The man who once said his "heart is burning to serve Christ" passed away shortly after being found unconscious in his office at his Liberty University, a school executive explained.
The articulated Baptist minister 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, news reports said.
Falwell became a symbol of the religious right in the 1980s, founded the Moral Majority group and later Liberty University. A controversial figure, Falwell has been credited by getting millions of conservative voters registered and electing Ronald Reagan as US president and giving Republicans Senate control in 1980.
RELIGIOUS RIGHT DEFENDED
"I shudder to think where the country would be right now if the religious right had not evolved," Falwell reportedly said when he stepped down as Moral Majority president in 1987.
In a first reaction to his death, the influential Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement he was deeply saddened and praying for the Falwell family. He said although he often disagreed with the reverend, they had a cordial relationship.
Falwell’s controversial statements on feminism, abortion and race issues outraged liberals.
In 2002, he reportedly sparked anger across the Muslim world by calling the Prophet Muhammad a "terrorist," but later apologized.
Shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks, he said that gays, atheists, civil-rights activists and legal abortions in America had angered God and "helped this happen." The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) claimed that he also denounced in 1999 the BBC TV children’s show The Teletubbies, because he believed one character, Tinky Winky, was homosexual.
HUSTLER MAGAZINE ROW
Earlier, in 1984, Falwell made world headlines for suing the pornographic 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 US 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," which profiles the
pornographic publications publisher. Besides promoting a conservative lifestyle and policies, his passion was in preaching the Gospel.
Falwell once said he realized that his statements raised eyebrows. "Once you reach the place where your words are respected, then what you say does have impact," Falwell reportedly said in a 2000 interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper. "Occasionally, I’m accused of saying things that I didn’t say. But usually, I’m guilty and by intent, I say what I believe. If it isn’t controversial, it isn’t worth talking about."
On Tuesday, May 15, American television evangelist Pat Robertson praised Falwell’s morals. "Jerry’s courage and strength of convictions will be sadly missed in this time of increasing moral relativism. I join with the tens of thousands of his friends to mourn the passing of this
extraordinary human being," he said in a message seen by BosNewsLife.
However his involvement in politics and promotng conservative values was only part of the evangelist’s activities, whose passion was to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He began young. After graduating from Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, Falwell in 1956 founded a church in Lynchburg that church observers claim grew into one of the biggest congregations in America. It created a network of organizations, ranging from a theological seminary to a home for unwed mothers.
‘PRAISE THE LORD’
In 1987, Falwell took over the Praise The Lord (PTL) television ministry in South Carolina after evangelist Jim Bakker’s ran into troubles. He gave it up seven months later after learning the
depth of PTL’s financial difficulties.
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, observers said. Hundreds of workers were laid off and viewers of his television show dwindled. Liberty University was reportedly $73 million in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy, and his "Old Time Gospel Hour" was $16 million in debt, according to estimates.
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. He was one of the founders of Liberty University, a Baptist college that has almost 8,000 full-time students, fields sports and debate teams and has a law school dedicated to training Christian lawyers to fight what Falwell viewed as an increasingly secular America.
Last year, American Senator John McCain reportedly used a graduation address at the university to defend the war in Iraq. Former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich was scheduled to give the May 19 commencement address, Bloomberg news agency reported. He was an avid sports fan who arrived at Liberty basketball games to the cheers of students.
FAMILY MEMBERS "ATHEISTS"
Falwell came a long way from a father and grandfather who he described as "militant atheists."
As a young man, he ran with a gang of juvenile delinquents before becoming a ‘born-again’ Christian at age 19.
He was said to have 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 was quoted as saying 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.Funeral arrangements were not immediately clear Tuesday, May 15, yet some were already speaking about his legacy, BosNewsLife monitored.
LEGACY ALREADY DISCUSSED
"Jerry Falwell’s legacy will long outlast him, but many of us will miss him as a father in the faith and a religious Dutch uncle," said Reverend Rob Schenck. president of America’s National Clergy Council and chairman of the Committee on Church and Society for the Evangelical Church Alliance, America’s oldest association of Evangelical ministers, churches and institutions.
Falwell, "defined himself" as "a bold, unapologetic, uncompromising voice for Biblical truth that pushed the envelope and challenged secular culture to its limits. He was a great inspiration to younger leaders like myself," added the 48-year-old Schenck.
Other evangelicals seemed to agree."Though he is now with the Savior he loved, Jerry Falwell’s legacy will continue through the lives of those who were so profoundly touched by his vision," added Beverly LaHaye, the founder and chairman of Concerned Women for America (CWA), the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization
CWA president Wendy Wright said in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife that Falwell made "a profound impact on America by reviving Evangelicals’ involvement in the broader culture." She said he gained "the authority to be heard on key issues of our day because of his work to help people in need and train leaders for the future." Wright stressed her group is however taking "in the words of Jesus Who promised eternal life to all who believe." (With reports from the United States).
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