Jerry Falwell died. To the few of you who regularly read my little blog here, it will come as no surprise that I was not a big fan Mr. Falwell. Rather than list any number of quotes handpicked to illustrate my views and make him look bad, I want to instead mention his contributions to the American religious landscape.
Falwell was at best a mediocre theologian. He rarely discussed issues of poverty and the poor, something that is fundamental to the Christian faith and teachings. He actually disregarded global warming and therefore was opposed to the concept that Christians should play an active role in conservation and act as stewards of the earth. He instead focused on essentially two political issues: abortion and homosexuality.
Falwell’s contribution was to bring evangelicals into the public square. He was more a politician that theologian. He courted politicians who he felt could further his political agenda. I am not opposed to religion playing a place in politics. One role of a religious leader is to inform and shape the moral views of their community. Falwell was, in my opinion, well within his rights to do and say the things that he did, as offensive as they may have been to me personally. My issue with him was he let his personally held political ideology inform his theology rather than vice versa. If a religious leader is going to use religious texts and theory to form a political opinion then that opinion needs to come from solid, good theology. Falwell did not do that. He was a practitioner of pick-and-choose theology, ignoring an abundance of text and Christian thought in order to further his political ideology. That is, at best, disingenuous.
It is a shame that whenever a news organization needs a “Christian opinion” on a given issue people such as Falwell, Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed are called on. These people are political operatives, not great theological thinkers. I hope people realize that Christianity is made up of more than this.
Let me start out by saying that I very much agree with your opinions. We feel very similarily about Mr. Falwell and other issues.
However, I would like to play the Devil’s Advocate with you. Specifically, what exactly is “solid, good theology”? Isn’t all theology a matter of opinion and interpretation? Or are you saying that there is One True Source from which one can divine (no pun intended) the true meaning of religious works?
The reason I say this is that most if not all significant religious works (such as the Bible or the Qu’ran) have contradictory, non-reconcilable passages and/or tenets. For instance, one can take a literal interpretation of the Bible and, depending upon the particular passage, support love and peace for all, the stoning-to-death of one’s wife for adultery, or the slaughtering of anyone who doesn’t believe in God (granted, that is mainly Old Testament stuff). Similarly, different passages of the Qu’ran, on their face, support violence or non-violence.
While I think Jerry Falwell was a buffoon for many reasons, and that his political and religious positions were detestable, I would posit that you and he are simply two sides of the same coin (with yours being the preferable side). At the end of the day, since most religious texts have contradictory passages, aren’t all theologians practitioners of “pick-and-choose” theology (at least those who pick a side on these issues)?