Christianity Today: James Emery White quits as Gordon-Conwell president

When I first heard the news of the passing of Dr. Falwell, my first thought was, “How long will it be before his first detractors begin to misrepresent him?”  The answer came last night on Larry King Live. Approximately ten hours after he died, here’s how Mel White characterized Dr. Jerry Falwell on Larry King Live on Tuesday, May 15, 2007:

For the gay community, we remember him as a person who gave us voice. He mobilized us. He became the face of homophobia. And we have to thank him, because a lot of gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgendered people have marched, taken their own steps toward getting justice because of Jerry Falwell.

So I think he’ll be remembered by the gay community as the worst person in terms of misinformation about us, but as a great person for mobilizing us for — for justice.

White characterizes Dr. Falwell as homophobic and ‘the worst person’ merely because Dr. Falwell stood uncompromisingly on the truth of scripture on moral issues.  Webster’s defines a phobia as an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation .  What the Bible says about homosexuality, and what Dr. Falwell proclaimed from the Bible about homosexuality, is not an exaggerated inexplicable and illogical fear.  It is merely unpalatable truth in a culture which has abandoned any notion of absolute truth outside of one’s own personal desires.

Dr. Falwell preached hard truth to sinner’s like Mel White. But White’s own personal experience with Dr. Falwell betrays how he characterized Dr. Falwell on LKL. While he won’t admit it, it is very clear to those who knew Dr. Falwell that while he held firmly to principle, he was always loving and gracious in the advocacy of those principles.

Christophobia got its face last night. It’s the face of a spiritually tormented man. Mel White spoke words of hate directed at the late Dr. Jerry Falwell a mere ten hours after he was dead. Such hate can only come from a heart overcome by fear of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christophobia drives Mel White and it drives all those who hurl hate at the messengers of Christ. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). Mel White confirms the truth of Jesus’ words.

Mel White represents himself as a “Reverend.”  He’s actually a homosexual activist whose claim to fame is that he was once hired by Jerry Falwell to “ghost write” two of Falwell’s books.  He disgraced himself tonight on Larry King Live when he characterized the late Dr. Falwell as “hateful” because of his position against homosexuality. Dr. Falwell devoted his life to firmly standing on the clear teaching of God’s word on homosexual sin.  Because he took that stand, the world and Mel White hate him. Not surprisingly, since Jesus said such hatred would be directed at those who stand on His word by those who do not know the One who sent Him: 

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18-25

Mel White would be just another depressed homosexual male, looking for love in the next “committed relationship,” unknown to the world, if it were not for the 15 minutes of fame he gained by his ever so brief relationship to Dr. Falwell. Isn’t it ironic that the liberal Left in this country, represented by the likes of Mel White, can be in the very act of characterizing a good man as “hateful” – producing no evidence to support their characterization – and yet their own words are more hateful than anything Jerry Falwell ever uttered? “The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

The real irony is that Dr. Falwell loved Mel White, and others just like him caught up in the desires of their own flesh. If Mel could only see into Heaven tonight, he’d no doubt see Jerry speaking face to face with Jesus about Mel’s soul, even while Mel is spewing his hate for Falwell on International television mere hours after the death of his nemesis. That’s the man of God Jerry Falwell was. That’s the people of God we should all aspire to be.

I’ll have more to say when the transcript of tonight’s program is posted tomorrow.

God bless the legacy of Dr. Jerry Falwell and his family.

I asked Jay about Bono, qualifying my admiration for Bono by noting that he is not as vocal about Jesus as I’d like him to be:

Behind the scenes, one on one with people, (Bono) is incredibly vocal about Jesus. There’s a story about one of the Gallagher brothers from Oasis talking about how he spent three hours discussing God with Bono, and he said it was just a very intense conversation. Well, a couple of days later, Bono FedExed him a book – What’s So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey. It’s just like to me that Philip Yancey’s book is like Bono’s “tract” if you will. Behind the scenes, spending time with him, the man loves Jesus. He’d be the first to tell you he’s not a good advertisement for God, but the dude loves Jesus. If you go to one of the concerts, it’s right there; if you’re looking for it, it’s right there, singing a song called “Yahweh,” a modern worship song, and that’s one of many songs.

I asked Jay to further clarify what he means by “Christian worldview music”:

We believe strongly that music is not a tool just for evangelism, or just for praise and worship, or just for teaching Christians things about Christianity. We believe it should be a biblical reflection, the same way the Bible is, whether it’s Ecclesiastes, or the Psalms, or Song of Solomon, most of the Psalms are actually laments – crying out to God, in desperation; most Christian music is not that way. We’re encouraging these artists to give into that urging to bring Christ into all of life, whether it’s our marriages, whether it’s our professional lives, whether it’s how we treat our neighbor and how we love the poor; and we’re saying, yes, it honors God when you sing about all of these things from a biblical perspective.

I then asked Jay, what of the perception that the Christian music industry is all about money:

I’ve been in this business now for about 14 years. I worked for Christian record labels for ten years, and with CCM Magazine for about four, and I’m grateful to say it’s not all about money. That said, I will say money influences too many of our decisions as an industry. But in these years I’ve gotten to know dozens of artists and, you know, it’s about calling; it’s about being salt and light in culture, showing the world who Christ is. (The world) has written off Jesus based on parodies of the church that aren’t real. Some of these artists have a passion for our culture to see who Jesus Christ really is, and that’s why I am still here after 14 years.