Ambivalent over Jerry Falwell

[wallyb]

So I heard Rev. Jerry Falwell died today on the news tonight.
And I don't know how I feel about that
He made some awfully mean comments and spread a lot of intolerance.
How's it leaving you?

 

[unfreshdiva1]

To quote a song from A Chorus Line - "I Feel Nothing"

 

[m4travel]

Having just finished reading The Dante Club, I'm trying to decide in which Circle he will reside.
[I suppose some may feel that it's mean-spirited, but I think he did more to divide our nation than to unite us.]

 

[donald...really]

Out of respect, I can't post what I am feeling.

 

[CanadianGuy]

I think the best thing I could say is that I'm confident that he started out with all the very best of intentions.. but as so often is the case .. I think money, politics and power overtook the best intentions..

Knox

 

[dkostel]

Ah, the guy who blamed 911 on gays, lesbians, & feminists. I couldn't believe Disney let him slide on that. I emailed & they gave me some contractual obligation BS
I always find it hard to believe that people capable of such hate, can actually be happy here with all the people they hate. Perhaps he can find some peace now.

 

[Viki]

Oh, my, I was saying to DP earlier this evening that quite to my surprise I am feeling very sad.

The truth is that I very much believe that fundamentalists of his ilk get the Jesus event radically, 180 degrees, wrong but at the exact same time, I do believe they have a faith relationship with God that has empowered them in extraordinary ways throughout their lives.

At base, I'm sorry that he never seemed to spy the broader horizon of what God might be up to. I'm very sad that, even at the end, his god was so small and I believe, with a sure and certain hope, that in this very moment the mind of his soul is being stretched, in the arms of God, beyond what any of us can imagine.

 

[easleygrls]

I work for a national non-profit where it's against policy to espouse any specific religious or political opinions. But privately, the first thing many of my co-workers asked was "was he alone?"

I too am ambivalent about it, having just gone through the death of my best friend I know how sad it is. But on the other hand I am afraid there will be some newer, youger, energetic, up-and-coming nutjob to take his place as a thorn in our side.

 

[RemixBoyNJ]

Im sort of feeling "eh" about the whole thing honestly, but there is always someone up and coming to take his place and that is what scares me the most.

 

[momtoBrandon&Jacob]

Ah, the guy who blamed 911 on gays, lesbians, & feminists. I couldn't believe Disney let him slide on that. I emailed & they gave me some contractual obligation BS
I always find it hard to believe that people capable of such hate, can actually be happy here with all the people they hate. Perhaps he can find some peace now.

And don't forget the Jews. Like I always say "what goes around comes around"...good riddance!

 

[PghLybrt]

Sorry but if I really post what I thought about him as well as Phelps and the lovely 700 club I would be permanently barred from these boards.


With that said I find it not comforting but almost justified that he is dead because he blamed 9/11 and the state of our nation on us. He has said that God would and has stopped watching over our great nation because of us. Then just a few weeks ago in an interview he speaks about how he prays to god that he can be here for at least another 20 years because he has more work to do. Well if God does work in the way he thought and punishes for actions then I guess god didn’t like his very much did he?

 

[easleygrls]

Sorry but if I really post what I thought about him as well as Phelps and the lovely 700 club I would be permanently barred from these boards.

THAT old fart will probably live to 173!

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

I am not pleased in any way that he has died. That simply isn't in my make up to be happy that someone has croaked.

But, I'll not be doing a novena for the repose of his soul either.

I can only say that I truly hope he is in a place that is much kinder to him than he was to untold millions with his hate mongering.

 

[Genesia]

The opposite of love is not hate. It is apathy. What I feel for Falwell now is the same thing I felt before. Apathy. I don't care enough to be upset.

 

[SkyMedik]

Frankly, I am happy he is no longer here to spread filth and lead otherwise decent (if naive) people down a bad path. While I would not have personally contributed to his death, I am unapologetically glad he is gone. Yes, God is the one who can judge - but I think it demeans society to think that people shouldn't try and have opinions. So...good riddance.

 

[legalsea]

I posted this on another disboard thread about Falwell, where it got virtually no reaction, which I thought rather scary in and of itself. Here is the post:

Interesting article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this morning, related to Falwell (I read the paper version; it may be on the net version).

There is a church group (as Paul Harvey would say, "They would like for me to mention their name.....(silence)", that, for reasons unknown to me, go to funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq or Afganistan and protest homosexuality. The sexual preference of the fallen soldier is not at issue. It seems that this group believes that it is due to this Christian country 'allowing' homosexuals to exist, is the reason we are being punished (by God) in Iraq, etc.

