Jerry Falwell dead

I thought of that, Phoenix, after I wrote it. A fine line, I grant you. But there could have been other ways for him shut up without actually dying. There is something in me that's preventing me from saying that I'm glad he's dead. Don't know what it is or why it's there, but it's how I feel.

I'm going to have to ponder further.

Roberta-

I found the reactions of people very interesting, and started this thread:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=96376

Personally, I'm interested in what skeletons will fall out of the closet now.

Often ofter someone dies lots of secrets come out.

However, I'm only interested mildly. It's not like it matters.

I agree with Pheonix.

Jerry Falwell was a hate monger who would have destroyed our governemt as we know it.

"AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharaoh's charioteers."
--Jerry Falwell

I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!
-- Rev Jerry Falwell, America Can Be Saved, 1979 pp. 52-53, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

"Someone must not be afriad to say, 'moral perversion is wrong.' If we do not act now, homosexuals will 'own' America!...If you and I do not speak up now, this homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in its way...and our nation will pay a terrible price!" - People for the American Way, "Hostile Climate," 1997, p.15.

"Modern U.S. Supreme Courts have raped the Constitution and raped the Christian faith and raped the churches by misinterpreting what the founders had in mind in the First Amendment of the Constitution... (W)e must fight against those radical minorities who are trying to remove God from our textbooks, Christ from our nation. We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation. We must take back what is rightfully ours."
March 1993 sermon

"The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country."
- Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sermon, July 4, 1976

"I think Mohammed was a terrorist. I read enough of the history of his life. He was a violent man, a man of war. Jesus set the example for love, as did Moses. And I think Mohammed set an opposite example."
- Rev. Jerry Falwell

Nothing has changed because he died. He was a scumbag on Monday, the day before he died, a scumbag on Tuesday, the day he died, and a scumbag today, the day after he died.

We must remind ourselves today as we did yesterday that Jerry Falwell was not a good American but a minister who spread a message of hate, fear and intolerance.

He was a good Republican.

BTW, here's a quiz for you.
http://www.funnystrange.com/quiz/

Falwel was a puppet.

Extremists like Jerry allow for politicians to talk out of both sides of their mouth. He could say whatever he wants, the more extreme the better, and he can express views that many politicians have, but then the politicians can comment on how they agree about it but selectively. Ultimately they want these kind of things to be said, but they don't want the baggage of having to say them.

When Jerry died, the "moral majority" tool was crippled.

Give ti some time, someone will rise to fill his shoes. A$$holes are lining up I'm sure.

Probably about as much as I seek yours.

Who was Jerry Falwell & what were his beliefs?
Jerry Falwell was an ignorant man who learned how to organize and mislead other uninformed people. He reacted to the excesses of the young during the '60s and 70s and racial integration and began his crusade to restore his mother's world and to bury his father's. Won't he be surprised to discover that there is no heaven nor hell? Just one life opportunity. His death speaks for itself in memory of his acts.---BBB

God does not take delight in the death of someone wicked. (Ezekiel 33:11) I assume this applies to ones who are merely ignorant. But Wilso is correct about the fact that Jerry is not roasting in hell - not singing with angels, either - just plain old dead.

bingo.

I know its not good form to speak ill of the dead. But then people do, and pretty soon after their demise too. Think of Pol Pot, A Hitler, J Stalin. With J Falwell I would think 48 hours is long enough.

This thread, and Phoenix's thread on speaking ill of the dead are both interesting. I'm genuinely ambivalent--it neither pleases nor dismays me that this man has died. He meant and means nothing to me. I would point out, though, that this was not an "early death," so i don't think that Eorl's remark applies. He had a long life, and plenty of time to push his views on others, and had the intelligence and energy to forward his agenda effectively. I also think that Snood has overstated the case. People here aren't dancing on his grave, because it is doubtful that this site is a place where those who genuinely loved and valued the man are going to read things that distress them. In the final analysis, any glee that anyone expresses here at this death does no injury to the deceased, to anyone who grieves at his death, nor to themselves. I find arguments which have been made about people here with "liberal" points of view being hypocritical because of their reaction to Falwell's death to be unconvincing.

who was he anyway?

