Falwell’s high school years were spent at Brookville High School in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he was a student athlete playing on both the football and the basketball teams. Falwell attended Lynchburg College also in Virginia, but left in his sophomore year and transferred to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, from where he graduated in 1956. He frequently used the title of "Doctor" but had never actually earned the title, and along with his three honorary degrees from unaccredited institutions he made his way through life as a respected religious leader.
After converting to Christianity as a young man, Falwell wanted to spread the word to his home city, Lynchburg, and after he left Missouri, he returned to his home town and began a new church, Lynchburg Bible College. In 1956 he founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church and appointed himself pastor. Fifty years after being founded the church is still in existence and is based in an auditorium that holds 6,000 people and is now called Liberty University after changing from Lynchburg Bible College.
Today Liberty University is a fully accredited evangelical Christian liberal arts university. In 1987 Falwell took over the television ministry of Jim Bakker in an effort to avoid what he called a "hostile takeover" by people threatening to expose a sexual encounter Bakker had admitted to having seven years earlier with church secretary Jessica Hahn. Hahn later turned the revelations to her advantage in a Hugh Hefner Playboy photo shoot.
Although in 1965 Falwell proclaimed himself a segregationist and supported racial segregation by giving a sermon criticizing Martin Luther King and his Civil Rights Movement. He said "I do question the sincerity and non-violent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. James Farmer and others, who are known to have left wing associations." Falwell’s views eventually shifted and he opposed segregation in his later years.
In 1983, Larry Flynt's magazine Hustler parodied Falwell in an alcohol advert where he admits that his "first time" was incest with his mother while drunk. Falwell sued for $45 million in compensation alleging invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. However, a jury rejected the invasion of privacy and libel claims. But Falwell’s views on homosexuality never wavered and he became involved in many high profile debates and libel cases due to his outspoken views on the issue. In 1984, he was ordered to pay gay activist Jerry Sloan $5,000 after losing a court battle in which Falwell denied calling the gay-oriented Metropolitan Community Churches "brute beasts" and "a vile and Satanic system" that will "one day be utterly annihilated and there will be a celebration in heaven."
Once again Falwell stepped into the affray after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the USA when he stated, "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians helped this happen." Later Falwell remarked, "Aids is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals". Fellow evangelist Pat Robinson agreed with the remarks. Falwell’s National Liberty Journal even went as far as to suggest that the Tellytubby character Tinky Winky was a symbol of homosexuality being that he was purple, the colour representative of homosexuality, and he carried a handbag. Falwell denied all knowledge of the article.
During the 2006 conflict in the Middle East, Falwell was interviewed by CNN anchor Paula Zahn on the subject of the Apocalypse and the war and he commented, "I believe in the premillennial, pre-tribulational coming of Christ for all of his church, and to summarize that, do you believe Jesus coming the second time will be in the future, I would vote yes with the 59 percent and with Billy Graham and most evangelicals."
In response, Reverend Kevin Bean of St Bartholomew’s Church in New York City said, "I think that any correlation that is made with present war making or other political schemes with the events that could lead to a final day and the second coming of Jesus and the separation of the faithful from the rest is an arrogant identification with these present-day events."
Since 2005 Falwell had been suffering poor health after he was hospitalized for two weeks with a viral infection. At that time George W Bush contacted Falwell to wish him well. But on May 15, 2007, Falwell suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and was found unresponsive at his office after missing a morning appointment. Falwell was married just once to Macel, with whom he had two sons and one daughter.
YUDDY
