If you've read Jesse Walker's writing, you know how good it can be. So you really should read his appraisal of the late Jerry Falwell; it's very good. Here's a snippet, with a great parenthetical remark contained inside:

The programs on those stations were an odd mix of the old and the new, like someone had crossed an Elmer Gantry tent revival with the Johnny Carson show. Ecstatic spiritual outbursts rubbed elbows with jovial celebrity interviews; angry political rants mixed with constant pleas for the viewer's money. (For the benefit of my liberal readers: The latter resembled a PBS pledge drive, except you didn't collect your tote bag until you died.) Falwell ran one of the quieter shows. It would almost merit the "old time" label in its title, if it wasn't being broadcast over a strange new medium, if it wasn't using that medium to build a strange new sort of a congregation, and if it wasn't using that congregation to flex Falwell's political power.

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