When I saw Evangelist Jerry Falwell’s picture on my computer screen yesterday, I immediately wondered what faux pas he had committed this time.  I read the caption below the picture announcing his death, and I was immediately embarrassed by my flippant thoughts.

With much difficulty, I tried to summon up some sense of loss or some sense of sadness.  I could not.  With even more difficult, I had to fight to suppress a boiling urge to send up a loud hurray.  Another thought came to mind.  I could imagine Rev. Falwell admonishingly instructing his followers to rejoice at the death of a loved one and to weep at the arrival of a newborn.  I smiled.

In death, I suppose that it’s proper to find as many positive things to possibly say about the deceased.  Perhaps, this is why so many newsmen were praising and lauding the life and career of the creator of the Moral Majority.    One broadcaster credited him with being the first minister to pull the church into the political arena, launching a force that helped elect two presidents and install a Republican controlled Congress.  Evidently, this young newsman was not familiar with Dr. Martin Luther King’s March on Washington and its powerful impact on the civil rights movement.

My memories of the Reverend will not be so positive.

I will remember Jerry Falwell as the man who publicly criticized Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.    

I will remember Jerry Falwell as a supporter of Ferdinand Marcos, the deposed president of the Philippines.

I will remember Jerry Falwell for his staunch opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment.

I will remember Jerry Falwell for his “outing” of one of the fictional characters in the PBS Teletubbies Children’s Show.

I will remember Jerry Falwell for his distasteful and insensitive statement blaming “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians” for the September 11^th attacks.

But then I remember also that Jerry Falwell, at one point in his life, was someone’s child.  He was also someone’s husband, someone’s father, grandfather, uncle, etc.  To these people his roles as pastor, college head, and political activist, etc. all were secondary.  To them he was simply Son, Jerry, Dad, or Grandpa.  When these folk wake in the morning, they will be sad.  They will be sad because their precious loved one will only be with them in spirit.  I can identify with that sadness, and I can identify with that pain.  Now, I’m sad with them.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell definitely has a place in our society whether we agree with his theology or not.  I don’t agree with all of his theology, but I have to respect his right to believe as he believed.  However, I do agree with one of his axioms:  Love the sinner; hate the sin.  I have to love Jerry Falwell and all others like him, even though I so vehemently hate their intolerance. 

I have an uncanny feeling that Rev. Falwell has an entirely new and different perspective of things.  He may even realize now that gay men and women are basically no different from heterosexual men and women.  And if such things as karma and reincarnation really do exist, Rev. Falwell just may have to return here as a gay man.