He was a Baptist minister who established his own church, and a "university," from which he promoted a conservative political agenda, being one of the founders of the "moral majority." (Those who actually conceived of the "moral majority" encouraged Falwell to found the movement, because he was by then already a successful "televangelist," and therefore had the media presence to forward the agenda.) This group, the Moral Majority, wanted to take control of evangelical Christian conservatives, and from there to take control of government policy. Their targets were abortion and homosexuality, which they intended to end through media censorship and the promotion of "family values." Many Americans, both "liberal" and centrist were fond of pointing out that the "moral majority" were neither moral nor a majority. Falwell became a polarizing figure as a result, and became far more of a national celebrity than he would have been were it not for the "moral majority" movement.

Re: Who was Jerry Falwell & what were his beliefs?


Won't you be surprised to discover there is?

Re: Who was Jerry Falwell & what were his beliefs?
I'd go along with Solomon on this:
"For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten. 6 Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they have no portion anymore to time indefinite in anything that has to be done under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 9: 5,6)

Thanks. I sort of guessed this. In fact I think I could have guessed all. Apart from the bisexual transvestite bit.

Yeah, i think he was a boyfriend of J. Edgar Hoover when he was a college boy . . .

Thanks Phoenix for starting the other thread. If I ever figure out why I feel uneasy about being happy someone died, I'll chime in.


I mean, if I'm here, which I'm not, since I really left.

I don't feel inclined to celebrate Falwell's passing, because he was just a human being, like the rest of us, and his death is the end of any possibility of growth or change; had he lived, a "religious" experience might have led him to a more humane or responsible theology, and the evil that he did could have been mitigated or even reversed had he the opportunity (and inclination) to use his obvious skills for good instead of evil. That possibility, admittedly a remote one, is now lost; another life wasted in service to superstition.

On the other hand, though I find the glee that some have expressed over his demise uncharitable, I understand (and share) the sentiments, if not the desire to express them. To me it is a matter of rising above, instead of wallowing alongside, the Reverend.

In either case, it surely does not matter now to Falwell.

Jerry Falwell's Immorality

He was, of course, a monster.

What kind of man, let alone what kind of minister of the Gospel, would underwrite a video full of made-up stories about a president of the United States, whose policies he happened to oppose, being a cocaine trafficker and assassin? What kind of man would then recruit the film's producer to pose as an investigative journalist appearing in sillouette, as Falwell himself interviewed him about why he feared for his own life? ("Be assured, we will be praying for your safety.")

What kind of man and minister of the Gospel would report that another president whose policies he happened to oppose said things to him that he never, ever said? ("Falwell responded that his account 'was not intended to be a verbatim report,' but rather an 'honest portrayal' of [President] Carter's position.")

I can respect a man with the integrity not to hide controversial beliefs, like, "God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew." But what kind of man, let alone a minster of the Gospel, would claim to have changed his mind on the most profound questions of theology (reassuring his powerful friends on NBC's "Meet the Press," "God hears the prayers of all persons") simply to save political face?

(As The Washington Post reminds us today,offers the owner $5,000claims to have never uttered such wordsfall over themselves, of course, to praise.

Here is a dispatch from the America Falwell has given us: A bearded Orthodox Jew earlier this month went public with his experience of being harassed by prostelytizing Christian chaplains and staff at an Iowa Veterans Administration hospital: "You mean you don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah?" "Is it just Orthodox Jews who deny Jesus?" "I don't understand; how can you not believe in Jesus; he's the Messiah of the Jews, too, you know."

During one visit, an elderly couple performed "The Old Rugged Cross" in the waiting room. The veteran recalled: "It was driving me nuts, and they were enjoying it."

--Rick Perlstein | Wednesday, May 16, 2007 10:24 AM
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/05/16/jerry_falwells_immorality.php