Needless to say, these protests upset the families at the funerals. Last year a law (here in Texas) was passed that mandates that any protestor stay 500 feet away from the funeral site; a proposed law will extend it to 1000 feet.

Anyway, the group had scheduled a protest for a fallen Texas soldier, who was to be buried tomorrow, I believe. However, they have called off the protest so as to go to Mr. Falwell's funeral and protest at HIS funeral. Why? Because they claim Mr. Falwell was soft on condemning homosexuality. This group apparently has no doubt as to where Mr. Falwell will spend eternity, and not to his advantage, all because he failed to condemn homosexuality every day in every way.

Personally, I think the law should extend the distance to 1000 miles.

 

[ConcKahuna]

Digg it del.icio.us AIM
Protesters skip soldier's funeral for Falwell's
By AMAN BATHEJA
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
NEW BRAUNFELS -- He died two days ago, but in a bizarre twist of fate, the Rev. Jerry Falwell provided a final bit of heavenly solace to the friends and family of fallen soldier Anthony Bradshaw on Wednesday.

Many in New Braunfels had braced for a protest at Bradshaw's funeral by members of Westboro Baptist Church. The Topeka, Kan., church has drawn widespread scorn for staging anti-homosexuality demonstrations at fallen soldiers' funerals.

The group's message is that U.S. soldiers are dying in Iraq because of America's tolerance of homosexuality.

Information on the funeral of Bradshaw, a 21-year-old Army specialist killed by a roadside bomb in Baqouba, Iraq, was recently posted on the group's Web site.

But the protesters were a no-show in New Braunfels on Wednesday because they chose to travel to Virginia in preparation for demonstrating at Falwell's funeral, said member Shirley Phelps-Roper, who is also an attorney for the church.

"There are dead soldiers everywhere," Phelps-Roper said. "You don't have a very high-profile, cowardly, lying false prophet like Falwell dying every day."

Phelps-Roper said the group plans to demonstrate at Falwell's service because members believe he was never harsh enough in his declarations that homosexuality was the source of America's problems.

"That coward is afraid. He is ashamed of the Gospel of the Jesus Christ," Phelps-Roper said. "He claimed he had the Word of God and then he hid it."

New Braunfels officials prepared for protesters just in case. More than an hour before the funeral, dozens of law enforcement officers were within a three-block radius of Doeppenschmidt Funeral Home, where Bradshaw's services were held. They remained until the funeral procession left for Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio.

State Reps. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, and Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, were at the funeral home before the service to meet with and show support for Bradshaw's family.

Geren said he checks the church's Web site daily to see whether it is planning a protest in Texas. He said he plans to go to every Texas funeral that the group protests.

"They don't have any right doing what they're doing," Geren said. "That time is a special time that these families deserve to have without these hateful, hateful practices."

Like many other states, Texas enacted a law last year banning protests near a funeral after news spread of the church's tactics. State law requires protesters to stay at least 500 feet from a building or cemetery where a funeral is being held.

Geren has filed a bill to extend that distance to 1,000 feet in response to reports that Westboro members have begun using bullhorns. The bill has passed the House and is awaiting a Senate vote.

Also on hand at Bradshaw's funeral were more than 20 members of the Patriot Guard Riders, a nationwide group of motorcyclists who attend soldiers' funerals. Members attend the services to show support and rev their engines to drown out Westboro protesters.

Rider Charles Rathgeber of New Braunfels compared the protesters to the negative response that some veterans received when they returned from the Vietnam War.

"Those guys don't need the welcome home or the lack of welcome home the previous generation got," Rathgeber said.

As mourners arrived at the funeral home, the riders stood solemnly near the entrances, most holding up white poles with U.S. flags atop.

Inside, attendees focused on their memories of Bradshaw.

"This is the home of the free because of brave men like Tony," said Maj. Gen. Russell Czerw, commander of Fort Sam Houston. He presented Bradshaw's family several medals the soldier had earned, including a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

After receiving the awards, relatives gathered around the flag-draped coffin and clutched one another tightly.

The only sound in the room was of a woman sobbing.

Aman Batheja, 817-390-7695
abatheja@star-telegram.com

 

[sotoalf]

Here's the best obit I've read:

FAITH BASED FRAUD
by Christopher Hitchens

The discovery of the carcass of Jerry Falwell on the floor of an obscure office in Virginia has almost zero significance, except perhaps for two categories of the species labeled "credulous idiot." The first such category consists of those who expected Falwell (and themselves) to be bodily raptured out of the biosphere and assumed into the heavens, leaving pilotless planes and driverless trucks and taxis to crash with their innocent victims as collateral damage. This group is so stupid and uncultured that it may perhaps be forgiven. It is so far "left behind" that almost its only pleasure is to gloat at the idea of others being abandoned in the same condition.

