Rev. Jerry Falwell, the evangelist who used the power of television to transform the religious right into a mighty force in American politics, has died. He was 73.
The founder of the Moral Majority was discovered without a pulse Tuesday morning at Liberty University. Initially, those who found him were not worried about the lack of pulse as he hadn€™t had one since a skiing accident in 1996 and would often be found lying still, staring unblinkingly into the distance competing with God in an on-again off-again decades old staring contest. However, when Falwell hadn€™t blinked for 37 minutes 24 seconds €“ which would have been a new personal best for the reverend €“ onlookers knew something was amiss. He was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later. Dr. Carl Moore, Falwell€™s physician, said he had a heart condition €“ myocardial atrophia, or, basically, lack of a heart.
Falwell, driven into politics by the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established the right to an abortion, founded the Moral Majority in 1979. The rise of Christian conservatism and the Moral Majority€™s full-throated condemnation of homosexuality, liquor, drugs and pornography €“ incidentally the four reasons for the six year period between the court€™s decision and Falwell€™s forming of the Moral Majority, €œI just wanted to get those things out of my system before giving myself to God,€ said Falwell €“ made him perhaps the most recognizable figure in the evangelical right.
The preacher started a fundamentalist church in the abandoned bottling plant of his favorite brewery in Lynchburg in 1956 with just 35 members. He built it into a religious empire that included a 24,000 member Baptist church, a widely syndicated TV show and a 9,600 student university.
Over the years Falwell waged a landmark libel case against Hustler magazine, created a furor when he called one of the Teletubbies gay and blamed homosexuals and liberals for the 9/11 terrorist attack on American soil.
Falwell quit the Moral Majority in 1987 saying he was tired of being a €œlightning rod€ and wanted to €œlook into becoming a member of the Moral Minority or, perhaps, the Immoral Majority€ as they looked to be having €œmuch more fun€.
Spiritually, the Rev. Jerry Falwell seemed prepared for his passing. Two weeks before he died, Falwell preached of man being indestructible until he has finished with God€™s work, woman not being indestructible because they weren€™t protected by God€™s invisible force field of protection and then told churchgoers he was at peace with death.
Jerry Falwell
Spiderman 3
Approximately 15 million people paid just over $148 million to see Tobey Maguire fight Topher Grace over the weekend.
Seriously.
In fact, most of the time it wasn€™t even the real Tobey fighting the real Topher €“ it was mostly just computer animated versions of Tobey fighting Topher.
Which, come to think of it, is probably a good thing.
And Tobey and Topher€¦hold on. Tobey and Topher gets awfully awkward to read, not to mention type, time and again. Since I obviously can€™t combine the beginnings of their names (ala Brangelina or Bennifer) without bringing thoughts (and angry emails) of what has recently happened in Kansas or of a witch cackling €œand your little dog, too!€ I€™ll have to go with the ends of their first names.
Pherbey.
So the Pherbey fight has gone over big with the American movie-going audience and I have to wonder why.
Don€™t get me wrong. I€˜m a big fan of Sam Raimi, I€™m sure the visual effects are marvelous and any time I can catch Bruce Campbell on the screen €“ even if it€™s only for a cameo appearance €“ I€™m a happy man.
But a Pherbey fight? Really?
Has there ever been two more pale, pasty, skinny-ass white people involved in a big-time blockbuster entertainment extravaganza?
I stand corrected.
Perhaps it€™s me. Perhaps I expect more from my big rock €˜em sock €˜em summer action movies than the skinny guy from That 70s Show fighting the guy so small he could convincingly play a horse jockey in Seabiscuit.
That€™s it. It must just be me.