Jerry Falwell passed away this past Tuesday, May 15th. I’ve mentioned Falwell a few times in past blog posts. More often than not, the only time I referred to Falwell was when I was explaining to someone that I was a Christian. “Yah, but not a Jerry Falwell-type of Christian…” I’m sure many have said something similar before. I know some people around the seminary have tried to figure out how to respond to the death of someone who, from our perspective, so tragically misrepresented both Christ, the gospel and much of Christianity to the world. While certainly not “glad” for his death, it does represent the potential for a certain type of Christianity to potentially have less influence (though surely people will step up to attempt to fill his shoes).
A friend of mine said that while he was not happy about Falwell’s death, he was “relieved.” I think that sentiment probably reflects how many Christians are feeling. Our prayers for the peace of Christ certainly go out to Falwell’s family and those who knew him beyond the ludicrous sound bites the rest of us heard. But, for many, there is a certain relief I think.
I’ve read a few things recently I felt were worth sharing with you. The first is actually my own transcription of an NPR commentary from today’s All Things Considered (you can listen to the three minute segment here). It was written by David Kuo, the former deputy director of the office of faith-based community initiatives in the Bush administration. Kuo discussed some of the more well-known ridiculous quotes by Falwell, but ended on this note:
“The nature of the Christian faith is hope – hope in the unseen, hope in the goodness of God, hope in resurrection. So here, now, with his passing, there is the chance to begin again the discussion of what it means to be a Christian, what it means to follow Jesus, what it means to sacrificially love others. If out of that, more people come to know the Jesus of the Gospels, rather than the Jesus of the GOP, Jerry Falwell’s ultimate legacy may be that he helped lead people back to God, and that, I want to believe, is what he wanted in the first place.”
Second, I think you should read a post on Messages, entitled “Falwell and the Work of Mourning” by Matt Richards. Here is a segment from it:
“In so many ways, he was a cartoon of religious bigotry, promiscuously invoking God in every conceivable political dispute and demonizing his opponents in the most reckless of terms…I guess I’m more interested in discussing how we mourn and pray for those who we simply cannot find particular reasons to like. I do not have nice things to say about him in particular and yet I feel compassion for him, for his family, for his church, etc.”
Finally, John Spalding of the SoMA Review, gives a somewhat different perspective. He has a pretty satirical post about Falwell, here. While it may be a little harsh for some of you, consider it another way of dealing with the mourning:
“Now that the evangelist has finally met his maker, we pray for his sake that God is an amiable old white guy with a long grey beard, and is not, say, a big purple Teletubby with a triangle above his head and a magic bag dangling from his arm. Tinky Winky as Divine Judge might have a beef with Falwell. Having outed Tink as gay, Falwell denounced the beloved children’s TV character as ‘damaging to the moral lives of children.’ That had to hurt, considering TW’s line of work.”
Above you’ve seen a few different ways to respond to the death of fundamentalist Jerry Falwell. How have you found yourself responding? And please be honest, whatever your feelings.
Nice post Adam – it’s always tough when you deal with conflicting thoughts about someone, especially when they’re, well, dead.
Bart Campolo’s also got a satirical post – short but sweet:
http://www.bartcampolo.com/blog/?p=142
I too wrote a few times about Falwell. I disagreed with so much of what he said. And as a guy who grew up in the south, I had real problems with his portrayal of Christ. He ans those like him caused me to adjust my path.
But at the end of the day, I really don’t do much better of a job. My platform is just smaller. And while we should make those who claim to represent us take responsibility for the harm they do, I need as much grace as any of them.
That’s the spot I have arrived in the last couple of days. I was a huge critic, but I do believe Falwell loved Jesus and will now get to be with him.
When I read the scriptures say “speak evil of no one,” I don’t think they mean, “speak evil of no one except those you dislike.” In fact, I think I remember Jesus saying something along those lines- “So what if you’re nice to the people who are nice to you, everyone is. But I say, love your enemies.” And in light of Christ’s prayers that the church be one I think you’d be hard pressed to classify Falwell as an enemy, he’s a brother in Christ.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m by no means a fundamentalist. Frankly, I grew up in a very Falwell-esque church and it nearly made me into a faithful disciple of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. It was Brian McLaren and his book, The Last Word and the Word After That which rescued my faith.
