Jerry Falwell dead

snfu73

disturber of the peace
The devil has died.

Television evangelist Falwell dies at 73

By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer 10 minutes ago

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority and used it to mold the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said. He was 73.
Ron Godwin, the university's executive vice president, said Falwell, 73, was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. "CPR efforts were unsuccessful," he said.
Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but he said Falwell "has a history of heart challenges."
"I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast," Godwin said. "He went to his office, I went to mine, and they found him unresponsive."
Falwell had survived two serious health scares in early 2005. He was hospitalized for two weeks with what was described as a viral infection, then was hospitalized again a few weeks later after going into respiratory arrest. Later that year, doctors found a 70 percent blockage in an artery, which they opened with stents.
Falwell credited his Moral Majority with getting millions of conservative voters registered, electing Ronald Reagan and giving Republicans Senate control in 1980.
"I shudder to think where the country would be right now if the religious right had not evolved," Falwell said when he stepped down as Moral Majority president in 1987.
The fundamentalist church that Falwell started in an abandoned bottling plant in 1956 grew into a religious empire that includes the 22,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, the "Old Time Gospel Hour" carried on television stations around the country and 7,700-student Liberty University. He built Christian elementary schools, homes for unwed mothers and a home for alcoholics.
He also founded Liberty University in Lynchburg, which began as Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971.
Liberty University's commencement is scheduled for Saturday, with former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich as the featured speaker.
In 2006, Falwell marked the 50th anniversary of his church and spoke out on stem cell research, saying he sympathized with people with medical problems, but that any medical research must pass a three-part test: "Is it ethically correct? Is it biblically correct? Is it morally correct?"
Falwell had once opposed mixing preaching with politics, but he changed his view and in 1979, founded the Moral Majority. The political lobbying organization grew to 6.5 million members and raised $69 million as it supported conservative politicians and campaigned against abortion, homosexuality, pornography and bans on school prayer.
Falwell became the face of the religious right, appearing on national magazine covers and on television talk shows. In 1983, U.S. News & World Report named him one of 25 most influential people in America.
In 1984, he sued Hustler magazine for $45 million, charging that he was libeled by an ad parody depicting him as an incestuous drunkard. A federal jury found the fake ad did not libel him, but awarded him $200,000 for emotional distress. That verdict was overturned, however, in a landmark 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that even pornographic spoofs about a public figure enjoy First Amendment protection.
The case was depicted in the 1996 movie "The People v. Larry Flynt."
With Falwell's high profile came frequent criticism, even from fellow ministers. The Rev. Billy Graham once rebuked him for political sermonizing on "non-moral issues."
Falwell quit the Moral Majority in 1987, saying he was tired of being "a lightning rod" and wanted to devote his time to his ministry and Liberty University. But he remained outspoken and continued to draw criticism for his remarks.
Days after Sept. 11, 2001, Falwell essentially blamed feminists, gays, lesbians and liberal groups for bringing on the terrorist attacks. He later apologized.
In 1999, he told an evangelical conference that the Antichrist was a male Jew who was probably already alive. Falwell later apologized for the remark but not for holding the belief. A month later, his National Liberty Journal warned parents that Tinky Winky, a purple, purse-toting character on television's "Teletubbies" show, was a gay role model and morally damaging to children.
Falwell was re-energized after family values proved important in the 2004 presidential election. He formed the Faith and Values Coalition as the "21st Century resurrection of the Moral Majority," to seek anti-abortion judges, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and more conservative elected officials.
The big, blue-eyed preacher with a booming voice started his independent Baptist church with 35 members. From his living room, he began broadcasting his message of salvation and raising the donations that helped his ministry grow.
"He was one of the first to come up with ways to use television to expand his ministry," said Robert Alley, a retired University of Richmond religion professor who studied and criticized Falwell's career.
In 1987, Falwell took over the PTL (Praise the Lord) ministry in South Carolina after Jim Bakker's troubles. Falwell slid fully clothed down a theme park water slide after donors met his fund-raising goal to help rescue the rival ministry. He gave it up seven months later after learning the depth of PTL's financial problems.
Largely because of the Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals, donations to Falwell's ministry dropped from $135 million in 1986 to less than $100 million the following year. Hundreds of workers were laid off and viewers of his television show dwindled.
Liberty University was $73 million in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy, and his "Old Time Gospel Hour" was $16 million in debt.
By the mid-1990s, two local businessmen with long ties to Falwell began overseeing the finances and helped get companies to forgive debts or write them of as losses.
Falwell devoted much of his time keeping his university afloat. He dreamed that Liberty would grow to 50,000 students and be to fundamentalist Christians what Notre Dame is to Roman Catholics and Brigham Young University is to Mormons. He was an avid sports fan who arrived at Liberty basketball games to the cheers of students.
Falwell's father and his grandfather were militant atheists, he wrote in his autobiography. He said his father made a fortune off his businesses — including bootleging during Prohibition.
As a student, Falwell was a star athlete and a prankster who was barred from giving his high school valedictorian's speech after he was caught using counterfeit lunch tickets his senior year.
He ran with a gang of juvenile delinquents before becoming a born-again Christian at age 19. He turned down an offer to play professional baseball and transferred from Lynchburg College to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo.
"My heart was burning to serve Christ," he once said in an interview. "I knew nothing would ever be the same again."
Falwell is survived by his wife, Macel, and three children, Jerry, Jonathan and Jeannie.
 

