You wrote: "Falwell, a recovering fundamentalist..."

Strange...by God's Holy Grace, Jerry right this moment stands in His presence and you are still here slandering him with terms made up by men and still being twisted by men.

Check your motives and the audience of The One that is above.

Brent,

I'm sure Stan meant "recovering fundamentalist" in the best possible way.

Didn't you, Stan?

Yes, I meant that Falwell, like most of the fundamentalists of his generation, eschewed participation in larger social issues. In a 1965 sermon, he said Christians should be in their prayer closets and not on the picket line. But as time passed, he got involved in these issues, founded the Moral Majority, and even began calling himself an evangelical. So if my tongue-in-cheek reference to him being a "recovering fundamentalist" offended anyone, please accept my apology. It was only to make the point that he left a particular, restrictive understanding of Christian social involvement to embrace a wider one. On the most important doctrinal questions, fundamentalists and evangelicals are in agreement, as always.

Stan, you're much more gracious than I am when it comes Jerry Falwell, may he rest in peace.

The best I can do is to pray for his family and church and remember that we all rely on the mercy of God. There was so little grace in his public statements, going back to the 1980s, when he cozied up to and advocated for government officials in South Africa at the height of apartheid and referred to Desmond Tutu as a phony. There seemed to very little that was godly about many of his public statement--like his comments that gays and liberals were at fault for 9/11.

Good thing God is the judge and not me. The scandal of the gospel is that God loves us despite our failings.

Bob, sounds like you would still, even after Jerry Falwell's death like to give him a few pieces of your mind/heart since they really are inseparable. You told Stan that he was much more "gracious" than you are towards Jerry, "may he rest in peace". You also wrote above, "Good thing God is the judge and not me." I will agree, except there rings a sound of some judging you might like to place on Jerry, just after his death, and along with the fact I would speculate his family and relatives read this magazine.

Luke 18:10-15 (King James Version)
10Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

11The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

12I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

13And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Maybe Jerry found in himself the need to do more for your named causes, why is it you are still telling everyone how you beat Jerry to it? You are still somehow thankful you are not the Judge, when that is what you are doing to him after your own addmission Jerry came around to more social participation that you agreed to. You should simply realize, some years from now you will be different from what you are now and you shouldn't still have 'mere men' holding your past over you, and writing as if the black mark remains for you to hold onto. I think Jerry came to his condition of the sinner who wouldn't lift his eyes, by God's grace, and repented of any not helping in social causes. We don't get to make ourselves better on the backs of our other brothers, especially those who have no defense of themselves while waiting that final shout.
We don't earn our posistion of getting to follow in the Lord's footsteps, He by grace allows us, and we will alwyas continue to stumble, grow, learn, stumble...
May He GRANT us eyes to see ourselves as we are, SINNERS in His great need of care...nothing more.
By God's grace, I got to have a God fearing brother who has gone before me and now passed on and made many mistakes I can learn from without me condemning him for them.
Grace...it spreads when we walk in it.

Brent, I really think you're overreacting here.

Stan,

I appreciate your thoughts on Jerry. I have already posted on Jerry from an entry by Ted Olsen, so I won't go into it again. I only have one thing to add (actually it turns out to be more then one). Those who knew Jerry are particularly touchy when it comes to criticism, especially when it seems unwarranted. Jerry publicly repented for his comments on race and made many steps to reconcile, so I don't think we need to rehash that.
So...I don't think Brent is overreacting.
Over the last week I have felt more pain from those inside the church then those outside as it relates to blog postings. I guess I thought better of those who are fellow sojourners.
What I do know. Nobody who actually knew Jerry, or spent any time at Liberty University left comments like that. The legacy he has left is here. Whether it is black, liberal inner city pastors he gave scholarships to attend graduate programs at the school, or the many social programs he set up to provide services to those that needed it most, Jerry was a great man and educator. His one problem was that he had the same disease we all have...sin nature.

I guess I was surprised at the use of the word "recovering." Rev. Falwell in many Americans' eyes is the poster child for fundamentalism. If he went beyond it, I guess everyone did.

Brent, are you as charitable toward Bill Clinton as you are toward Falwell. After all, he admitted he sinned and apologized for his extramarital affair. Many conservative Christians refused to forgive and move on, did you?

Keith,

If Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church were Rev. Falwell's only legacy, we would not be having this conversation. In his private life, he was, by all accounts, a wonderful man. He had a public side, and in his public discourse, there was no grace and no room for anyone who disagreed with the Republican party's talking point. From apartheid to global warming, his public statements have a Christian endorsement to whatever the Republican party wanted--no matter who it hurt, or whether it was true or not. In faith, he spoke truth. In politics, he spoke truthiness and made a career out of demonizing people, from Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu to the gays and the ACLU, who were supposedly to blame for 9/11.

Here's what he said: "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.'"

He apologized but didn't change--didn't not exhibit the grace of a forgiven sinner in his public comments.
at Rev. Falwell used could lead

Regarding the 9/11 comments, it's true, he did apologize, but when he came to Kansas City and spoke at First Family Church prior to the 2004 election, he retracted his apology. He said that he meant it when he said it and he still meant it. Now, granted, this time he said it in a church behind closed doors and not on television for the whole world to see, but the point is - HE RETRACTED HIS APOLOGY!!

Few men have gone to their grave not taking word back, even when words that they have spoken have hurt a great number of people. If Fallwell is a Beacon of Christian Light the church must be at its dimmest hour to follow a man so foolish to think he is above the need for retraction and remorse. To take a page from an Audrey Tatou movie "God is Great - Fallwell is not". Embrace God, but do not mourn for too long the departing of fools - even fools who claim to follow Him. They will soon be replaced. I hear his son is taking over where he left off at Liberty as we speak.

In hindsight my use of legacy is limited to the positive. Yes, he said many things we can label as "stupid". In doing it he upset many, including me more then once. He is paying the penalty in the media and blog world now for what he said. Luckily, as I knew him to be born again he doesn't have to deal with that any more, and his sins are as far as the east is from the west.

I am writing a piece for a regional magazine of his two sons that is going to press in the next week and will be out next weekend. They have zero interest in the political stuff. ZERO!

They want to build a great school and church to the glory of God. The title of the story is "A Legacy All Their Own", because that is what they want.

I am not going to comment on hearsay. I don't know of anything he said in public that did not find its way into the media in some way, shape, or form.

I could scarcely believe Stan Guthrie's comments on Rev. Falwell, given that Christianity Today's web masthead calls itself "A magazine of evangelical conviction."

Rev. Falwell was obliged to warn the people of sin as did the prophets of the Old Testament and Jesus.

On the "hip" comment about "recovering fundamentalist," Guthrie provides opportunity for non-Christians to further denigrate fundamentalists. My parents are fundamentalists, and I thank God for their consistent testimony which brought others to Christ.

Christianity Today, originated by Billy Graham, has become a magazine for liberal Protestants and Catholics, not committed born-again Christians.

I agree with andyee2, you need to have a widescreen video player. It would improve viewing for everyone.