I have no tolerance whatsoever for religious bigotry, but it strikes me as hypocritical when people who claim to be speaking out against religious bigotry start to sound a lot like the people they’re criticizing. I understand people feeling relieved over his death, I’m not sure I necessarily agree, but I certainly understand it. However, I do not understand how Christians can speak so slanderishly about anyone, even a man like Falwell whose brand of Christianity is responsible for pushing many of us and our friends away from Jesus. If we really love Jesus and are serious about loving people, then we must love Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson.
Please don’t think I’m making any claims that I have this figured out, I’ve spoken very harshly and unlovingly about all three of those men in public forums, and that’s a sin for which I’ve needed to repent.
May we all pursue Christ together as we attempt to love those who are difficult to love.
Quite frankly, I have disagreed privately and publicly with Falwell, Robertson, Sharpton, Bakker….heck, all evangelists actually. I even find myself disagreeing with my own theology at times. That is the beauty of humanity though. Freewill. Freedom of thought. God gave us a discerning mind and while Falwell may not have been the best representative of Christianity or even modern ethics, he made people confront their own thoughts about relationship and Christlike character. Believer and non found themselves wondering who God was in their lives and what he may look like and talk like based on comments and sound bytes offered by Falwell. I am not here to judge him. I am only here to say may he be remembered for the truth deep in his heart that I feel he lived for; no matter how distanced he may have become.
Adam,
Great post. Personally, I believe that Rev. Falwell’s passing presents Christians with an undeniable duty to mourn when quite honestly, we may not want to mourn. In some sense, Falwell’s passing is going to confront our capacity for our own intolerance. It’s the story of our journey: getting over ourselves and learning to love.
Andrew Walker
“Our prayers for the peace of Christ certainly go out to Falwell’s family…”
I’m sure the family is oh-so-grateful for your prayers; especially in light of your “relief” over their loved-one’s death.
A certain relief? That’s probably granting Falwell more influence on American Christianity in the past 15 years than he should be granted. His influence has been on the wane for a long time precisely because of the outrageous soundbites and sad antics of which he has been a part. Falwell’s true circle of influence, as of late, has extended little further than to a particular segment of what might be called fundamentalism. I was a pastor in a pretty conservative, evangelical Protestant church for a while, and even there Falwell was regarded as a curiosity more than a guru. If there is a mantle for “that kind of Christianity” then it was passed by Falwell long ago to James Dobson and others.
I’m relieved, and trying really hard not to say anything bad about a man whose views on so many things were diametrically opposed to mine.
I feel that Falwell and those of his ilk are the main reason that I am embarrassed sometimes to identify myself as Christian. I have a really hard time expecting others to accept a faith that is so tainted with hate that I don’t really want to be identified with it.
My wife was much less reserved: “Good riddance”. I guess her Catholicism has conditioned her to being allowed to think ill of people who deserve it.
I’m amazed by people who want more grace but want to hold their own for those they deem worthy. That’s not what Christianity is about either folks…
Did you see the Salon “interview” with Tinky Winky? (http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/05/16/falwell_tinky/) kind of funny…
I like your blog, btw. I’m headed to divinity school in the fall, but, basically, I am starting at square one — which is okay, it just means I have my work cut out for me!
lost recap?
To say that one is relieved over the death of another is not very grace-filled. I have to face the same judgment as Jerry. I don’t agree with everyone spiritually, but I cannot condemn someone just because they don’t hold to the exact same doctrines.
Jerry was a brother no matter what we think.
Mike,
Assume that the dearly departed is Osama Bin-Laden?
Still feeling that grace?
It ain’t easy for any of us to show grace towards our “enemies”. At least we are willing to admit it and get it out in the open.
I do hope a different kind of faith dialogue will step in and save those big ugly shoes he left behind…poor guy…I feel like he was just missing something.
Well, it has been interesting discussing this issue with people around PTS. I am actually quite pleased to find the responses on this post to be far more grace filled than have the responses I have found by students at princeton.
One student told me “Falwell should and will burn in hell!”
/Ironically, this student does not believe in hell.
Yeah, one thing is certain: the bittersweet irony in all of this consists in the variety of Falwell’s greatest enemies who know of no hell to which to damn the man. Whoops! Insert that quote (was it really Richard Niebuhr, or his doppelgänger?) here: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”
Guys –
I don’t know which seminary you’re headed to or attending but you may want a bit of advice from someone just a tad older and who’s walked in your shoes.
I attended Fuller Theological Seminary in the late 70s and early 80s. Didn’t graduate, ran out of money and headed on to marriage, family and self employment.
