The Reverend Jerry Falwell died this week. It made the national headlines, if in a begrudging manner those members of the media reluctantly recorded the details of his physical demise. This man, the chancellor and founder of a great Christian University, the Pastor and founder of a great church in Virginia, and the founder and President of the now-defunct Moral Majority, was hated amongst the liberal press for his outspoken views against the “freedoms” liberal America values: pornography, abortion, legalization of certain drugs, etc. The liberal bias in the established media and the lack of moral restraints on what Americans watch on television was also part and parcel of Falwell’s message and mission, only further endearing him to the left.
While watching one broadcast in particular this week that covered his death, I was stricken by the way this nationally televised report described Falwell: “the man who divided America.” Mention of his controversial style and message filled the television screen along with purposely unflattering images of Falwell in his less-than-greatest moments (i.e. sliding down the water-slide at Heritage U.S.A. fully clothed shortly after what many considered a hostile-takeover and the like). Yet, this was hardly what the man was about— Oh, except for the part about dividing America, that is.
It is so tempting to view such a remark as pejorative— and yet, consider the very words of Jesus:
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
—Matthew 10:34-39
Falwell’s words were always uttered in grace and respect, the very kind of attitude that 1 Peter 3:15 commands of us when we are fervently defending the faith—he spoke out against sin but did so in a Biblical manner. I am not deifying the man, don’t get me wrong, but certainly we have lost a great saint this week in Jerry Falwell; and for me, I am proud that he was a man who divided, because this is precisely what the gospel of our Lord is designed to do—to seperate the wheat from the chaff and to do so in an unfailing and untiring manner.
Congratulations Jerry,— you lost your life— but today, you have certainly found it!
Soli Deo Gloria,
Larry Carrino
