On May 15th, 2007, Jerry Lamon Falwell Sr. passed away at the age of 73 in his office on Liberty Mountain. In one word, he was an extraordinary man. After accepting Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior at the age of eighteen, Rev. Falwell gave up promising athletics and a possible future in engineering to become a pastor, starting Thomas Road Baptist Church at age twenty-two with 35 members. The church originally met in the Donald Duck Bottling Plant and in a newspaper article years ago, Rev. Falwell described a useless attempt at cleaning the sticky syrup off the floor in order to keep shoes from sticking. Shoes and souls both stuck to TRBC, though, because not only was God moving, but Rev. Falwell had started Old Time Gospel Hour, a national radio and television ministry, the same year. Two years later he married the love of his life, Macel, and together they had three children: Jerry Jr., Jeannie, and Jonathan.
In 1967, Rev. Falwell opened Lynchburg Christian Academy, now Liberty Christian Academy, as part of TRBC ministries. Four years later, Lynchburg Baptist College was born with less than 200 students. Today, LBC has become Liberty University, and God has blessed our school with 15,000 residential students and at least 90,000 online. President Donald J. Trump even delivered his first Commencement address at LU the Saturday before Mother’s Day.
Moral Majority, a political action group that promoted pro-traditional family and pro-life values, along with other conservative beliefs such as voluntary prayer in school, was started by Rev. Falwell and others in 1979. They are largely credited with getting President Ronald Reagan elected because of their help in registering thousands of voters and giving conservative voters a voice. Rev. Falwell admitted to previously speaking against pastors becoming political, but claimed that the legalization of abortion from Roe v. Wade and his own children persuaded him to finally become involved with government.
Jerry Falwell Sr. was given national attention because of his work with Moral Majority. He spoke against abortion clinic bombings, attempted to save the PTL ministries after the Bakker scandal, started the Liberty Godparent Home to help young, unwed pregnant women, worked with gay rights activists, supported Israel, and more. Rev. Falwell worked tirelessly to help America realize its moral lacking while pastoring Thomas Road, being chancellor of Liberty, and caring for his wife and children.
His love for Liberty University finally persuaded him to quit Moral Majority, though, and he spent years travelling the country raising money to expand the school. I still hear stories about Rev. Falwell and the light he was on campus, frequently pranking students by pretending to run them over with his truck, and being repeatedly quoted by Jerry Jr. at important Convocation’s. While many people in the world can remember him for his mistakes, such as supporting segregation until God convicted him (he apologized and welcomed black students into his schools), the students of Liberty walk amongst his beautiful dream every day and I hope that is how he is most remembered.
Rev. Falwell did not have to start a university in the middle of nowhere. He received three honorary doctorates in his lifetime, was friends with multiple presidents, and started a megachurch. He debated the prime minister of New Zealand and preached to thousands via TV on a weekly basis. And yet his legacy is me, and thousands like me. I am a testament to the faithfulness of a man of God who said ‘yes’ to one more crazy dream. I am one of the thousands of students for which he and many others prayed. My life at Liberty, filled with brilliant professors, internationally recognized Convo speakers, incredibly fun fellow students, and more, all exists because one man dared to dream. He could have given up. He could have gotten tired. He could have looked at the world and decided that the political side of his life, another God-given task, was more important. Instead, he listened to God, said yes, and built a school in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Lynchburg, Virginia.
I am forever grateful to Rev. Falwell. I even work in the Jerry Falwell Archives in the Jerry Falwell Sr. Library on Liberty’s campus. Not only is everything he said and did great job security, but it is also fascinating. I have scanned his sermons, databased what both his critics and his supporters said about him, stored the books he wrote, and more. Despite having never met Jerry Lamon Falwell Sr. during his lifetime, I have met him again and again through paper. I know him, in a strange but true way, and sometimes I even miss him.
Today, Rev. Falwell would have been 83. He would have turned 84 in August. He would have seen his son follow in his footsteps with political activity that modeled his convictions. He would have seen his grandchildren go to prom, get engaged, graduate college, and much more. He would have seen the campus of LU grow exponentially with the addition of a new science hall, music building, student center, and divinity tower. He would have met thousands of students who want to have thousands of different careers, included but not limited to being pilots, nurses, teachers, and journalists.
Walking on campus, I often hope that God sometimes peels back the clouds so that Jerry can see how his dream is still flourishing, and the millions of lives changed because of that dream. He was a man of vision, and I hope I can be like him and leave a similar legacy by living the saying Jerry Jr. often quotes: “never, ever quit.”
