Was Jerry Falwel a person to be respected or was he a bigot?

Answer 1

While we aren't supposed to judge, many of his statements were very dividing. I often think many things he said served his own purpose, not the greater good.

Answer 2

Without having know him personally, I would say there may well have been elements of both. I'm sure he was sincerely seeking to serve God, and I'm sure that like the rest of us he had a number of preconceived notions that he felt strongly about, and which he would have tended to "read into" the Christian faith (like right-wing politics).
By the way, if a person has very strong convictions about certain matters, does that make him a bigot?
For instance, if I don't believe homosexuality is God's plan for people, or if I don't believe in gay marriage, does that make me a bigot?
If I believe that Jesus is the way the truth and the life - and that He is the only way to God the Father, does that make me a bigot? If so, then just about anybody who has any religious or moral conviction is a bigot.

Answer 3

He was definitely not a bigot. He put his money where his mouth was.
Not only did he preach that abortion was a sin-he paid for all housing and medical care for pregnant women who agreed not to abort. He would even take the baby if the woman did not want it.
Not only did he preach that homosexuality was a sin, he provided a safe place and medical therapy for those who wanted to leave the homosexual lifestyle.
Not only did he preach that alcoholism and drug addiction was a sin, he provided treatment and housing for those who wanted to be free from their additions.
I do not know of anyone who has done more for the outcast of society than Jerry Falwell. He never turned anyone away.
I say he was a person we should respect.

Answer 4

Yes, for some of the people he truly helped he is to be respected. And yes, he was a bigot. We all have contradictions in what we say and what we do.However, if my only way of knowing God was through what Jerry preached I'd have too many unanswered questions about God's mercy and love that I'd have to become an atheist rather than believe in the God that Jerry taught. This is not the God of Love.

Answer 5

Dr.Jerry Falwel was a man of God to be respected.It doesn't matter if you agree with him or not.He was doing Gods work and stood up for what he believed.I want say he never made a mistake because we all do.
I miss him as one of our Christian Leaders.He has done a wonderful job in this world.As that songs goes that they song at his funeral(Thank You For Giving to The Lord)I thank him for all the people that will be in Heaven bcause of his belief and his work..

Answer 6

He was just an idiot!

Faith-Based Fraud
Jerry Falwell's foul rantings prove you can get away with anything if you have "Reverend" in front of your name.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2007, at 12:46 PM ET
The Rev. Jerry Falwell
"The discovery of the carcass of Jerry Falwell on the floor of an obscure office in Virginia has almost zero significance, except perhaps for two categories of the species labeled "credulous idiot." The first such category consists of those who expected Falwell (and themselves) to be bodily raptured out of the biosphere and assumed into the heavens, leaving pilotless planes and driverless trucks and taxis to crash with their innocent victims as collateral damage. This group is so stupid and uncultured that it may perhaps be forgiven. It is so far "left behind" that almost its only pleasure is to gloat at the idea of others being abandoned in the same condition.

The second such category is of slightly more importance, because it consists of the editors, producers, publicists, and a host of other media riffraff who allowed Falwell to prove, almost every week, that there is no vileness that cannot be freely uttered by a man whose name is prefaced with the word Reverend. Try this: Call a TV station and tell them that you know the Antichrist is already on earth and is an adult Jewish male. See how far you get. Then try the same thing and add that you are the Rev. Jim-Bob Vermin. "Why, Reverend, come right on the show!" What a fool Don Imus was. If he had paid the paltry few bucks to make himself a certified clergyman, he could be jeering and sneering to the present hour.

Falwell went much further than his mad 1999 assertion about the Jewish Antichrist. In the time immediately following the assault by religious fascism on American civil society in September 2001, he used his regular indulgence on the airwaves to commit treason. Entirely exculpating the suicide-murderers, he asserted that their acts were a divine punishment of the United States. Again, I ask you to imagine how such a person would be treated if he were not supposedly a man of faith.


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Like many fanatical preachers, Falwell was especially disgusting in exuding an almost sexless personality while railing from dawn to dusk about the sex lives of others. His obsession with homosexuality was on a par with his lip-smacking evocations of hellfire. From his wobbly base of opportunist fund raising and degree-mill money-spinning in Lynchburg, Va., he set out to puddle his sausage-sized fingers into the intimate arrangements of people who had done no harm. Men of this type, if they cannot persuade enough foolish people to part with their savings, usually end up raving on the street and waving placards about the coming day of judgment. But Falwell, improving on the other Chaucerian frauds from Oral Roberts to Jim Bakker to Ted Haggard, not only had a TV show of his own but was also regularly invited onto mainstream ones.

The evil that he did will live after him. This is not just because of the wickedness that he actually preached, but because of the hole that he made in the "wall of separation" that ought to divide religion from politics. In his dingy racist past, Falwell attacked those churchmen who mixed the two worlds of faith and politics and called for civil rights. Then he realized that two could play at this game and learned to play it himself. Then he won the Republican Party over to the idea of religious voters and faith-based fund raising. And now, by example at least, he has inspired emulation in many Democrats and liberals who would like to borrow the formula. His place on the cable shows will be amply filled by Al Sharpton: another person who can get away with anything under the rubric of Reverend. It's a shame that there is no hell for Falwell to go to, and it's extraordinary that not even such a scandalous career is enough to shake our dumb addiction to the "faith-based."

Answer 7

A person to be respected who helped many unwed women find shelter and financial support.

Answer 8

a bigot for sure

Answer 9

Well he certainly had different views than the average bear.

Answer 10

bigot.