Jerry Falwell
Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr.[a] (August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007)[3] was an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist.[4] He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded Lynchburg Christian Academy (Liberty Christian Academy) in 1967, founded Liberty University in 1971, and co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979.
This article is about Jerry Falwell Sr. For his son, see Jerry Falwell Jr.
Jerry Falwell
May 15, 2007 (aged 73)
- Pastor
- televangelist
- political activist
Founding the Moral Majority
Chancellor of Liberty University (1971–2007)
Christianity (Baptist)
1956
Early life and education[edit]
Falwell and his twin brother Gene were born in the Fairview Heights area of Lynchburg, Virginia, on August 11, 1933, the sons of Helen Virginia (née Beasley) and Carey Hezekiah Falwell.[5][6][7] His father was an entrepreneur and one-time bootlegger who was agnostic.[5] His father shot and killed his own brother Garland and died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1948 at the age of 55.[8] His paternal grandfather was a staunch atheist.[5] Jerry Falwell was a member of a group in Fairview Heights known to the police as "the Wall Gang" because they sat on a low concrete wall at the Pickeral Café.[9] Falwell met Macel Pate on his first visit to Park Avenue Baptist Church in 1949; Macel was a pianist there.[8] They married on April 12, 1958.[10] The couple had sons Jerry Jr. (a lawyer, and former chancellor of Liberty University) and Jonathan (senior pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church) and a daughter Jeannie (a surgeon).
Falwell and his wife had a close relationship, and she supported him throughout his career. The Falwells often appeared together in public, and they did not shy away from showing physical affection. Reflecting on his marriage, Falwell jokingly commented, "Macel and I have never considered divorce. Murder maybe, but never divorce." Macel appreciated her husband's non-combative, affable nature, writing in her book that he "hated confrontation and didn't want strife in our home ... he did everything in his power to make me happy." The Falwells were married nearly fifty years until his death.[11]
He graduated from Brookville High School in Lynchburg, and from then-unaccredited[12][13] Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri in 1956. He enrolled there to subvert Pate's relationship with her fiancé who was a student there.[8] Falwell was later awarded three honorary doctorates: Doctor of Divinity from Tennessee Temple Theological Seminary, Doctor of Letters from California Graduate School of Theology, and Doctor of Laws from Central University in Seoul, South Korea.[14]
Apocalyptic beliefs[edit]
On July 31, 2006, CNN's Paula Zahn Now program featured a segment on "whether the crisis in the Middle East is actually a prelude to the end of the world". In an interview Falwell claimed, "I believe in the pre-millennial, pre-tribulational coming of Christ for all of his church, and to summarize that, your first poll, do you believe Jesus' coming the second time will be in the future, I would vote yes with the 59 percent and with Billy Graham and most evangelicals."[92]
Based on that and other statements, Falwell has been identified as a dispensationalist.[93]
In 1999, Falwell declared the Antichrist would probably arrive within a decade and "of course he'll be Jewish".[94] After accusations of anti-Semitism Falwell apologized and explained he was simply expressing the theological tenet that the Antichrist and Christ share many attributes.[95]
Legacy[edit]
Views on Falwell's legacy are mixed. Supporters praise his advancement of his socially conservative message. They also tout his evangelist ministries, and his stress on church planting and growth. Conversely, many of his detractors have accused him of hate speech and identified him as an "agent of intolerance".[41]
The antitheistic social commentator Christopher Hitchens described his work as "Chaucerian fraud" and a "faith-based fraud." Hitchens took special umbrage with Falwell's alignment with "the most thuggish and demented Israeli settlers",[104] and his declaration that 9/11 represented God's judgment on America's sinful behaviour; deeming it "extraordinary that not even such a scandalous career is enough to shake our dumb addiction to the 'faith-based.'"[104] Hitchens also mentioned that, despite his support for Israel, Falwell "kept saying to his own crowd, yes, you have got to like the Jews, because they can make more money in 10 minutes than you can make in a lifetime".[104] Appearing on CNN a day after Falwell's death, Hitchens said, "The empty life of this ugly little charlatan proves only one thing: that you can get away with the most extraordinary offenses to morality and to truth in this country if you will just get yourself called 'reverend'."[105]
At one point, prank callers, especially home activists, were an estimated 25 percent of Falwell's total calls until the ministry disconnected the toll-free number in 1986.[106] In the mid-1980s Edward Johnson, programmed his Atari home computer to make thousands of repeat phone calls to Falwell's 1-800 phone number, since Johnson claimed Falwell had swindled large amounts of money from his followers, including Johnson's mother. Southern Bell forced Johnson to stop after he had run up Falwell's telephone bill by an estimated $500,000.[107]
Falwell's son, Jerry Falwell Jr., is a lawyer; he became the president of Liberty University after his father's death, until being put on indefinite leave on August 7, 2020, after posting an inappropriate photo with a young woman on social media. He resigned on August 24 amid further questions about his and his wife's sexual and financial involvement with an associate.[108][109][110][111][112][113] Falwell Jr. said later that the real reason his father began attending church as a teenager was because he had fallen in love with Macel (who played piano there and was engaged at the time). Later Jerry Falwell Sr. used deception to convince her to break off the engagement.[114]
Filmmaker Terrence Malick had intended since the 1980s to write and direct a film about the lives of Jerry Falwell and pianist-singer Jerry Lee Lewis but the movie was not made.[115][116]