Been thinking about Jerry Falwell

(I'm not one to delve into anything controversial. So I'll start out with this topic. I wrote it 3 days after the news of his death had some time so sink in.)

I’ve been thinking about Jerry Falwell….
May 18, 2007

I first met Jerry Falwell when I was a 16 year old high school junior. He, Doug Oldham and the Lynchburg Baptist College Chorale flew out to California at the invitation of my pastor, Ken Connolly. He and Jerry had hatched an idea. Both of them were on TV, and Jerry wanted to have a greater presence for his Old Time Gospel Hour on the West Coast. So our church was going to “merge” with Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg. Berean Baptist Church of Orange, CA was going to be “Thomas Road West”.

The concept was that Jerry would fly out every week and preach at “TRBC West” every Thursday night. He could build a West Coast support base for his TV ministry and a fledgling first-year college and our church would become better known locally. It was a far-fetched win-win idea that never really took off. That was Jerry Falwell. He was a visionary man whose ideas were often “out there”. But most of his ideas worked. His vision often became reality.

I owe a lot to Dr. Falwell. Including college and seminary, I spent seven years learning at the schools he founded. He never taught a class, to my knowledge, but nonetheless, it was his vision and drive that made that education possible. From the meager beginnings of 154 students and 4 faculty members in 1971, Liberty University now has 10,000 students on campus and is the largest evangelical university in the world. I’m one of some 15,000 pastors who got their training there. I met my wife, Gail, while we were both students at LU. He was my pastor for those four years, so I heard him preach at least 3 times a week, including chapel at school

Later, my older two children were born in Lynchburg while I was a seminary student. And don’t tell anyone, but during those seminary years Dr. Falwell even provided me employment at an organization called The Moral Majority. He’d often stop by my office and say “hi”. But don’t label me as part of that movement. I’m of the belief that the hope of this country is not getting all the Christians to be Republicans. Rather, it’s getting all the Christians to live like Jesus and share Him with others. We need a spiritual awakening, not a political one.

Gail and I won’t forget driving Jerry around Tulsa, Oklahoma when he came to speak at a missions conference at our church. He sat beside me and asked if we would take him to Oral Roberts University so he could see it for himself. As we drove through town there was a moment or two when conversation had stopped and it was silent in the car. All of a sudden he shouted loud and moved the gear shift of my car to neutral. It about scared me to death, and he was cracking up. His mischievous sense of humor was legendary.

A few years later we were invited to his home along with the other students and wives of the seminary’s graduating class. He and Mrs. Falwell showed us around the house and spent time with each of us. That next week as I received my masters degree and shook his hand at graduation, he asked me, “How’s that new baby doing?” Sarah had been born that January. How did he know?

He possessed a photographic memory. The stories that he could read a page from a book, close it and then recite it word for word were true. That remarkable ability served him well. Even though I only saw him once or twice in the last 23 years, when we did meet he called me by name and asked how my parents were doing.

It’s rare that I mention Falwell publicly or my connection to him. He has been a polarizing figure, and because he has been so badly stereotyped and caricatured by the media, I did not want to be cast in the same stereotypes. Not everything Jerry did or said would be what I would do or say. Many times I watched him on Nightline and cringe when he said something outrageous. But never did I see him on Larry King or any of the TV news shows in an interview when he didn’t find some way to share the Gospel. That was his passion – for people to know that God loved them and Jesus died to give them eternal life.

Unlike what I’ve read in the last few days by his critics, Jerry was not a bigot. There was not an ounce of hatred in him toward any man. People confused his passion for morality to be a hatred of the immoral, but that’s not so. Falwell was able to love the sinner. His vision led to the start of numerous social outreach ministries to alcoholics, drug addicts, unwed mothers, the impoverished and AIDS victims through the church he pastored. No one who knew him would call him a hate monger.

He was a generous man. Only God and the financial office at LU know how many “scholarships” he gave to young people he met whose special needs touched his heart. I wish I had received one!

And he was a very forgiving man. I was angered more than once by his seeming inability to discipline students and staff. But I think he had a clear understanding of the grace of God that had forgiven him and only wished to reflect that same grace. There are men whose families and careers have been salvaged because Jerry Falwell believed in giving them a second chance.

From a distance it was easy to see how someone almost larger than life was easily misunderstood by so many. There were times when I misjudged him. But I couldn’t see his heart. Only God could do that. And while there was rejoicing by some who despised what he stood for so fervently when the news that he had died broke, I believe that there was greater rejoicing in heaven as who knows how many – certainly they number in the multiple thousands – who heard the Gospel from one of his sermons or because at the college he founded a pastor or missionary or Christian business leader was given a biblical foundation and world view and shared Christ with them. Who knows how many rose to meet him Tuesday morning?

He leaves behind his wife of 49 years, two sons – one an attorney – the other a pastor, and a daughter who is a surgeon, as well as a bunch of grandkids. He also leaves behind 130,000 of us LU grads – “Jerry’s Kids – who didn’t always appreciate him, didn’t always agree with him, but who were nonetheless influenced by him to strive to be “champions” for Christ.

Here’s to you, Jerry. Your fight is over.