Tolerant Loving People Who Are Celebrating the Death of Jerry Falwell

I was shocked and saddened today to learn of the death of Rev. Jerry Falwell. Though I have been very critical of some of Falwell's politics and theological positions, I nevertheless always considered him a brother in Christ. While I did not care at all for his dispensationalism, his hawkishness on foreign policy, and his apologetics for the Bush administration, he has done a number of good things over the years and certainly has impacted many people for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I never knew Falwell personally aside from a couple brief encounters. But I am always sad at any loss of life, especially when it is unexpected. I believe that Falwell is with the Lord. Whatever his faults were, I have no reason to question his salvation. But my real reason for this post is to respond to what others are saying about his death. When I heard the news, I immediately said to myself, "I bet some on the hard left are celebrating." And indeed a cursory blog search indicated this to be exactly the case.

The comments I've read from anti-Falwell types have been disgusting and heartless. Celebrate the death of a man because you disagreed with some of his opinions and political activism? The most passionate anti-Falwell types hated him because he did not support homosexual behavior and because he was anti-abortion. This alone makes someone a hateful, worthless bigot according to the hard left. But let's just say for a moment that Falwell is a bad as these folks claim. How does celebrating his death and laughing about such a tragedy make his critics any better? In fact, it arguably makes them much worse. I cannot recall the time I read about Falwell making statements where he laughed off or celebrated the death of a gay person, though his disagreements with their beliefs were just as passionate as their disagreements with his. Of course in political debate, some folks on all sides of the spectrum are able to dehumanize anyone who disagrees with them. Therefore, who cares about the people close to Falwell, his family and friends who are grieving, and who cares about the loss of life. Ding-dong the bigot is dead. That's all that matters.

I'll leave you with a link to this particular blog which "sheds no tears" over Falwell's death. Read the comments on this blog post and read through the loving comments left by those who celebrate death. This is coming from the same crowd no doubt that pats itself on the back for being so much more tolerant than people like Falwell: http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2007/05/jerry-falwell-dead.html