Tuesday, May 15

Ding-dong, the fundy's dead!

Jerry Falwell died today of some sort of heart something. After I saw this pop up on Yahoo! news, I sat biting my thumbnail and thinking to myself, "Should I write something snarky about his double chin, how he thought Tinky Winky was gay and destroying the minds of young children, or how he blamed feminists and homosexuals for 9/11?"

But you know, despite his terribly misguided mindset, he thought he was doing the right thing. And honestly, I shudder to think about how many times a day I say something ridiculous despite my best intentions. At the end of the day, all of us, whether we're fundamentalist tele-evangelists or intellectual Calvinites, know about as much about God as an ant knows about the internet.

All I know is that I'm thankful for the grace that is bigger than the pitiful person I am and the best-laid plans that seem to always blow up in my face. Falwell is probably thinking the same thing right about now.

2 comments:

bethany said...

Good post. I made the same mental trip (complete with the ding-doong comment, in fact.)

Recovering said...

I think Falwell was a typical evangelical that represented well evangelicals of his generation and his children's generation...I don't doubt his heart and his sincerity.

That being said, the death of his generation of tele-evangelists and big-haired, big-walleted, irrelevent, and - in many cases - white-washed tombs opens the door for us to truly create a community of believers that loves each other and the world...and put a new face on Christianity for those who would join the ranks of "recovering evangelical" like me or know Him for the first time...

I think the trick for us is to make sure that we put a new face on our faith without letting the pendulum swing on sound doctrine and expositional understanding of the Scriptures...