But I remember being so sure of my theology and so sure who was a Christian and who was not and who it was acceptable to associate with and who it was not and on and on and on …
As I have grown older and, hopefully, wiser things look a little different. I can’t say that I agreed with everything that Rev. Falwell said or did. I can’t even manage to agree with everything I have said or done!
But one simple fact remains. The man named Jesus as Lord and did his best to follow Him as best he could. Would that my attempts at following my Lord were somewhere close to as consistent and passionate. I think Jesus is even more forgiving than we are willing to admit and that He values passion and consistency over theological correctness.
I cannot remember a single place in the Book where we are told that God values doctrine over relationship. It is not that doctrine is unimportant – it is vitally important. But the greatest commands were to love God and love people. Surely Falwell did both.
I understand many don’t like his pronouncements on the morality of certain behaviors. I understand that those offended thing he was moralizing or worse, JUDGING. That seems a bit disingenuous, does it not? Someone telling Falwell he’s a bigot because he condemns their behavior is doing the same thing he hates Falwell for doing. What ever happened to reasoned debate and allowing people to make their own choices.
For all of the criticism and detractors the Rev. accumulated over the years, few actually took the time to get to know him. One who did was one who had reason to believe the Rev. was an enemy and to treat him as such, Larry Flynt. Interestingly, it is Flynt’s comments and response to Falwell’s death that are among the most godly and Christlike in the debate. While they never did come to agree on much, they became friends of a sort. They could agree to disagree and be passionate in the defense of their position. And at the end of the day, they allowed each man to follow his own conscience and respected the decision. That seems to me to be the appropriate response.
As a godly man, it has been my approach for a long time to allow every man I meet to be the man he chooses to be. I insist on the same courtesy and respect. When we disagree, it is not personal as in me against you. It is personal as in this is what I believe. If you disagree that is your right and in some cases your responsibility.
But it doesn’t mean we have to carefully parse my words so that people will get the right impression. Thus I have no problem saying that I disagree with the Rev on some things and that the world is a worse place now that he is gone. He was a fine ambassador for Christ and pursued the ministry of reconciliation passionately. That all were not reconciled to God was not his problem or his job. He was just the mailman. I am proud to call him my brother as I am proud to call any of you who trust in Christ my brother as well.
Considering the legacy Falwell leaves behind with the Moral Majority, Liberty University, his church and his impact on society in many arenas, there are some big shoes left empty. Perhaps we should be more focused on how to fill them than in filling the airwaves with opposition and polite distancing of ourselves from one whom we should acknowledge as family.
At least, that’s the view from this end of life. 50 seemed an eternity away when I was twenty. Now it’s likely that by the time you all are my age, I’ll have followed the Rev on to see whether my Lord is pleased or not with my performance. If I do half as well as Jerry I’ll be OK.
Blessings,
Blue Collar Muse
From my blog post:
“While it is not the place of humanity to speculate about God’s judgment, I can think of few people who more dramatically and publically hampered the mission of church in the United States than Jerry Falwell. So, while I would weep with his friends and family for their loss, I also rejoice” that his influence is no more.
To explicate:
The problem with a “he’s a brother” or “isn’t Christianity about grace” is that it fails to grapple with two things: 1) How political wheels larger than someone like Falwell not only intentionally co-opted a sentimentalized Christian message for political gain with help from the religious right but also how they participated in demonized Christians and Christian institutions who were already engaged in political theology. 2) How Christian political engagement is always already a function of the Church being the Church. The end result of focusing on voting blocks was not only a narrowing of conceptions of what it means for Christians to be politically engaged (through practices like baptism, Eucharist and finding Jesus among the poor) but also a confusion about what it means to be Christian. Further, the rhetoric of the religious right advanced an us-them mentality which made it harder for Christians to follow Jesus in his call for broad-based Christian unity (which seemingly should include various theological positions). It is only responsible to question the effects of what Falwell ‘accomplished’ and asking whether what he did are in fact Christian accomplishments. I’m open to being wrong, but it’s a conversation which needs to be had.
errr…above I was trying to say that “practices like baptism, Eucharist and finding Jesus among the poor” is already Christian political engagement and should be construed as more politically significant than the rhetoric or practices of the Moral Majority would allow. –drm–
Dan, the problem is, it’s not a conversation. You’d be disingenuous if you said your mind wasn’t made up already. Can’t have a conversation that way.
