“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife,” commands the Bible. Your roommate’s fiancee? That’s another story.
In her new biography of her husband, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Macel Falwell explains their unique courtship.
“In the fall of 1952,” she writes, “Jerry moved to Springfield to attend Baptist Bible College. His roommate in the dorm was … none other than my fiance, Julius. Jerry might have been born again, but he wasn’t sanctified enough not to do everything in his power to come between Julius and me.”
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To that end, Falwell “conveniently forgot” to give Julius messages from her, and even destroyed letters that poor Julius had written to her and entrusted to Falwell, sending his own instead.
Of course, that wouldn’t be the only trouble Falwell would get into during his 72 years. Macel also attempts to explain Falwell’s comments in the wake of 9/11, when he appeared to place the blame for the attacks on America’s permissive attitude toward abortion and homosexuality.
“To understand how things went awry that day, you must grasp the biblical perspective of sin and judgment as Jerry did,” she writes. Furthermore, “Jerry was exhausted when he agreed to the interview with Pat Robertson, and never anticipated that Pat would ask him who bore responsibility for God’s removing His protection from America. … Later, Jerry wished he had given a different answer.”
Also in the book, their son Jonathan recalls a meeting they had at Larry Flynt’s offices in California, long after their battle in the Supreme Court. “Across Larry’s desk were all the latest issues of his pornographic magazines. Dad hated pornography, but he liked Larry Flynt, the king of porn. … At one point, Larry suggested that Dad try a diet that had helped him, and he had his secretary download it for him.”
In that sense, Flynt fares much better in the book than Bill Maher. The comic/talk-show host “was rude and disrespectful and did everything in his power to try to fit Dad into the caricature that the media had painted of him,” says Jonathan. But despite the “demeaning” nature of the appearance, Falwell said it was worth it. “I just preached the gospel to millions of people tonight and Bill Maher paid for it.”
Adds Macel: “Jerry was willing to be made a fool for the sake of the gospel.”
