I'm somewhat loathe to comment on Pastor Falwell's death in this forum and at this time, especially because I'm suffering from a wretched head cold and don't feel much like writing or talking at present. But I feel compelled to write something. I apologize for the fact it's bound to be substandard, and also bound to irritate everyone.
I hope you will forgive me if I start with something of a disclaimer lest I be misunderstood. It would take a book length treatment to list and explain all the things that I disagreed with Jerry Falwell over. Perhaps the most central of these issues was over the
spirituality of the church. Falwell believed that the church of Jesus Christ had a duty to entangle itself in partisan political issues, and spent much of his life preaching a conservative social gospel and taking high profile stands as a gospel minister in the political arena. I have explained in the past why I do not believe this is what Christ commanded his ministers to do and mistakes the nature of the kingdom (for a more full treatment of this subject, please see:
Preachers and Politics - the appendix should suffice as an executive summary if you don't have time to read the whole.) Caesar has his sphere and the minister has his, and just as I would object to Caesar meddling in the affairs of the church, so to he has a right to object to my meddling in the matters of the state. While we are both evangelicals committed to the fundamentals, we also differed on several theological issues, and to tell the truth I have never thought that the "mega-church" was the right approach to pastoral ministry which should be personal and relational (Falwell's church, Thomas Road, has 24,000 members - how can a shepherd know his sheep in a church that size?) That said, while our differences were not minor, we theologically agreed on more things than we differed, particularly in regards to Person and Saving Work of Jesus Christ, the nature and role of Scripture, and the vital importance of the Gospel.
To simply dismiss Falwell as a "televangelist" does him a great disservice. Even his enemies were forced to admit that he was a man of personal integrity, that he was always kind and patient in his demeanor towards others (Larry King who agreed with him about nearly nothing noted "you couldn't help liking him because he was so friendly") and that he steered clear of the personal scandals that have characterized the ministries of shameless hucksters like Swaggart and Bakker. When he was raising money, it was almost always for causes rather than himself, and indeed his salary was consistently lower than that of other mega-church pastors and miles under the highly questionable incomes of televangelists like Benny Hinn. People hated him for his political stands and the movements he got involved in, but found little fodder for criticism in his personal life. Additionally, many of the things that he was rightly criticized for, such as his initial support of segregation (and here he is joined by a host of Southern Democrats such as Senator Byrd) are things he later repudiated. A black friend of mine who worked for his university once told me that whatever Falwell was, in his personal experience he was no racist (and yes, he did run into a few examples of that species in Lynchburg).
Regardless of what you thought of his politics, in his non-political preaching and writing, Falwell's love for Christ and desire to make him known shone through. When he preached the gospel, he did so without hesitation or apology in a way that showed that he agreed with Paul's declaration:
"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes." Literally millions have testified that Falwell was the means that God used to bring them to faith in Christ, and If I could wish for anything to have been changed about his life, it is that he might have stuck to preaching and eschewed politics. Had he done so, he might have been remembered in a manner more reminiscent of Billy Graham. As it was, in the public eye, his political activism so overshadowed his preaching that long after he is gone he will be associated with the Moral Majority rather than the preaching of the word, which to my mind at least is a shame.
I know few here will agree with me about him, but regardless of his gaffes, his misplaced emphasis, his sins (and who can confess he has none of those?), and how he is remembered here and elsewhere, Falwell always spoke of himself humbly as a "sinner saved by grace alone" and consequently I have no doubt of his salvation, because while he called men to personal righteousness, he never trusted in his own for salvation, but depended solely upon the atoning blood of Christ and his meritorious work. We may have disagreed, but I can still eulogize him simply with these words:
"Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His saints."
