Religious and Political Icons Join Thousands Mourning Falwell in Virginia

By Jacqueline L. Salmon, Washington Post, May 23, 2007

Lynchburg, Va., May 22 -- A panoply of conservative political and religious leaders gathered Tuesday to bid farewell to the Rev. Jerry Falwell in an event that was vintage Falwell: oversize, spiritual, filled with family, hometown friends and high-profile allies, with TV cameras and a sprinkling of protesters adding oomph.

The Baptist minister who brought fundamental Christianity into the mainstream of American life, transforming the nation's politics and culture, was eulogized as a man of warmth, faith and principle.

"He was controversial," the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, told 7,000 mourners packed into Thomas Road Baptist Church, where Falwell continued as pastor even after founding the Moral Majority. "Jerry's goal wasn't to be popular, you know that."

Nearly 10,000 mourners began arriving as early as 3:30 a.m. After the sanctuary filled, people were directed to overflow seating at Liberty University's football stadium and basketball arena, where images of the funeral were beamed in.

Lynchburg schools closed early, the small airport juggled an influx of private jets, and 300 Lynchburg police officers and city workers helped manage the crowds.

The Rev. Dathan Brown, a Liberty University graduate who came from California for the funeral, got in line at 6:30 a.m. to ensure a seat in the sanctuary.

'"I didn't want to come all this way just to watch it on Jumbotron," said Brown, who waited four hours the previous evening for a viewing that drew about 30,000 people over several days.

Christian conservative icons of the religious right also came to pay their respects. Among them were television evangelist Pat Robertson; former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer; Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council; Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition; and Roy Moore, the Alabama judge who fought unsuccessfully to display a monument to the Ten Commandments at his courthouse.

None of the Republican presidential candidates was present at the 90-minute service. Virginia Republican political leaders who attended included former senator George Allen, Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell and Lt. Gov. William Bolling.

The White House sent Tim Goeglein, its liaison to religious groups. He called Falwell a "great friend of the administration" and told mourners that Falwell had trained young people now serving in the Bush administration -- "so a man of great vision has seen a vision fulfilled."

Falwell launched his church in 1956 in an abandoned soda-bottling plant and nurtured it into a religious empire that included "The Old Time Gospel Hour," Liberty University -- now the nation's largest evangelical college with 25,000 students -- and the Moral Majority, helping turn the religious right into a political force in the 1980s.

In recent years, his star faded as a new generation of conservative Christian leaders emerged. Falwell devoted more time to Liberty University, which ran into financial difficulties in the 1990s. He preached most Sundays at Thomas Road, presided over weddings and funerals and visited ill church members until shortly before his death.

At the funeral, speakers recalled Falwell's mischievousness and warmth as well as his commitment to the Gospel.

His daughter, Richmond surgeon Jeannie Falwell Savas, recalled that her father "spent his entire life showering us with his unconditional love." Her brothers -- Jerry Jr., who took over as chancellor of Liberty University after his father's death, and Jonathan, who will replace his father as pastor of Thomas Road -- flanked her at the pulpit as she spoke.

Fallwell -- the son of a Lynchburg entrepreneur who drank himself to death after fatally shooting his brother, and a mother who transmitted her devout faith to her son -- had deep roots in Lynchburg. He built his church membership by knocking on a hundred doors a day. These days, the church averages 12,000 worshipers every Sunday.

Across the street Tuesday, a small band of protesters -- members of Westboro Baptist Church, the Topeka, Kan., church that has drawn widespread criticism for staging anti-homosexuality demonstrations at military funerals -- held up anti-Falwell signs. One said, "Fag church."

Nearby, a few Lynchburg residents showed their displeasure.

"They're misrepresenting what God is," said Brittany Donneberg, 21, nodding toward the protesters.

Monday night, a Liberty student was arrested after police found homemade bombs in his car. Campbell County police said Mark D. Uhl, 19, had told relatives he planned to attend Falwell's funeral.

Falwell died May 15 of congestive heart failure after being found unconscious in his office. He will be buried on the lawn of the Carter-Glass Mansion, which housed his office on the Liberty University campus.

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