Friends, foes admired his dauntless spirit

Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 16, 2007 at midnight

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His friends admired his guts, and, more often than one might expect, so did his critics.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell was remembered in Colorado Tuesday as the preacher who blazed a path from the quiet pew to the public square.

"He taught me you have to make a stand sometimes. You can't always be in the background," said Pastor George Morrison, who leads the mega-church Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada.

One year ago, Morrison was in Falwell's Lynchburg, Va., office to discuss a cause dear to their hearts - the founding of Christians United for Israel.

"You picked up immediately that this was a man of vision," Morrison said. "He really believed this nation has its pillars in Judeo-Christian ethics and we can't get away from them."

Falwell was unique among 20th century preachers. If Oral Roberts led Christians to seek healing, and Billy Graham inspired them to find faith, it was Jerry Falwell who told Christians to stand up and be citizens.

Outraged by the legalization of abortion, in 1979 Falwell founded the Moral Majority.

But first, Falwell had to change his view of what a Christian should be, said Tom Minnery, director of public policy at Focus on the Family, who interviewed Falwell a number of times.

In his early years, "he was a true fundamentalist," Minnery said. "He believed in a Christian's separation from society and from government; he believed a Christian's one duty was to get as many people to heaven as possible."

But after Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion, Falwell underwent "a 180 degree change," Minnery said.

"He made it respectable for pastors to speak against abortion from the pulpit. It was a significant and bold step for him and caused a lot of controversy within his Baptist denomination."

Controversies grew, and so did Falwell's influence. Watching closely was a young organization, Focus on the Family. Focus founder James Dobson said Tuesday in a statement, "It was my honor to share the front lines with him in the battle for righteousness in our nation."

In the 1970s, Minnery said, "it was unheard of - local churches organizing, getting involved in issues. Now its a staple of church life. Until then, nobody saw you had to get to local people, you couldn't simply go to Washington and pound your fist on the table and expect anybody to hear you."

Many people heard Falwell, but not everyone appreciated what he had to say.

As he waded into a morass of controversies, critics waded right in after him. He decried not just abortion but embryonic stem cell research; not just homosexuality but all extramarital sex. He said that the country was made vulnerable to the terror attacks of Sept. 11 because it had abandoned its Judeo-Christian principles.

A defender of Israel, he offended Jews by saying the only way to heaven was through Christ.

Yet some forgave him.

"I could take issue with the man without condemning him completely," said Rabbi Joel Schwartzman, president of the Rocky Mountain Rabbinical Council. "He wasn't correct in everything he did or said but this man practiced leadership and created great faith in many people."

Schwartzman said he regarded Falwell's more offensive statements about Judaism as a kind of "parochialism" that made him unable to see the bigger picture.

"But maybe he was on the road to greater enlightenment," Schwartzman said. He saw goodwill in Falwell's support of Jewish causes, "and right now I'll take my friends where I find them - which is few and far between."

His legacy is seen as "mixed" by Adam Crowley, president of the Colorado chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national organization for gays in the party.

"We're all taxpaying, free-market-loving Americans. There's room (for all of us) if we can get past this idea of legislating morality. The problem with Falwell is he definitely wanted to have government involved in people's lives, in their moral decisions. I don't think that's what government should be doing."

Even Christians who found Falwell too loud, perhaps, for their tastes appreciate his contribution to the culture.

"You couldn't avoid him obviously," said Doug Groothuis, a professor at Denver Seminary. "He could be indiscreet. But his biggest contribution was bringing otherwise uninvolved Christians into the political world, saying, 'Wake up, America.' "

The legacy of the Rev. Jerry Falwell

Jerry Falwell went from being a Baptist preacher in his hometown of Lynchburg, Va., to carving out a powerful role in national electoral politics. He was at home in both the millennial world of fundamentalist Christianity and the earthly blood sport of American politics.

• He and his allies launched the Moral Majority, urging Christians to fight back. His foes? Liberals, "abortionists," the American Civil Liberties Union, feminists, gay-rights activists and the faithless.

• When Christian activists helped Ronald Reagan win the 1980 presidential race, Falwell credited the Moral Majority and became the mouthpiece for newly empowered Christians.

• Listed by U.S. News & World Report as one of 25 most influential Americans in 1983.

• The evangelist took over Jim Bakker's scandal-rocked PTL ministry in the mid-1980s for several months.

• Falwell disbanded the Moral Majority in the late 1980s, saying he wanted to concentrate on the Christian school he founded, Liberty University.

He started Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971 with 154 students and four full-time faculty members. The school later was renamed Liberty University, growing to a 3,250-acre campus, below left.

Falwell 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.

• Despite his waning political star, Falwell's greatest impact may lie ahead. With 7,700 students, his Liberty University reflects the minister's classic fundamentalist beliefs. The school annually turns out young, Christian adults who go on to become active in politics. This year's graduation will be held as scheduled, on Saturday.

• Falwell sued Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine for publishing a parody of the religious leader, left. He lost the $45 million lawsuit.

• The televangelist in 1999 warned parents that Tinky Winky, the purple, purse-toting character on television's Teletubbies show, was a gay role model and morally damaging to children.

• After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Falwell said that abortionists, feminists, gays, pagans, the ACLU and others who "have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.' " He later apologized.

Rocky wire reports

torkelsonj@rockymountainnews.com

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