You can call it what you want and spin it however makes you feel good, but you’re basically glad he’s dead aren’t you?
And as for the comment way up above, on this particular blog, yes, Bin Laden would get plenty of grace.
Adam,
I am put off but not surprised that you would actually take “relief” in the death of another human being, a brother in Christ no less. Such an attitude smacks of arrogance. Again I’m not surprised that you take this position.
Rejoice in the hope of Christ’s resurrection which Falwell now experiences and concentrate on the grief and pain that his family is experiencing in this time of loss. A response which demonstrates compassion would be nice instead of one whose response is “relief” in the death of another fellow Christian.
Yeah I would actually.
BTW, Jerry Falwell isn’t in Osama bin Laden’s league either. Way to be fair dude.
Rich:
Do I have definite opinions about Falwell? Yes. Having a conversation doesn’t necessitate starting from nowhere. Am I open to rejection or correction of my position? Absolutely. I tend to think MacIntyre is correct to argue that:
“A tradition is an argument extended through time in which certain fundamental agreements are defined and redefined in terms of two kinds of conflict: those with critics and enemies external to the tradition who reject all or at least key parts of those fundamental agreements, and those internal, interpretative debates through which the meaning and rationale of the fundamental agreements come to be expressed and by whose progress a tradition is constituted.” (WJWR?, 12)
That I have definite opinions doesn’t mean I’m unable to talk with others and be persuaded. You didn’t really address my concerns about Falwell and his legacy, you simply said that a conversation isn’t possible because I already think that Falwell did more harm than good for Christianity in America. That is simply not the case. Even on your own blog, you simply say that he had Jesus as part of his message and that’s the important thing. As I said, “it is not the place of humanity to speculate about God’s judgment” and what is in question is not God’s grace/judgement toward Jerry Falwell (for that he and we will have to wait for the parousia and the resurrection and judgment of the dead), the question is whether his work can or should be considered good work. Is this something that the church should be about? This is the argument (in MacIntyre’s sense) that needs to be had. To be clear and to reiterate something I’ve already said, I’m saddened by his death because the loss that loved ones experience in death is palpably real. However, I am also glad and hopeful that whatever influence he had will disappear with him. I’m open to objection, correction, or rejection of this position, or said differently, I could be wrong. Currently, I don’t really see many arguing coherently about why Falwell’s legacy is a wonderful one or meeting my concerns about the effect of his work.
I do, however, appreciate your eschatological hope for Falwell.
Dan,
Fair enough on Falwell’s legacy. He did do much harm and I have talked at great lengths about that on my own blog. But I also believe, that as one who loved Jesus, there had to be some good in there. If there wasn’t, I am afraid we are all doomed.
The biggest problems I have had in the thread are the ideas of relief and gladness in the death of someone we oppose. I guess that colored my response to you about conversation.
Rich
i spent the afternoon answering phone calls from various friends. everyone said the same thing. “ding dong the witch is dead.”
1 Peter 17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
With all the fighting and negativity in the church (cheers to you who prove the stereotype right) can’t we for once just mourn a brother in Christ and not make a federal case about it? A brother in Christ died. Period.
Cubicle Rev. Dave,
Amen to both God’s word and your response.
Hey Adam,
There is actually a really great discussion that went on from the gay christian community over at http://gaychristian.net/ . They have been shuffled to the controversial section so you have to be a member to see them. But yeah you should go over there and check it out. You don’t have to be glbt to be on the site, you can be an ally too. ;)
Anyhow Adam thank you for always being an encouragement for the GLBT community. I really do apprecriate you man for the encouragement you have shown on your blog in the past. Thank you.
Ben F.
It’s hard to judge rather than have sympathy for someone like Rev. Falwell. Falwell’s virtue is that he was sincere, and consistent with his theology. This is why the holy fathers of the Church taught us that false doctrine misrepresents Christ to the world, and as such is deadly to the soul.
Rev. Falwell was wrong for thinking that Christian morality perfectly matched a conservative right-wing political outlook, when we all know that Christian morality perfectly matches a left-wing progressive political outlook. It must be so comforting to know that right-wing politics are wrong, wrong, wrong, but that left-wing progressivism is a perfect fit for Christian living.
I’m sorry but if you cannot see that following Christ means giving up “progressive” politics just as much as it means giving up “conservative” politics, then you and Rev. falweel are two sides of the same coin.
soma buy line buy soma delivery