I am going to preface this by saying that I am no big fan of Jerry Falwell.  I was a fairly hard line evangelical Christian in high school, and people like him were my role models.

It was also, in part, people like him that made me reevaluate the rigidity of that position and led me to be a lot more understanding and comtemplative.

But to be fair, my differences with Falwell were doctrinal and procedural.  I didn’t follow the same line of belief he did, and I was opposed to some of his tactics.  I never saw him as evil or hateful.  He was driven by his convictions, and unwavering in a steadfast belief regardless of the cost.

And no doubt about it, some of his statements were outrageous, and caused a lot of controversy.

But the thing about him was that he did what he did and said what he did out of that conviction, not malice.  I believe he sincerely believed what he preached.

I think it is fair to disagree with him all day long, but I prefer to do so keeping that in mind.