TV evangelist Jerry Falwell dies at 73 – Yahoo! News

He did more than anyone else to turn Christianity in America from a religion of compassion to a dark force of political self-righteousness. I pray that he receives infinite mercy, despite his stalwart denial of even simple tolerance for the disenfranchised among us. And despite the fact that, throughout his long and myopic career, he never in my opinion made the slightest effort to focus the thoughts of his flock on the image of Christ.

One cannot look at the “morality” of people like Falwell without remembering The Lord’s parable of the Publican and the Pharisee:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Gospel of Luke, 18:10-14

That being said, I am sorry for the loss his family and friends undoubtedly suffer. May God comfort them. There endeth the lesson.