. Jerry Falwell passed away on May 15, 2007 at the age of 73 in the city of his birth.

The day for the noted religious leader began as normally as any, with a breakfast with Ron Godwin, the executive vice-president of his Liberty University; Godwin reported that nothing seemed amiss with the reverend's health. Around 10:45 AM, he was found unconscious in his office and rushed to Lynchburg General Hospital in "gravely serious" condition.

No cause of death was mentioned at this time, though Godwin, acting as spokesperson, disclosed that Falwell's heart had been causing the reverend trouble.

A president of famously conservative Liberty University, which he founded in 1971, Falwell was best known as a televangelist who unabashedly preached "Bible-believing, independent, local-church-oriented Baptist fundamentalism" from his megachurch before 'megachurch' was yet a word in the popular vocabulary.

He co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979, which stood for ten years as one of the most powerful Christian lobbying groups in the nation, campaigning for the outlawing of abortion, the condemnation of homosexuality and the promotion of its interpretation of a traditional Christian view of family life. While more famously affiliated with Republican politicians of the time, the Moral Majority also held favor with Democrats. Today, Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition has taken up the torch of Falwell's group, promoting a similar agenda.

A segregationist during the Civil Rights Movement and an open advocate of apartheid in South Africa, Falwell was never one to shy from controversy or political incorrectness, famously blaming the secularization of American culture, including acceptance of feminism and homosexuality, for the September 11th attacks. He would often twin his political viewpoints with his religious views, best summed up in his noted 1980 soundbite "God is a Republican".

Although not personally involved with the article in question, Falwell was also infamously linked to an editorial in one of his publications fearing that "Teletubbies" character Tinky Winky promoted homosexuality due to his purple color and choice to carry a purselike prop.

In an America so defined by a political climate of neoconservatism and increasing influence from the Christian Right on Washington, the effects of Jerry Falwell's crusade are hardly inconspicuous. What remains to be seen is how his work will fare in his absence, as he awaits the judgment of God that he spoke so forcefully of.

Source
CNN, "Jerry Falwell dies at age 73", May 15, 2007