The Left hated Jerry Falwell. They also created him, at least the political animal that Falwell became. Abortion, gay rights ordnances, and the removal of prayer and the Bible from schools compelled Falwell, an atheist's son, to launch the Moral Majority in 1979. The organization mobilized evangelical Christians, who have been a force in politics ever since. But Falwell was much more than a political animal. He was, first and foremost, a preacher. Of all the ministers in politics--Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Pat Robertson, Barry Lynn--Falwell is the only one I know who presided every Sunday over an actual church, the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was am early televangelist, speading the word of God through radio and television. Unlike many of his peers in that field, scandals of finance or sex never tainted him. He was an educator, who launched Liberty University in 1971. Falwell's enemies remember him for peddling the far-fetched Clinton Chronicles videotape and foolishly remarking that gays and feminists brought 9/11 upon America. To his discredit he did those things. But he also conducted himself more intelligently and honorably as a public figure than did most of his peers or antagonists. Once one of his own got into the White House, I thought that Falwell played lapdog too well. You've got to dance with the horse that brung ya, I guess. Falwell did more to politically energize fellow evangelicals than perhaps any other person. Considering the dynamics of American politics since the late 1970s, that is a major achievement. That legacy of ushering parishioners into the ballot box outlives him. Jerry Falwell, rest in peace.

Telling Barney Frank on T.V. that it didn't matter what he said because he was nothing but a big pervert, was classic. I say the same about ReThugLican PRinCe.

"Conducted himself honorably?" This is the same buffoon who locked himself in a tower and said God would kill him if his followers didn't give him millions of dollars! This guy was a con artist, nothing more.

Wasn't that Oral Roberts?

Yeah, Ancient Mariner is right. Oral Roberts did that, not Falwell. This is the type of confusion that led me to write that Falwell conducted himself honorably. I think for a lot of secular people, Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Oral Roberts, and other televangelists morph into the same person. They're not. Let's not paint with a broad brush.