Say what you want about Jerry Falwell; the man was definitely influential. With Falwell's death, the continued strength of the Moral Majority may be in question. It seems unlikely that any other religious leader could get away with a fraction of the
faux pas Falwell had gracefully endured over the years. Here's a greatest hits, of sorts:
- In 1999, he told an evangelical conference that the Antichrist was a male Jew who was probably already alive.
- Shortly after the 11 September 2001 attacks, he said that gays, atheists, civil-rights activists and legal abortions in the US had angered God and "helped this happen".
- In 1999, he denounced the BBC TV children's show The Teletubbies, because he believed one character, Tinky Winky, was homosexual.
To be fair, perhaps Falwell's "passion" derived from a rather sordid past, which he readily admitted. Falwell's father and his grandfather were both atheists who made fortunes bootlegging during prohibition. He'd had his own troubles with the law, describing himself as a "
juvenile delinquent" before becoming a born again Christian at the age of 19.
Despite his frequently misguided viewpoints, the moral climate
continued to turn in Falwell's direction. John McCain, who denounced Falwell as an "agent of intolerance" during his 2000 presidential election, recently
back peddled on those comments during his recent
Meet The Press appearance last month.
So the question remains: has the fanatically moral dream died along with its most prominent dreamer? We can only hope for the best.
Evangelist Jerry Falwell dies [REUTERS]
