There are times when the loss of a human being attracts great fanfare and comment and others when it receives little or no notice. In recent months two people on opposite sides of the church-state debate died, Jerry Falwell on the religious side and Sherwin Wine on the Humanist side.

It was hard to miss the media coverage following the death of Jerry Falwell. There isn’t much to add other than from our vantage point on the church-state issue, Falwell did not seem to have grasped that those of us who don’t have a religious belief should be as welcome in the American Experiment as any believer. Falwell was quite firm in his beliefs that science, reason and tolerance should all be superseded by faith in an all-knowing God—and what Falwell believed that God wanted for us. Falwell refused to be educated about how gays and lesbians exist in our society, preferring to side with those who would force them to change.

Those are just some basic things about Falwell. In my previous life I was, for a while, a member of a church and used to sing the song “They Shall Know We Are Christians by Our Love.” I can still remember some of the lyrics and reflect on them when I think of what Jerry Falwell did for our society. I don’t find that he measures up to the Christianity expressed by this popular song. Falwell only showed love to those who shared his religion, politics and, early in his life, skin color. Falwell did move from his early racist stance, but that was one of the few viewpoints that he changed.

While it’s considered impolite to say ill of the dead, I’m fine with saying that Falwell did more damage to our world than good and it will take time to get us moving forward from that.

Sherwin Wine, on the other hand, was a hard-working Humanist. His death was little noticed by the media world. There were no news flashes about his death, no cable news crews with big trucks outside of his home or at his memorial service. I don’t even remember seeing a notice about his death in our local paper. Yet Wine probably did more to help humanity than Falwell ever did. He tried to organize Humanists and move us to do important things and that is no small task.

If we look at both lives, we can see two men working to live their ideals. One used his to find ways to limit thought on sexuality, science and reason and the other used his to expand such thought. It’s up to us as Humanists to continue the works of Sherwin Wine and to fight against those of Jerry Falwell. I know that’s what I try to do every day.