From the dust jacket: "...the REAL Jerry Falwell, pastor of a congregatioin he began with thirty-five members in 1956 which has now grown to over 22,000 (and to many millions nationwide) remains unknown, despite the millions of words written about him.
For Jerry Falwell did not come to Christianity easily, naturally, peacefully, from a family of preachers. His origins instead are in a family of strong, proud, violent men. His shrewd, tight-fisted grandfather bought and carved the Falwell family homestead out of the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia just after the Civil War, and died, as he had lived, a bitter and militant atheist. His father, a bigger-than-life entrepreneur, ran bootleg whiskey during Prohibition and made his fortune in innumerable businesses, from a bus line (which was later to become Trailways and Greyhound) to dance halls, bars and illegal cockfights. Perhaps the pivotal event in Falwell's family life was an act of Biblical horror and retribution-all too closely resembling that of Cain and Abel-when his father, Carey Falwell, shot and killed his own ne'er-do-well brother, Garland. The guilt of this moment haunted Carey Falwell for the rest of his life, turning him into an embittered alcoholic until, on his deathbed, he finally made his peace with God...
(A teenager)...Falwell was not permitted to give his honors address and almost missed the graduation exercises because he was being punished for the behavior of his teenage gang.
Then, at ninteen, Jerry Falwell experienced a spiritual rebirth. Immediately, his life took on a new direction. He convinced members of his gang to attend Park Avenue Baptist Church, where they too were converted."
For Jerry Falwell did not come to Christianity easily, naturally, peacefully, from a family of preachers. His origins instead are in a family of strong, proud, violent men. His shrewd, tight-fisted grandfather bought and carved the Falwell family homestead out of the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia just after the Civil War, and died, as he had lived, a bitter and militant atheist. His father, a bigger-than-life entrepreneur, ran bootleg whiskey during Prohibition and made his fortune in innumerable businesses, from a bus line (which was later to become Trailways and Greyhound) to dance halls, bars and illegal cockfights. Perhaps the pivotal event in Falwell's family life was an act of Biblical horror and retribution-all too closely resembling that of Cain and Abel-when his father, Carey Falwell, shot and killed his own ne'er-do-well brother, Garland. The guilt of this moment haunted Carey Falwell for the rest of his life, turning him into an embittered alcoholic until, on his deathbed, he finally made his peace with God...
(A teenager)...Falwell was not permitted to give his honors address and almost missed the graduation exercises because he was being punished for the behavior of his teenage gang.
Then, at ninteen, Jerry Falwell experienced a spiritual rebirth. Immediately, his life took on a new direction. He convinced members of his gang to attend Park Avenue Baptist Church, where they too were converted."
