Jerry Fallwell, Dead
Jerry Fallwell has died:
Falwell was hospitalized in “gravely serious” condition after being found unconscious Tuesday in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said earlier.
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. 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.”
He definitely was a mixed bag. The man was a blowhard who often made it appear he had a direct line to God on morality. However, he tapped into a strain of cultural concern and got millions involved in politics. His impact on recent political history is tremendous. The Republican Party wouldn’t be as conservative or as devoutly pro-life if it weren’t for Fallwell.
“Rev. Jerry Falwell Dies”
“Rest in Peace Jerry Fallwell”
UPDATE: Anytime someone controversial dies crude, heartless comments are found. But I would like to think reporters were better able to keep their glee to themselves. [via Hot Air]
Let’s laugh a little at Falwell. How can you not when he thought one of the Teletubbies was gay. [via Ed Driscoll]
UPDATE II: In 2000 Edward Gilbreath interviewed Falwell putting him in a light that’s quite different than his tv persona. [via Washington Wire]
Religious fundamentalism truly has lost one of its great thinkers.
On Science Fiction: “The decline in American pride, patriotism, and piety can be directly attributed to the extensive reading of so-called ’science fiction’ by our young people. This poisonous rot about creatures not of God’s making, societies of ‘aliens’ without a good Christian among them, and raw sex between unhuman beings with three heads and God alone knows what sort of reproductive apparatus keeps our young people from realizing the true will of God.”
from “Can Our Young People Find God in the Pages of Trashy Magazines? No, Of Course Not!”, Reader’s Digest, Aug. 1985:142-157
And let’s not forget who helped the terrorists blow up the WTC:
“I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’”
The Republican Party wouldn’t be as conservative or as devoutly pro-life if it weren’t for Fallwell.
Um, you mean that as a compliment?