1. Jerry Falwell was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia.
48 Facts About Jerry Falwell
1. 2.
Jerry Falwell founded Lynchburg Christian Academy, later renamed Liberty Christian Academy, in 1967, founded Liberty University in 1971, and co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979.
3.
Jerry Falwell's father was an entrepreneur and one-time bootlegger who was agnostic.
4.
Jerry Falwell's father shot and killed his brother Garland and died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1948 at the age of 55.
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 Cafe.
6.
Jerry Falwell met Macel Pate on his first visit to Park Avenue Baptist Church in 1949; Macel was a pianist there.
7.
Jerry Falwell graduated from Brookville High School in Lynchburg, and from then-unaccredited Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, in 1956.
8.
Jerry Falwell enrolled there to subvert Pate's relationship with her fiance, who was a student there.
9.
Jerry 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.
10.
In 1956, aged 22, Jerry Falwell founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church.
11.
Also in 1956, Jerry Falwell began The Old-Time Gospel Hour, a nationally syndicated radio and television ministry.
12.
When Jerry Falwell died, his son Jonathan inherited his father's ministry, and took over as the church's senior pastor.
13.
Jerry Falwell opened The Lynchburg Christian Academy in 1967 as a segregation academy and a ministry of Thomas Road Baptist Church.
14.
In 1971, Falwell co-founded Liberty University with Elmer L Towns.
15.
Jerry Falwell's accomplishments went beyond most clergy of his generation.
16.
Later that summer, as donations to the ministry declined in the wake of Bakker's scandal and resignation, Jerry Falwell raised $20 million to keep PTL solvent and delivered on a promise to ride the water slide at Heritage USA.
17.
Jerry Falwell advocated beliefs and practices influenced by his version of biblical teachings.
18.
Jerry Falwell felt the Vietnam War was being fought with "limited political objectives" when it should have been an all-out war against the North.
19.
On his evangelist program The Old-Time Gospel Hour in the mid-1960s, Jerry Falwell regularly featured segregationist politicians like governors Lester Maddox and George Wallace.
20.
Twenty-eight years later, during a 2005 MSNBC television appearance, Falwell said he was not troubled by reports that the nominee for Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John G Roberts, had done volunteer legal work for gay rights activists in the case Romer v Evans.
21.
Jerry Falwell told then-MSNBC host Tucker Carlson that if he were a lawyer, he too would argue for civil rights for LGBT people.
22.
When Carlson countered that conservatives "are always arguing against 'special rights' for gays", Jerry Falwell said equal access to housing and employment are basic rights, not special rights.
23.
Jerry Falwell repeatedly denounced certain teachings in public schools and secular education in general, calling them breeding grounds for atheism, secularism, and humanism, which he claimed to be in contradiction with Christian morality.
24.
Jerry Falwell advocated that the US change its public education system by implementing a school voucher system that would allow parents to send their children to either public or private schools.
25.
Jerry Falwell urged his followers to buy up gold Krugerrands and push US "reinvestment" in South Africa.
26.
In 1994, Jerry Falwell promoted and distributed the video documentary The Clinton Chronicles: An Investigation into the Alleged Criminal Activities of Bill Clinton.
27.
The film's production costs were partly met by "Citizens for Honest Government", to which Jerry Falwell paid $200,000 in 1994 and 1995.
28.
The infomercial for the 80-minute videotape included footage of Jerry Falwell interviewing a silhouetted journalist who claimed to be afraid for his life.
29.
Later, Jerry Falwell seemed to back away from personally trusting the video.
30.
Jerry Falwell's legacy regarding homosexuality is complicated by his support for LGBT civil rights and his attempts to reconcile with the LGBT community in later years.
31.
Jerry Falwell added, "role-modeling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children".
32.
Jerry Falwell said the attacks were "probably deserved", a statement Christopher Hitchens called treasonous.
33.
Jerry Falwell began to aim his strongest criticism at "secular humanists", pagans, and liberals rather than engaging in the racist, antisemitic, and anti-Catholic rhetoric common among Southern fundamentalist preachers but increasingly condemned as hate speech by the consensus of American society.
34.
Jerry Falwell filed a $10 million lawsuit against Penthouse for publishing an article based on interviews he gave to freelance reporters, after failing to convince a federal court to enjoin the article's publication.
35.
Jerry Falwell sued for $45 million, alleging invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
36.
Jerry Falwell would visit me in California and we would debate together on college campuses.
37.
When Sloan insisted he had a tape, Jerry Falwell promised $5,000 if he could produce it.
38.
Sloan did, Jerry Falwell refused to pay, and Sloan successfully sued.
39.
Jerry Falwell appealed the decision, with his attorney charging that the Jewish judge in the case was prejudiced.
40.
Jerry Falwell lost again and was made to pay an additional $2,875 in sanctions and court fees.
41.
In 1999, Jerry Falwell said the Antichrist would probably arrive within a decade and "of course he'll be Jewish".
42.
In early 2005, Jerry Falwell was hospitalized for two weeks with a viral infection, discharged, and re-hospitalized on May 30,2005, in respiratory arrest.
43.
Jerry Falwell was released from the hospital and returned to work.
44.
Jerry Falwell's condition was initially reported as "gravely serious"; CPR was administered unsuccessfully.
45.
Jerry Falwell's funeral took place on May 22,2007, at Thomas Road Baptist Church after he had lain in repose both at the church and at Liberty University.
46.
Jerry Falwell is interred at a spot on the Liberty University campus near the Carter Glass Mansion and Falwell's office.
47.
Jerry Falwell's last televised sermon was his May 13,2007, message on Mother's Day.
48.
At one point, prank callers, especially home activists, were an estimated 25 percent of Jerry Falwell's total calls until the ministry disconnected the toll-free number in 1986.