For Muslims, a Distant Figure

Rev. Jerry Falwell, who was born on August 11, 1933, passed away on May 15 2007. He led services at Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He changed affiliations from the more traditional Baptist Bible Fellowship International to the mainly conservative Southern Baptist Convention. He ended his self-identification with fundamentalism in favor of evangelicalism.

He will enter the history books as a religious and political force that sought to affect the direction of American religious and political history. Through his religious and social maneuvers as well as his political rhetoric, he helped create in American life a new way of getting traditional Christians, who heretofore were to a certain degree allergic to political matters, more receptive to the callings of his caravan. In doing so he thought and believed American life and thought would reverse the secularizing tendencies. Caught in the web of the Cold War and the culture war in his own country, he tried to exercise political influence among the politicians and spiritual magnetisms among the rank and file Christians of American society.

Because of his way of presenting Christianity, Rev. Falwell not only created a rift between himself and the other Christians with different interpretations, but he also gradually emerged as a negative symbol to the pro-abortion groups around the country. He was a bete noire among a number of social and political groups from the left of center in American life and culture. This ideological rift between him and his movement on the one hand and the other ideological rivals on the other opened a Pandora's box for him and his whole life was affected by the train of thoughts associated with this clash of values and cultures. He used his knowledge of the Christian scriptures as well as his familiarity with the American historical experience to weave a narrative that is gratifying to himself and his followers but unacceptable to his opponents.

It is indeed in this context that one can place Rev. Falwell before the Muslim Mirror. Seen through Muslim eyes, the reverend pastor is a religious leader whose enthusiasm with traditional Christian thinking denied him any intimate dealings with any Muslims so as to know and appreciate the spiritual power of Islam on a human being. I am sure there are many Muslims like him in the Islamic World. Cut off from fellow humans from different faith communities and intoxicated with the wine of religious satisfaction with one's own religious tradition, men and women like Rev. Falwell made some serious mistakes in their relations with Muslims. Only the Almighty God will eventually judge him on these matters. What we fellow humans can say is that he came, he saw and he preached in his own style. Many Muslims feel that one fundamental difference between him and other Christian leaders hostile to Islam and Muslims is his willingness to apologize when cornered by the media and the society. 9/11 was one instance for which he apologized for what he and others said.

Sulayman Nyang

Posts By Category

Posts By Date

For Muslims, a Distant Figure

Comments