It turns out Jerry Falwell, founder of the "moral majority," has died at the age of 73.

Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority Founder, Dies at 73
By Peter Applebome
New York Times

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the fundamentalist preacher who founded the Moral Majority and brought the language and passions of religious conservatives into the hurly-burly of American politics, died yesterday in Lynchburg, Va. He was 73.

His death was announced by Liberty University, in Lynchburg, where Mr. Falwell, its founder, was chancellor. The university said the cause had not been determined, adding that he died in a hospital after being found unconscious in his university office yesterday morning.

Mr. Falwell went from a Baptist preacher in Lynchburg to a powerful force in electoral politics, at home in both the millennial world of fundamentalist Christianity and the earthly blood sport of the political arena.

As much as anyone, he helped create the religious right as a political force, defined the issues that would energize it for decades and cemented its ties to the Republican Party.

Am I sad that Jerry Falwell is dead and gone? Hell no. He was a hateful, narrow-minded man who empowered a generation of hateful, ignorant, like-minded bigots to rise up against innocent people they disdain and refuse to accept. Would you honor the life of a racist man if you were black and witnessed first-hand the effects of polarizing hate perpetuated by that one man?

I find it insulting to read certain red blogs that are playing "gotcha!" with other left-leaning sites for taking a shots at the holy man. If my prayers would be for anyone, it would be for the man's family and loved ones. They are the ones who deserve mercy, but not that hateful man, one who spoke these shocking words after one of our country's most tragic events:

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.' ~ Jerry Falwell, September 11, 2001

In the coming years, that man will be remembered more for his hateful, polarizing rhetoric against gays and lesbians than for his upholding of the faithful tenets of Jesus Christ. Anyone who hesitates in this fact will grow to regret it in the coming years and decades. This man is a dinosaur and the world is better now that he has passed.