Anti-Gay Evangelist Falwell in Critical Condition

Anti-Gay Evangelist Falwell in Critical Condition
04.01.05

By Ross von Metzke

(Lynchburg, VA) — Televangelist and noted anti-gay rights activist Jerry Falwell is in critical condition in a Virginia hospital suffering from “respiratory arrest”, his second stay in just five weeks.

Falwell, 71, is suffering from a viral pneumonia infection and was readmitted to Lynchburg General Hospital Monday night where he is breathing with the help of a ventilator.

Falwell's executive assistant, Ron Godwin, said he visited Falwell on Tuesday evening and found him responsive.

“He smiled at me and shook my hand,” Godwin said. “It seems like he's going to be able to shake this thing off.”

Doctors said they expected to have a clearer prognosis today.

“His cardiac status is stable and there is no evidence of a heart attack,” said hospital spokesman Tom Urtz, reading from a statement. “He is alert and responding to questions.”

Falwell, the founder of the Moral Majority and Liberty University, has a long and well-documented history of opposing gay rights. The frequent butt of late night talk show host’s jokes, Falwell is perhaps most famous for accusing The Teletubbies of having a gay agenda.

In 1976 he, along with Anita Bryant, led the charge against gay adoption in Florida leading to the most repressive anti-gay adoption law in the US. And following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in 2001, Falwell declared that gays and pro-choice advocates were to blame.

Following the attacks, Falwell addressed America speaking on the 700 Club religious program. “The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked … I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.”

In 2003, Falwell announced that he was putting all work on the back burner to devote his time to passage of a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Falwell said he was feeling much better but still recovering from his hospital stay.

Falwell had been in the pulpit Easter Sunday at Thomas Road Baptist Church and appeared in good health, said the Rev. Dave Randlett, a senior associate pastor.

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