The second such category is of slightly more importance, because it consists of the editors, producers, publicists, and a host of other media riffraff who allowed Falwell to prove, almost every week, that there is no vileness that cannot be freely uttered by a man whose name is prefaced with the word Reverend. Try this: Call a TV station and tell them that you know the Antichrist is already on earth and is an adult Jewish male. See how far you get. Then try the same thing and add that you are the Rev. Jim-Bob Vermin. "Why, Reverend, come right on the show!" What a fool Don Imus was. If he had paid the paltry few bucks to make himself a certified clergyman, he could be jeering and sneering to the present hour.
Falwell went much further than his mad 1999 assertion about the Jewish Antichrist. In the time immediately following the assault by religious fascism on American civil society in September 2001, he used his regular indulgence on the airwaves to commit treason. Entirely exculpating the suicide-murderers, he asserted that their acts were a divine punishment of the United States. Again, I ask you to imagine how such a person would be treated if he were not supposedly a man of faith.

One of his associates, Bailey Smith, once opined that "God does not hear the prayers of a Jew." This is one of the few anti-Semitic remarks ever made that has a basis in fact, since God does not exist and does not attend to any prayers, but Smith was not quite making that point. Along with his friend Pat Robertson, who believes in secret Jewish control of the world of finance, and Billy Graham, who boasted to Richard Nixon that the Jews had never guessed what he truly thought of them, Falwell kept alive the dirty innuendo about Jews that so many believing Christians seem to need. This would be bad enough in itself, and an additional reason to deplore the free ride he was given on television, if his trade-off had not been even worse.
Seeking to deflect the charge of anti-Jewish prejudice, Falwell adopted the cause of the most thuggish and demented Israeli settlers, proclaiming that their occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was a holy matter and hoping that they might help to bring on Armageddon and the return of the Messiah. A detail in this ghastly narrative, as adepts of the "Left Behind" series will know, is that the return of the risen Christ will require the mass slaughter or mass conversion of all Jews. This consideration did not prevent Menachem Begin from awarding Falwell the Jabotinsky Centennial Medal in 1980 and has not inhibited other Israeli extremists from embracing him and his co-thinkers ever since. All bigots and frauds are brothers under the skin. Trying to interrupt the fiesta of piety on national television on the night of Falwell's death, I found myself waiting while Ralph Reed went all moist about the role of the departed in empowering "people of faith." Here was the hypocritical casino-based Christian who sought and received the kosher stamp from Jack Abramoff. Perfect.

Like many fanatical preachers, Falwell was especially disgusting in exuding an almost sexless personality while railing from dawn to dusk about the sex lives of others. His obsession with homosexuality was on a par with his lip-smacking evocations of hellfire. From his wobbly base of opportunist fund raising and degree-mill money-spinning in Lynchburg, Va., he set out to puddle his sausage-sized fingers into the intimate arrangements of people who had done no harm. Men of this type, if they cannot persuade enough foolish people to part with their savings, usually end up raving on the street and waving placards about the coming day of judgment. But Falwell, improving on the other Chaucerian frauds from Oral Roberts to Jim Bakker to Ted Haggard, not only had a TV show of his own but was also regularly invited onto mainstream ones.

The evil that he did will live after him. This is not just because of the wickedness that he actually preached, but because of the hole that he made in the "wall of separation" that ought to divide religion from politics. In his dingy racist past, Falwell attacked those churchmen who mixed the two worlds of faith and politics and called for civil rights. Then he realized that two could play at this game and learned to play it himself. Then he won the Republican Party over to the idea of religious voters and faith-based fund raising. And now, by example at least, he has inspired emulation in many Democrats and liberals who would like to borrow the formula. His place on the cable shows will be amply filled by Al Sharpton: another person who can get away with anything under the rubric of Reverend. It's a shame that there is no hell for Falwell to go to, and it's extraordinary that not even such a scandalous career is enough to shake our dumb addiction to the "faith-based."

 

[colleen costello]

WOW! What a great article. I was happy the mean old fart died and now I won't feel guilty for thinking so. As a feminist I always kind of thihk "The only good fundamentalist is a DEAD one" anyway.

 

[cybertheo]

Like I always say "what goes around comes around"...good riddance!

Ditto