Christians in the U.S. and abroad are the target of those determined to remove Christianity from the face of the earth.  Numerous events in recent years across the U.S. bears this fact out.  We have just seen it happen again in a country with an Islamic majority.

Rami Khader Ayyad, the owner of a Christian bookstore, was murdered in the Gaza strip.  The ruling party in Palestine is determined to snuff out the last of the Christian minority in the country.  Hamas also vandalized two Catholic buildings nearby in a past raid.

Mr. Ayyad was murdered execution style with a bullet to the head and had been stabbed several times.  Islam claims to be a religion of peace, but has no tolerance for Christians or Jews.  Christians continue to die the world over for their faith. The murderers are most often Muslim.

In the U.S., the attitude towards Christians by fringe elements is much the same.  There is little tolerance for those who practice the Christian faith.  The problem will only get worse as a growing number of young people begin to view Christians as Hamas does. Extermination, not acceptance is their only form of diplomacy.

Would you be surprised if I told you that Jerry Falwell’s death will have been met with happiness and celebration amongst scores of Christians?  If you are an Evangelical Christian, you will understand what I am talking about and if you’re not, it may come as a surprise.

While many Evangelical Christians will miss the Rev. Falwell, they will also celebrate his death as a time to ‘go home.’  Your reaction may be; ‘what is he talking about?’   Christians believe that our life on earth is temporary just as our earthly body is temporary.  People generally last for 70 or 80 or 90 years and then their physical body just runs out of steam.  Christians believe that those who are ‘born-again’ have a spiritual body that lives on through eternity.

Jerry Falwell was one of those born-again types who had a more exciting life to look forward too.  To get to that spiritual life, the Rev. Falwell had to expire; he did.

His family and friends will miss him dearly, but at the same time, rejoice in knowing that he is in ‘paradise.’   If you are still scratching your head and wondering out loud just what I’m talking about, you’re not alone.  Many millions across America and across the world don’t understand what motivates Evangelical Christians to wake up with a smile every day.  And if they don’t have a smile every morning, they at least have a smile on their death bed.

Jerry Falwell was demonized by the press.  He was castigated and pigeon-holed and mischaracterized as an intolerant bigot.  The extreme left spoke his name only with condemnation and repulsion.  Their conception of him was that he represented everything that they hate and he was a thorn in their side.  In reality, he was just a small town preacher.

You have to understand that Jerry Falwell just believed what every other evangelical preacher believed.  He knew that America’s fabric is held together by the family; one dad, one mom and one to several children.  The nuclear family is essential to America and Jerry Falwell wanted to do what he could to secure America’s future by promoting that simple fact.

While Jerry Falwell was characterized as intolerant by the left and the main-stream media, it was intolerance towards his efforts to keep safe the family and the sanctity of life that earned him many unfair monikers.  For Reverend Falwell’s mission was not one of hate or intolerance or bigotry, but a belief in the family and the value of human life.

He left the Moral Majority, as its leader, 20 years ago.  Twenty years is a long time folks.  His focus after leaving was no longer political.  His focus became his church and his university.  The press continued to go to great lengths to cast him in an unfavorable light even to his death.  Newspaper articles about him on the day he died, in left-wing publications, showed no class or integrity in defaming his name.  No forethought was given to his family or followers.  The visceral hatred on the left knows no bounds or decency.

To those who knew him personally, he was a friendly mentor and always personable.  His parishioners and students crossed all racial and ethnic demarcations and represented a cross-section of America.  They knew the Jerry Falwell that we will never know.  For them, his faith and familiar smile was that of a small town preacher; nothing more and nothing less.