Jesus Called; Jerry Answered:

A Prayer for Brother Falwell       
by Chris Floyd     
Lord, we gather here tonight to remember your departed servant, Brother Falwell, as he wings his way toward the great beyond, praise God. Lord, we know that there are many out there tonight -- lost souls, Lord, be with them, Jesus -- who will profane this solemn occasion with scorn and mockery.

 

 

No, Lord, tonight we will do Brother Falwell the honor of treating with him as he in his lovingkindness and tender mercy always treated with others, especially those, dear God, whom he found in opposition to his understandings of the faith. Jesus Lord and Saviour, we recall how in his God-given wisdom Brother Falwell saw into the heart of things and knew that those who suffer death and affliction have brought these divine scourges upon themselves through their own wickedness and weaknesses. Lord, Brother Falwell taught us how you remove Your shield even from the most faithful should they falter on Your road. Even nations divinely blessed as no land in the history of Creation may be struck by death and fire from the dark forces You marshal as instruments of Your wrath.

Therefore, Lord, we know that this very night, as the formaldehyde streams through the corpulent remains of Your departed servant, that Brother Falwell was struck down by Your mighty Hand, in an act of wisdom far beyond the ken of sinful man to comprehend. Every day, precious Lord, Brother Falwell preached Your wrath. Every day, precious Lord, he preached Your love of war. Every day, precious Lord, he called Your blessings down upon the dealmakers and bagmen, praise God, upon the profiteers of suffering, praise Jesus, upon the divinely appointed leaders who practiced their deceptions and loosed their destructions only in Thy name, Lord, only according to Thy will, Lord, only in the greater service of Thy divine plan, O Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. No sparrow falls but that You order it; no missile strikes but at Thy dread command. And no great mass of swollen flesh falls from the disgorgement of its own physical corruption but that You, precious Lord, have done the deed. This is what Brother Falwell himself has taught us in his long years toiling in Thy bounteous vineyard: that he died because You withdrew Your protection and smote him in Your anger for his iniquities.

No, Lord, we will not mock Brother Falwell tonight. In life, his clotted ignorance brought him wealth and fame and power: as Thou sayeth in the Scriptures, he has received his reward. Instead, we beseech thee, Almighty God, to take Brother Falwell tonight and deal with him according to his own understanding of the faith. Be the God that he imagined, deal with him as he said You dealt with others, give him every measure of mercy that he himself bestowed. Amen.