Jerry Falwell, a man of god?

One idiot interviewing another idiot can lead only to a round-robin of idiocy. Jerry Falwell is a Man of God (all caps, pls) because he says so, pure and complex. How does he get international coverage? How does George W. get to be president? Not all the people in the world are as sane as you or I, Dys.

All in all, I think that's a good thing.

Pob'ly so. For the well-being of all concerned.

I got sooo interested in Jerry I looked him up on wikipedia.org and found this really funny stuff about jerry man of god;

I can just hear the doormen at his church . . .

I welcome you with outstretched hand . . .

Oh, bookmark!

This is going to be interesting, I can just tell!

Gracious, if I said that, I would be trussed up like a turkey in a camisole, and sent off to the nearest looney bin.

It is really very simple. It is fiscally efficient for the fundamentalists to keep the hoi-polloi scared and emotionally connected to the ultra religious concept of God. The more that people know, the more that they can control their own fates, the tighter the hold on their money clips.

It is the functional equivalent of being "barefoot and pregnant". Keep people humble and quaking in front of their God, and you have them by the balls. Teach people that they can control their fates, and can conquer nature, and the fundamentalist preachers might have to find another line of work.

Jerry's an all day trip:

The Jews are returning to their land of unbelief. They are spiritually blind and desperately in need of their Messiah and Savior.

In his book, Listen, America!

Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them.

Uttered during a broadcast of CNN's Crossfire program, May, 1997.

I know a few of you here today don't like Jews.
And I know why. He can make more money accidentally than you can on purpose.

Uttered during a broadcast of his television program.

I do not believe that God answers the prayer of any unredeemed Gentile or Jew.

Statement to reporters at the 1980 Religious Right convention in Dallas.

Re: Jerry Falwell, a man of god?


I don't have the answer to that one, but I suspect it is the same as why a major media outlet will trot out movie stars and such to discuss politics and US policies as if they have some kind of credibility.

Almost as horrifying as the thought of electing a third rate "movie star" as President . . . oh, wait . . .

I spenty my summers in Lynchburg as a child and then moved there after I was invited to leave Ohio. I married a girl (wife #1) whose parents were deacons in Jerrys church at Thomas Road. My grandfather worked for the Falwell family in the summer after retirement.

I could tell a lot of stories but suffice to say his church I found to be a circus the couple of times I was dragged there.

Phoenix's point is well taken. The whole purpose for the existence of organized religion is to keep us all in line. This has been so since the first shaman decided that the way to bring good weather for the crops was to sacrifice a few virgins to the weather god.

Yeah, the buffoon hastened the end of the Cold War.

OOOPS , wait....... I didn't say that. I confess.....I got it from a right wing blog.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/10/eveningnews/main622398.shtml

True, Phoenix. You probably couldn't pass for a man of God.

Or any other kind of a man, come to that.

My overall take on Falwell is that he is what the people created. It was the people who tuned in and watched Falwell and his Old Time Gospel Hour, it was the people who believed in him and what he said and sent him money when he begged for it. It was the people who packed up their children and shipped them off to Liberty Baptist University and the joys of Lynchburg Virginia.
Yes, Falwell has made a very complete and total jerk, moron, ignorant fool, a... of himself all on his own vocal utterances (and his printed ones as well I have to admit also into the evidentiary files). Yet one must ask how much power Falwell would have had, had it not been for people who were desperate for answers to the mysteries of life and were searching for a spiritual connection of some sort. Falwell gave it to them...at one time. I must confess that even I watched Falwell's program as a youth and found myself mesmerized by him.
These days because Falwell is in the public spotlight anything he says can and will be used against him but I can almost guarantee nobody sees the good he has done. He has through his Bible teachings and preaching of God and Jesus brought many folks into a more firmly based life of decency.

Do I agree with everything Falwell says? Don't be absurd. I am a gay man and he has directed many of his accusations towards homosexuals so I would be well beyond insane to agree with all of his words. We must however stop, take a few steps back and ask ourselves how much coverage and attention the same things would receive if they were spewed out of the mouth of a 10 year old or an unknown mother of 4 or a recently widowed man who was struggling with life. Or how about the town drunk? It all comes down to who says it and how much power I wish to give them. If I do not agree with him, then instead of sitting back and carping about it, is it not my responsibility to step out onto the field and launch a true response directly at Falwell and in a venue that all can see and/or here?

And it is amazing that Falwell has all these people hanging on to his every word. What a con man. Have you ever seen the film, "Elmer Gantry"? If you haven't, it is worth a look-see.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053793/

Oversimplified, and packaged homilies made for quick assimilation by a TV nation is a very cynical and clver way to distribute ones ****.
Jerry does it well .
However, since much of his crap is vented against something he considers an abomination, rather than teaching us to "love eachother", if I were a believer, I would consider him the voice of the ANTICHRIST, ole scratch himself

His words are venomous and his doctrine is downright scary.

But he has a winning style. If you play on peoples' guilt and fear, you've got 'em!