DurkaDurka

Internet Lawyer
Mar 15, 2006
10,385
129
63
Toronto
I think "the devil" might be a bit of a stretch. Falwell was just another relgious nut, nothing special about him.
 

snfu73

disturber of the peace
I think "the devil" might be a bit of a stretch. Falwell was just another relgious nut, nothing special about him.
Yes....I was being rather...um....how do I put it...overdramatic there....much like he, himself was. I think there was something special in the sense that he wasn't just a regular nut...he was a nut with influence, with power, with followers...I think that is different...and scary.
 

look3467

Council Member
Dec 13, 2006
1,952
15
38
Northern California
The devil is always with us. As long as we are in the flesh, the devil is tempting us.
That is par for the course. Can we beat the par? Of course.

Jesus said: Mar 9:40 For he that is not against us is on our part.

Peace>
>>AJ:love9:
 

Walter

Hall of Fame Member
Jan 28, 2007
34,843
92
48
Jerry died today. He really put on the beef the last few years. I wonder what the cause of death was.
 

snfu73

disturber of the peace
The devil is always with us. As long as we are in the flesh, the devil is tempting us.
That is par for the course. Can we beat the par? Of course.

Jesus said: Mar 9:40 For he that is not against us is on our part.

Peace>
>>AJ:love9:
I suppose part of the thing though is that Mr. Falwell spoke as if he was morally pure...that he resisted this temptation. However, the way I see it, with his moral judgements, harsh rhetoric and hateful speech, that he had been consumed.
 

look3467

Council Member
Dec 13, 2006
1,952
15
38
Northern California
I suppose part of the thing though is that Mr. Falwell spoke as if he was morally pure...that he resisted this temptation. However, the way I see it, with his moral judgements, harsh rhetoric and hateful speech, that he had been consumed.

Bad judgments I can agree with. What one has to consider is the good he has done verses the error of judgment, but I believe it was all well intentioned.
There are allot of good folk who contributed to his ministry. Not to mention the college and what contribution to society that has.
I mean, think about if he would have been an individual who would have caused death and misery to thousands.
By comparison, he was a fairly righteous man.

All unrighteousness, is due and payable here on earth, by mental anguish, spiritual vexation and or been cut of yearly in life.
Living on earth is a privilege many take for granted, even though suffering is a key part in bringing us to the realization of the spiritual.

Peace>>>AJ:love9:
 

look3467

Council Member
Dec 13, 2006
1,952
15
38
Northern California
I wonder if the ACLU forced "god" to call him home, to pay for his sins??

Seems like he'd understand if that was the case

I dun-no!

Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

Peace>>>AJ:love9:
 

mabudon

Metal King
Mar 15, 2006
1,339
30
48
Golden Horseshoe, Ontario
Well, if you believe as Falwell did about the devil and all that crap, maybe Falwell just plain "lost" to the bad guys

I just find it interesting to use the same harsh, diametric worldview as the man espoused to attempt to properly eulogize him... and I feel confident in this case, he who showed NO RESPECT to so many, needs no phoney "respect" in death. The man was a villain, and hopefully his death will spawn no more of the same
 

look3467

Council Member
Dec 13, 2006
1,952
15
38
Northern California
Well, if you believe as Falwell did about the devil and all that crap, maybe Falwell just plain "lost" to the bad guys

I just find it interesting to use the same harsh, diametric worldview as the man espoused to attempt to properly eulogize him... and I feel confident in this case, he who showed NO RESPECT to so many, needs no phoney "respect" in death. The man was a villain, and hopefully his death will spawn no more of the same

You have every right to make that statement.

If I were to say that God used him as an instrument, however flawed the instrument might be, I believe that God had accomplished His desire in Jerry and through Jerry.

Being flawed is a natural component of being human. The whole intended purpose of religion was to offset those flaws.

So, despite any flaws we might have, we can still be used mightily by God.

Here are a few examples of flaws in character: Peter (Foot in mouth), Moses (Tapping the rock twice), The 12 brothers of Joseph (Jealousy), King David (Having someone else’s wife), Saul (Having the Christians killed).

Those were all icons of biblical history.

For more modern times, we have presidents, evangelists, dictators, judges and all sorts of people who have some purpose in the scheme of things who are instrumental in goodness being born out of the quagmire.

The best description ever given about mankind’s hopelessness was by King Solomon “Ecc 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

Meaning, that without God, mankind is utterly hopeless!

Peace>>>AJ:love9:
 

Jsan

Nominee Member
Apr 6, 2007
78
1
8
The Devil? Why? Because he stood up for his moral beliefs? Because he did not cave in to what Hollywood and the politically correct of this generation tell us we should believe? I respect him more than the majority of most people in our society.
 

Pangloss

Council Member
Mar 16, 2007
1,535
41
48
Calgary, Alberta
The way I see it, both sides have equal disdain for each other. So, who's right?

Peace>>>AJ:love9:

What stupid sophistry! What idiot ravings! Look, according to your logic: Hitler hated the Jews and the Jews hated Hitler - equal disdain, rock-for-brain, so, who's right?

My goodness, Look, but you tripped on this one.

Pangloss
 

Pangloss

Council Member
Mar 16, 2007
1,535
41
48
Calgary, Alberta
The Devil? Why? Because he stood up for his moral beliefs? Because he did not cave in to what Hollywood and the politically correct of this generation tell us we should believe? I respect him more than the majority of most people in our society.

You respect someone who brought down hatred and injustice and hurt to anyone he thought was morally his inferior?

So, do you have a poster of Pol Pot in your bedroom?

Do you scrunch up your eyes and scream "Joseph Stalin!" when you climax?

Fallwell's reach might not have equaled the previous two, but his ambition was certainly their equal, as were his post-hoc justifications of whatever tactics he used, no matter how underhanded or hurtful.

This is one case where man=monster.

Pangloss
 

Jsan

Nominee Member
Apr 6, 2007
78
1
8
You respect someone who brought down hatred and injustice and hurt to anyone he thought was morally his inferior?

So, do you have a poster of Pol Pot in your bedroom?

Do you scrunch up your eyes and scream "Joseph Stalin!" when you climax?

Fallwell's reach might not have equaled the previous two, but his ambition was certainly their equal, as were his post-hoc justifications of whatever tactics he used, no matter how underhanded or hurtful.

This is one case where man=monster.

Pangloss



Let me see if I have this straight, you're comparing peoples objection to what they consider an immoral lifestyle to dictators who murdered millions of innocent civilians? This is a typical response by the homosexual community to anyone who objects to their lifestyle? They throw out words like "hate" and "intolerant" etc. etc. and they expect us to bow to and celebrate their particular lifestyle. I'm not Politically Correct and I do not need to be told how I should believe and what morals I should be living up to.