Well, the man who so hated the Roe v Wade decision he went out and started a “moral” foundation to oppose it (and thoughtfully branched out into other territory such as blaming the terrorist attacks of 9/11 on sodomites and feminist abortionists), is dead at the age of 73. Not sure where to go with this. The devil in me has some nasty things to say. Would it, for instance, be wrong to say that perhaps God finally did stike him down to finally spare us all? Too soon? Fair enough. Perhaps I should leave it to the more tactful hands of The Las Vegas Gleaner or Wonkette. [Update: This is also a fabulous and well-reasoned take from Dick Polman.]
And had to share this statement from Lambda:
The death of a family member or friend is always a sad occasion and we express our condolences to all those who were close to the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America’s anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation’s appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation.
-Statement by Matt Foreman, Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
The Sin City Siren 
In the Christian tradition, “the Mass” refers to the physical mass, the body, our greatest teacher here on Earth. When I gaze at the images of the late, fat, blubbery, disease-ridden Jerry Falwell, I can but see a man who was closed to these teachings, a man who insulated himself (with fat) from his own response-ability. Thus, the final opportunity to gain insight, to gain a modicum of accountability is death. The body does not get to such a point of repugnance and disease without decades of neglect. If we at least occasionally self-monitor and take inventory of our own inner reality, it is reflected in our external countenance. As above, so below; as within so without; as we live, so we perish. This was a human being who was clueless – a self-serving, ignorant pig of an individual. No one can imagine what his final moments may have been like; whether he ever arrived at a glimmer of compassion. May he go to a better place.
As I read and assimilate the above post and comment, I am reminded that, statistically, over 65% of all obese adults in this country have been sexually abused as children. Anti-gay and blubbery, Jerry Falwell obviously had his own, underlying reasons for being the way he was. Not to have addressed those demons, however, was boorish and irresponsible. Then society comes along and makes him a celebrity. That obviously doesn’t help. Just one look at someone like Falwell, and any one of us should know that this is not a fount from which we want to drink. Yet many of us drink anyway. And so it goes. . .