By Thomas Morey

Just in case you need to know a little bit more about
Rev. Jerry Falwell, no matter whether you think you
know enough about him or not, I'm going to a
courageously attempt to inform, or reinform, any
active members here in the public forum who may be
interested in what I have to say about him. I believe
that many here really have a wide variety of views
about him that run the range of the extremes: "ememy
numero uno" to an hero of the faith. And, you know
what? I think he would have completely understood why
this still to be so, especially among those Christians
and other peoples of faith who are also SSA'd folks,
as well as their friends and loved ones.

Yes, it was Rev. Falwell who was the forerunner and
most influential propagator of the revival of public
and political traditionalism (i.e, defender and
protector against comtemporary social engineering
trends from excessive autonomic cultural ethos
philosophies such as found in much of the feminist
movement, the sexual revolution, and gay liberation)
back in the 80's by raising the Moral Majority banner.
Of course, his influence was cardinal in the
development of many of the conservative think tanks,
social and political movements of today, especially
such influential organizations as Focus on the Family,
the American Family Association, the Christian
Coalition, and the American Association for Civil Law
and Justice.

Initially, despite his heroic status, faithful and
bold posturing, and possessing such a good acumen for
what are certainly divergent expressions far from
being socially moral, decent and constructive in human
nature, his rhetoric was unfortunately quite overly
and overtly unfair and discriminatory in particular
regarding homosexuals, at least for most of his years
as a prominent voice of cultural sanity. In other
words, he placed entirely too much emphasis on this
particular subcultural group over other wayward
subcultural expressions of American life, to the point
of scapegoating them for what ails us all who live the
American way of life.

A good example of this is his original and
oversimplistic views back in the 80's and 90's of the
cause for the HIV/AIDS crisis, his unwillingness to
even consider Exodus affiliates as part of
evangelicalism, let alone considering them to be
unhelpful and even dangerous and in many respects for
Christian youth, and lastly his unfortunate comments
in late 2001 regarding the ultimate influential causes
for the 9/11 tragedy. There are others, but for the
sake of simplicity, let me limit my examples to these
three. Let me try to just share with you what I
believe was the Holy Spirit's work in Rev. Falwell's
life in bringing him to repentance and faith regarding
this matter.

It was this last occurence that created such a
negative backlash and media blitz on Christians, and
on evangelicals in particular, that even many of his
own evangelical Christian friends, including President
G "W" Bush, then took him to task and pressured (i.e.,
rebuked and instructed) him to take back his vitrolic
remarks. It was shortly after this event that he
indeed did begin to show significant public acts of
remorse (no tears mind you, not his style, for sure!),
which could only come from of a repentant heart. Some
of these strikingly compassionate and mind-boggling
acts of repentance were the following:

1) recanting from his former errant speech on the
ultimate influential causes of the 9/11 tragedy, and
then rightly placing it on much more influential
causes (which clearly come from a most humble Holy
Spirit-filled perspective) such as himself, his Thomas
Road Baptist church, and the entire sleeping church in
western culture for a lack of evangelical zealotry and
social activism coming from the compassionate heart of
our Savior and Lord, Jesus. (Of course, all rational
folks, including himself, not intellectually bent in
their hostility against Americanism and the west,
recognized the efficient cause of the 9/11 tragedy
being satanic attack via Islamist fascism.)

Second, he actually contacted Mel White (who used to
be a very sought after political speech writer back in
the 70's, 80's and early 90's by various famous
conservative and evangelical speakers, mostly
itinerant preachers, including Jerry himself) who left
the evangelical church, his wife and family due to his
unresolved isues with SSAs in the early 90's, and
joined ranks with gay evangelicals, such as Rev. Troy
Perry and his Metropolitan Community Church (MCC). To
much the consternation of many at his church and
university, Jerry Falwell decided it was time to have
a joint conference, centered on dialogue and
reconciliation, if at all possible, at his home church
in Lynchburg, VA, with him, his own Thomas Road
Baptist and Liberty University leaders, and many
avowedly gay and lesbian church leaders shortly after
his recantation. Can you imagine what these leaders
who were invited, from both sides of the aisle, as it
were, were thinking?

The prevailing results from this conference appear to
me to have been much more positive for Rev. Falwell
and his church and academic institution, than for Mel
and his fellow gay and lesbian church leaders. Why? It
was apparent that Jerry and his contingency had lower,
and much more realistic, expectations on what would
result from such a conference: the Lynchburg, VA
Baptists expected to learn alot more about what SSAs
entailed, and about the very human stories shared
concerning the intrapersonal and interpersonal trials
that SSAd people commonly encounter. And that they
most certainly did learn, without compromising their
faith. They began to understand much more about SSAs
being just another sinful expression of human
brokeness and/or struggle, despite the gay and lesbian
church leaders denial of its commonly sinful nature.
This led Jerry and many other Baptist leaders to then
possess a much more greater respect for their
counterparts, and with that understanding gain that
much more confidence concerning how Jesus, and the
work of the Holy Spirit, was truly the answer to this
particular human condition.

As for Mel and other gay and lesbian church leaders,
they appeared more to be hoping for some kind of move
from Rev. Falwell and the Baptists towards acceptance
of their sexual identity as being constitutional, or
at least immutable, in nature. It was evident to them
that this was not a successful goal met on their part.
However, I think that Mel and many other G&L church
leaders believed that the conference was still a
constructive one, even though they appeared
disillusioned, and some even more angry, since it
appeared that they were aware that they did gain some
respect from their opposition, as well as they towards
them.

I'm just wondering whether it was due to this very
unconventional and controversial conference held at
Thomas Road Baptist, that Rev. Jerry Falwell then
accepted an invitation to be the main speaker at the
2005 Exodus International conference. Whether it was
or not, this event was just absolutely mind-boggling
to me, given what most Exodus leaders put up with the
likes of Rev. Falwell back in the 80's. (Btw, did
anyone here attend the 2005 annual conference? And, if
so, what did they think of Rev. Falwell's message, his
presence, and feedback he was getting from most others
attending?)

You see, when I was an Exodus affiliate leader in
Philadelphia back in the 80's, I used to warn
Christians of all stripes and sizes not to defend the
church, especially leaders like Rev. Falwell, when
speaking with publically avowed gays and lesbians. I
really did not like him at all, and I believe it was
for very solid reasons. And I still do believe that! I
learned from what appeared to me to be a dramatic
change of spirit in Rev. Falwell just how mighty the
God the Holy Spirit is, whether due to the strength of
His tenderness or His sovereignty over circumstances
of life, in conquering the hearts and minds of His
sons and daughters, bringing love and reconciliation
where before there appeared to be absolutely no hope,
at least in the most basic human understanding of what
that means.

So, in closing, I'm asking those here who do see Rev.
Falwell as strictly an hero of the faith, to
understand where us other folks have come from, or are
coming from. Equally, I'm challenging those here who
have been personally hurt and offended by his
condemnatory messages and posture in the past, to
forgive, and to rejoice with me that the Lord saw fit
for Rev. Falwell to be, "...found where once he was
lost, by His amazing grace", years before the Lord
called him home to be with Him. Thank you Lord!!! May
Rev. Falwell now rest in peace from both his faithful
works here on earth, as well as his personal struggle
against sin, in the arms of our loving Father in
Heaven! :-)

Tom
Blessings,

Thomas Morey is an activist for"exgay rights"
he is a writer at  Ex Gay Discussions which is
the largest Christian Yahoo group for ex gay rights.
He can be reached at  moreytom@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/exgaydiscussionboard/