"He said, 'I believe God has called me to confront the culture.' And did he ever confront it."

-- THE REV. JERRY VINES, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, who gave the sermon

"People have asked me, 'Franklin, do you agree with Jerry Falwell? Every time he opened the Bible, I agreed with Jerry Falwell."

THE REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM, son of evangelist Billy Graham, whose children attended Liberty University

"I'll never forget [when] he opened his eyes and started looking around and saw my mom's face. I'll never forget the look on his face, he was so, so happy. I knew at that moment we had our dad back. And I know he's had that same look on his face for the last week, ever since he's stepped into heaven.

JEANNIE SAVAS, describing her father recovering at a hospital several years ago

"As far as I'm concerned, he woke up a slumbering church and gave them a place at the political table."

H.B. LONDON, vice president of Focus on the Family

"Jerry was a great friend and pastor, and I loved him. It's going to be very hard to say goodbye."

RAY SIMMS, one of the original 35 members of Thomas Road Baptist Church who attended youth rallies with Falwell before he was a preacher

"It's such a privilege to be here with such a man of faith. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sit in the sanctuary and honor his life."

RENA LINDEVALDEN, who waited since 1:53 a.m. Tuesday and was the first person in line for the funeral; teaches law at the university

"I think Liberty University could face trouble without him. It now has an accredited law school and a significant endowment that will allow it to stay around for a while. But without the figure of Jerry Falwell, it simply won't be as attractive a place to go."

THE REV. BARRY LYNN, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State

"The Christian Moral Majority became a legitimate entity in the religious and political world because of him. He was certainly a colorful and entertaining figure. We weren't enemies but we disagreed frequently. He was passionate but divisive. He truly believed he had the one truth and the only road to salvation and God. When you say Christian nation, our antennas vibrate because of 2,000 years of history of contempt toward the Jews."

ABE FOXMAN. national director of the Anti-Defamation League

"The dream of a single religious and conservative voice is much less likely today than in the 1990s. There is no single dominant figure in the religious sense the way he was. I don't think it is terribly likely that we'll see someone of his broad influence again."

RABBI ERIC YOFFIE, president of the Union for Reform Judaism

"I mourn his death, but I'm glad his voice is silent. He's the face of homophobia, and his words have been so destructive to my sisters and brothers. I think the total of his life is evil. Right now, his university is training thousands of little Falwells. He's not dead, his spirit moves on."

MEL WHITE, ghostwriter of Falwell's autobiography, author of "Religion Gone Bad" and co-founder of Soulforce, a gay-rights group

"His legacy is going to be one of divisiveness and mean-spiritedness. Will the kind of hateful commentary that he provided end? Probably not; there will be those who see the void that he left as something that they are willing to fill. He criticized every group with the exception of heterosexual white men."

MELODY DRNACH. vice president of action at the National Organization for Women