I don’t often post small news items except in A La Carte, but this one seems especially significant. Jerry Falwell died today shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University. He was 73. It would take some time (and greater expertise than I can offer) to analyze Falwell’s legacy, though surely we will hear a lot about it in the coming days. I trust (and hope) others will do this work of analysis and will do it fairly.
Falwell was was often the target of the wrath of the media and of those who despise Christianity. It is unfortunate that he is not better known for contributions he made such as founding the Elam Home for alcohol and drug dependent men, and the Liberty Godparent Home. You can read a short biography at Wikipedia or at his site (assume that one is favorably biased and the other unfavorably) and you can read articles about this death in all the major news outlets. As we might expect, Dr. Mohler has written a good article which you can read here.
My sincere condolences go out to Falwell’s family and to the Liberty University family which must be reeling from this unexpected news.