Get Updates in your Feed ReaderIs Jerry Falwell going to heaven or hell?
May 15, 2007
I think it’s a fair question to ask when a influential religious leader passes, especially considering his condemnation of so many people he disagreed with.
What do you think?
This is an archive of my old site. The new site, with my latest writing, can be found at ryanirelan.com.
Search
My Other Work
Better than WordPress
It’s a fair question, but can anyone really answer it fairly? I don’t think you’ll get many responses that aren’t weighted down by one’s own biases of the man.
With that said, I think he’s got a pretty hot ride ahead of him, and the AC’s broken. ;)
Is it a fair question? Or, is it just ridiculous? Who knows whether the guy is going to heaven or hell--just as no one “knows” whether the fodder of his condemnation suffered such a fate. All we know is what this guy did while on the planet. Did he make meaningful contributions? It certainly seems that love was the model and commandment of Christ, but this guy spread tons of hate. In fact, this guy may be the reason that Ryan ultimately lost (or temporarily misplaced) his faith--or the association of it any way. ;-)
I agree with both parts of Ethan’s comment. Have you any asbestos underwear Mr. Falwell? I certainly hope so.
Jeremy, it’s definitely both a ridiculous and fair question. That’s why it’s so interesting (to me, at least).
In fact, this guy may be the reason that Ryan ultimately lost (or temporarily misplaced) his faith–or the association of it any way. ;-)
The reason? Most likely not. The problem is there are too many reasons. One guy kicking the bucket isn’t going to change anything. :)
I would personally like to think that he’s going to a place all his own - one where he’s forced to watch the worst of the early Sunday morning televangelists for all of eternity.
This raises some interesting questions about the nature of judgment and forgiveness. I understand your frustration with Falwell. Many religious leaders in this country look far more like Caesar than Jesus.
The challenge is that if God is really good, there must be justice. Justice requires some type of rectitude. Otherwise, the unbalance caused by evil is never restored. So things like the Holocaust mock any notion of God’s goodness if there is not justice.
So when you think about somebody like Falwell, who may very well have deeply damaged some people through his words (and actions - read Jay Bakker’s Son of a Preacher Man), you desire some type of justice--some restoring of balance.
I don’t have a good answer for Falwell’s fate. But I think of an odd story by Richard Wurmbrand. Held in prison for 14 years in Communist Romania. Tortured regularly. His feet were beaten so bad, he was crippled for the rest of his life.
Wurmbrand dreams his torturer gives him a flower one day. After the dream, he prays to God and says, “When you call me home, I will wrap my arms around this man’s legs and refuse to enter your presence unless you welcome him as well.” Wurmbrand reveals a love that is formed in the cross.
He makes me wonder about heaven and hell altogther. He makes me wonder what justice might really look like. In his simple prayer, he seems to embody the prayer of Jesus from the cross. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” As he dies, Jesus prays for the powerful. The Roman rulers as well as the religious authorities, and he pleads mercy.
I don’t understand it, but maybe this has something to do with our oppressors be they religious, political or otherwise.
Wouldn’t this argument go back to what you personally believe warrants a ticket to heaven or hell?
I, for one, went to his school for a time and spoke with him on more than one occasion. I can honestly say that he is was an extremely warm and genuine man, who loved everyone he came in contact with.
The problem for most people is that God, in the Bible speaks in absolutes. If you believe the Bible to be God’s Word, then you would have to take the stance that God takes, right?
That being said, we are all human, and Jerry definitely had a tendency to speak a little too quickly. But all people ever heard about him were the things he said that he shouldn’t have.
Simply put: If you believe that faith in Jesus Christ and the power of God’s grace gets you to heaven, then yes, Jerry’s in heaven.
I think the emphasis on heaven and hell is a wrong approach to take in reflecting on a man’s life and on your faith to begin with.
“The problem for most people is that God, in the Bible speaks in absolutes.” This is not exclusively true and I have issue with Christians who believe this way because it reinforces fundamentalism… the fundamentalism that Jerry Falwell spread. God spoke through men in Genesis 1, the Psalms and the first chapter of John (among many others) in poetry with metaphor and meter. Jesus himself speaks in the Gospels in metaphor and parables which leads to more of a personal response to the language, not a diatribe of do’s and do not’s like in the Levitical law.
I do not want to judge Mr. Falwell, but to be honest I never liked him or his brand of Christianity that he was public on. I am uncomfortable when anyone who gains wealth through religion. I am also very uncomfortable with fundamentalism because I believe the Bible to be at times misinterpreted, misused, over-used, taken out of the context in which it was written, over-simplified, and used to debate points with out discussing the personal issues (see Abortion, gay rights).
I want to be a Christian (and I do a bad job of it most of the time) because I feel God’s presence in my life and the lives of others, not because of any argument used in the Bible. The Bible for me supports the call I feel God has on my life and not the other way around. If it were the other way around and I believed in God only based on arguments and debate, what would be the point? If you don’t feel God in your life then no argument will be good enough. I think this is where fundamentalism comes to bear. It turns faith into morality, turns it into right and wrong, turns it into debates.