For those who haven’t heard the news, and I’m sure within a short period of time everybody who reads this will have heard, Jerry Falwell died today at 73. With such a controversial public figure, I can’t even begin to imagine the great variety of reflections there will be with his passing. Someone from my church (Pasadena Mennonite Church), though, has shared an impressive reflection on our church listserve. John Harris wrote this wonderful piece in memory of Falwell, capturing the inner conflict of many progressive Christians: a shared faith with the religious right, but much shared ideology with the secular left. It is with his permission that I share it here.

Today a great Christian and political leader has passed away. Jerry Falwell has died at age 73, still working as a pastor. He died in his office. He was the pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church and chancellor of Liberty University.

I grew up watching Jerry on television with my family. A vinyl record was among our collection of sermons and gospel music. He has been ever-present in my life as both a Christian and a human rights worker. Although young at the time, my first impressions of him were that he was the only person on television to take the time to have an interpreter for the blind during the broadcasts of his church services. I remember him as dignified and sure that Jesus was the Christ that loved us and wanted to come into our hearts.

He, more than any other person, brought the issue of abortion to the political table of the American Christian community. His passion for this and other issues remain deep within my soul. He showed us that organizing Christians could have a huge impact on our political landscape.

The church he pastored, Thomas Road Baptist, has the highest amount of contributions to crisis pregnancy centers than any other church in America. Their actions matched their words.

In my travels, I have met a number of people from Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist. They were of the highest caliber of Christians I know. They were friendly, caring, genuine Christian people. Their lives had been transformed by the work of God in their lives. I would trust them with my life and the lives of the children in my neighborhood.

The politics of Jerry Falwell were almost always opposite of mine. I have struggled throughout my adult life to counteract the influence that The Moral Majority and similar conservative groups have had on the Christian church, the nation, and the world. My activities related to the free trade movement, militarism and the Iraq wars, and especially apartheid in South Africa have all collided with Jerry and his influence on us. Especially while living in South Africa during the mid 1990s, I saw the negative effects of his refusal to support the movement of the African National Congress (ANC) for a democratic South Africa, and his support instead for the Inkatha Freedom Party, a black African group spearheaded by a demagogue, funded by the right-winged and racist Conservative Party, and responsible for the division of the black voice against apartheid, all because of Cold War politics of the left and right. In doing this, he refused to support US limited sanctions against South Africa. President Ronald Reagan’s veto of a sanctions bill was the only case in which the US Congress overrode his veto. If Jerry and Ronald had had it their way, the US outcry against apartheid in South Africa would have been extremely limited.

It is a surprise to some of my friends, then, while discussing religion and politics, that my comments on Falwell’s religion have always been positive. I have always considered the political worldview of, say, a twentysomething secular anarchist to be closer to my understanding of my own Christian worldview than that of Jerry’s. When put to the question of who I identify with more, the secular anarchist or Jerry Falwell, I have always responded that I identify more with Jerry because we are both Christians who have submitted ourselves to the radical love and grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior.

Goodbye, Jerry. You have taught us well. You have taught us that organizing the Christian church can elect President. You remind us that the issue of abortion is close to the heart of God. You show us that a living and loving God wants to bless us with radical grace and forgiveness. While we will miss you, you are now blessed by being in the presence of God for all eternity.

Update (05/15/07): I’d also like to point to a nice reflection done by Joel Willitts over on Euangelion, who attended Liberty as an undergrad, but, as he says, “share[s] neither the fundamentalism nor the right-wing republicanism of Falwell and the University.”