Deaths.....
May. 16th, 2007 11:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dwivianBy now you've probably read that Jerry Falwell died in his office at Liberty University.
Many people were exultant that his influence in the world was at an end. Alas, it isn't that simple. Larger-than-life people exceed death for many years, and will have their ideas and projects continue for generations. The Moral Majority and Liberty University aren't going to close their doors anytime soon.
I will not claim happiness at his death, for this reason:
By dying, Mr. Falwell never got the opportunity (though doubtful that he'd take it) to redeem himself for all the negativity and damage he did. He never fixed the world he broke. That, alone, makes me mourn his passing. We have an obligation to leave the world better than we entered it. He failed. I mourn the lost opportunity to be a good and faithful steward, to use his talents to the benefit of his creator, to give a strong example of how to live the lessons and examples of Jesus Christ, and not of the Pharisees.
Tammy Faye (Bakker) Messner took the last years of her life and has done amazing things to undo the damage of her husband Jim, and to extend good will and grace to those in need. She will die of cancer soon, but worked hard to be the best person she could be. I will mourn her loss, but I praise her works.
Yolanda King died today, and left behind a legacy of human rights advocacy and an acting career in which she played strong black roles including Rosa Parks in a miniseries about the early civil rights movement. I now mourn the loss of such a young person (she was 51), but give credit to her for working to further her father's message, despite the efforts of Sharpton and Jackson to perpetuate racial disharmony.
Two good, one not-so-much. All deserve mourning, of some kind.
Many people were exultant that his influence in the world was at an end. Alas, it isn't that simple. Larger-than-life people exceed death for many years, and will have their ideas and projects continue for generations. The Moral Majority and Liberty University aren't going to close their doors anytime soon.
I will not claim happiness at his death, for this reason:
By dying, Mr. Falwell never got the opportunity (though doubtful that he'd take it) to redeem himself for all the negativity and damage he did. He never fixed the world he broke. That, alone, makes me mourn his passing. We have an obligation to leave the world better than we entered it. He failed. I mourn the lost opportunity to be a good and faithful steward, to use his talents to the benefit of his creator, to give a strong example of how to live the lessons and examples of Jesus Christ, and not of the Pharisees.
Tammy Faye (Bakker) Messner took the last years of her life and has done amazing things to undo the damage of her husband Jim, and to extend good will and grace to those in need. She will die of cancer soon, but worked hard to be the best person she could be. I will mourn her loss, but I praise her works.
Yolanda King died today, and left behind a legacy of human rights advocacy and an acting career in which she played strong black roles including Rosa Parks in a miniseries about the early civil rights movement. I now mourn the loss of such a young person (she was 51), but give credit to her for working to further her father's message, despite the efforts of Sharpton and Jackson to perpetuate racial disharmony.
Two good, one not-so-much. All deserve mourning, of some kind.
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Date: 2007-05-16 04:12 pm (UTC)It will be tempting to call Falwell's passing the end of an era, but that risks missing the larger point. The movement he helped lead was never monolithic, or as tidy as its critics imagine — or obedient to earthly powers. In every generation, Christians have wrestled with the question of whether their efforts are better spent changing laws or changing hearts, and how to proceed when those goals seem to conflict. Falwell enthusiastically practiced the politics of division, flinging damnation at those who disagreed with his vision of a Godly America. Now a rising generation of Christian leaders is looking for ways to bring people together: the politics of division may be a shrewd electoral strategy, but it's a shallow spiritual one. Their God is bigger than their party, more mysterious, more forgiving and more embracing. It is only partly wishful thinking when a progressive evangelical counterforce to Falwell like Jim Wallis declares, "The Evangelicals have left the Right. They now reside with Jesus."