For New Generation of Evangelicals, Falwell Was Old News

Washington Post: For New Generation of Evangelicals, Falwell Was Old News

In January 2005, Time magazine published a cover story on the 25 most influential evangelicals in America. Jerry Falwell did not make the list.

Neither did Pat Robertson and Bob Jones III. These leaders live on in the public imagination because they embody a certain flamboyant style, and because culture war is more interesting than consensus.

In reality, they represent a small fraction of evangelicals, and a fraction that is dying out. Some great figures die at the prime of their movement, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Others, such as Mikhail Gorbachev, live on for years after their movement has morphed into something completely different, and it takes their deaths to make us realize how much things have changed. That is likely to be the case with Falwell.

"Evangelicals will think of him as part of the family, an elder relative who they might not agree with who died," says John Schmalzbauer, a professor of religious studies at Missouri State University who studies the recent mainstreaming of the religious right. …

I only saw Jerry Falwell in person once, and it had a significant impact on me. It was about '79 or '80 during a chapel service (compulsory attendance) at Mid-America Nazarene University, right after Moral Majority had formed. He was in tight with the president of the university and some denominational leaders. We had already been exposed to several soon to be Religious Right leaders through chapel services. I remember Falwell's appearance as a tipping point for me. I already had serious doctrinal issues with the denomination on their distinctive positions (like sanctification as a second and distinct work of grace). The alliance I saw with what would be called the "Religious Right" was beginning to grate on me. The Falwell event crystallized for me that it was time to search for a new faith community. So three years later, I ended up as a member of a church that belonged to a much less conflicted and peaceful denomination; the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. (Tongue thoroughly implanted in cheek!) So I guess, in some sense, Falwell was instrumental in me becoming a Presbyterian 24 years ago. The jury is unsure whether I should thank or blame him. *grin*