Jerry Falwell DEAD!

[FORD]

Moral Majority leader Falwell dies
Evangelical leader was found in his university office
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 10:37 a.m. PT May 15, 2007

LYNCHBURG, Va. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell — founder of the Moral Majority and the face of the religious right in the 1980s — died Tuesday after being found unconscious in his office, a Liberty University executive said.

Ron Godwin, Liberty's executive vice president, said Falwell, 73, had been found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and was taken to Lynchburg General Hospital.

Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but noted that Falwell had “a history of heart challenges.”

“I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast,” Godwin said. “He went to his office, I went to mine and they found him unresponsive.”

Falwell, a television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority in 1979, became the face of the religious right in the 1980s. He later founded the conservative Liberty University and served as its chancellor.

In the 1980s, Falwell saw his political lobbying organization grow to 6.5 million members, raising millions of dollars for conservative politicians and helping to elect Ronald Reagan president.

A biography of Falwell on Liberty University's Web site states that "with the impetus of the newly organized Moral Majority, millions of people of faith voted for the first time in 1980 and helped elect Ronald Reagan and many conservative congressmen and senators."

Falwell survived two serious health scares in early 2005. He was hospitalized in February for two weeks with what was described as a viral infection, then hospitalized again in March with congestive heart failure after being found unconscious. At that time he had to be resuscitated by EMTs at the hospital emergency room.

A native of Lynchburg, Falwell and his wife, Macel, have three children and eight grandchildren.

His Jerry Falwell ministries take in about $200 million a year in revenues, according to Liberty University's Web site.

Liberty University's commencement is scheduled for Saturday, with former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich as the featured speaker.

This report will be updated as information becomes available.
© 2007 MSNBC InteractiveThe Associated Press contributed to this report.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18679412/

[jeffbug]

Who gives a shit?

[mistere]

Whoa. Guess God didn't let him in on that one. Sorry Jerry.
He's in a better place now. Not here. Sorry Jerry. Too easy.
RIP.

[FORD]

Better place......You sure about that?

[mistere]

Like I said, not here. That's gotta be better for everyone. Or most everyone.

[Otis5150]

Better place......You sure about that?

Correct me if I'm confusing him with some other televangelist, but didn't Fallwell claim that God would strike him down if people didn't donate X-millions of dollars to his company...oops...I mean "ministry" a while back?

[FORD]

Correct me if I'm confusing him with some other televangelist, but didn't Fallwell claim that God would strike him down if people didn't donate X-millions of dollars to his company...oops...I mean "ministry" a while back?

No, that was Oral Roberts. Falwell was the one who forced Jim & Tammy out of PTL in the middle of their scandal and then said that if the ministry didn't turn a profit, he would go down their Holy Waterslide dressed in a suit.

At least he kept his word about that......

[chefcraig]

Correct me if I'm confusing him with some other televangelist, but didn't Fallwell claim that God would strike him down if people didn't donate X-millions of dollars to his company...oops...I mean "ministry" a while back?

I dunno, as I get these guys confused as well. There was the one nutcase calling for the murder of a foreign diplomat about a year ago...

[FORD]

I dunno, as I get these guys confused as well. There was the one nutcase calling for the murder of a foreign diplomat about a year ago...

That was Pat Robertson.

And let's not forget this lovely Pat/Jerry chat from September 13, 2001 (two days after you-know-what):

JERRY FALWELL: And I agree totally with you that the Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time that we've been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results. And I fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, said yesterday, that this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available to these monsters - the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats--what we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact--if, in fact--God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.

PAT ROBERTSON: Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population.

JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, yes.

JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way--all of them who have tried to secularize America--I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system.

JERRY FALWELL: Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU, and all the Christ-haters, People For the American Way, NOW, etc. were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer and sang "God Bless America" and said "let the ACLU be hanged"? In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time--calling upon God.

PAT ROBERTSON: Amen

[fast98dodge]

I tend to lump all those guys in the same category...

They use religion for their own personal gain... Kinda sick and twisted but I guess it's human nature to get drunk on your own sense of power...

Having said that, RIP, Jerry...

I don't wish bad shit on anyone but he'll be judged just like the rest of us...

[AT]

And may a good portion of the kind of attitude presented above die with Mr. Falwell.

[willy4pres]

I'm a Christian, I don't give a crap.

[weesfreewheelin]

I bet this info gave Larry Flint a stiffy

[Ace Ventura]

yawn....

...snort......

[aceface9]

RIP Jerry.