I wasn't going to comment on Rev. Falwell's death but I've seen some comments around that have prompted me. People tended to either love or hate the man and some are gleeful about his death.

Jerry Falwell was, like the rest of us, a fallable human being. I believe that he did what he thought was right to the best of his ability most of the time. I think that he was tragically misguided on a number of issues. I imagine he would have thought the same of me.

Dr. Falwell started his career preaching racial segregation on the radio. Over time his views on this softened, largely because of Black people he met personally. I respect that he had that capacity to change when he realized that he was wrong.

To the best of my knowledge, that growth never included any acceptance of homosexuals, but there's a lot about Dr. Falwell that I don't know. I'd like to believe that he became more tolerant as he got older.

I don't like the way he got so many Christian Conservatives active in American politics. That's not to say I think increased political involvement is a bad thing for people of faith. I just don't like the way he and his allies in the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition seemed to assume that the conservative position and the Christian position were automatically the same. I don't consider myself very political, but my faith has almost always prompted me to vote for different issues and candidates than those Dr. Falwell promoted.

He was a divider and many of the divisions he helped to create in our culture are painful for me. For all that, there are things that I respect about the man. He didn't use his ministry for his personal enrichment the way some televangelists did. He seems to have been a good husband and father and a concerned pastor to the people around him.

I sympathize with the people who loved Dr. Falwell and my prayers are with them. I will not be surprised if someday I see him in Heaven (God is forgiving od wrong-headed ideas after all.)

I wonder if he will be surprised to see me there. :-)