After reading most of the posts on Falwell, I'm getting a little confused. What exactly was his great sin? That he was a racist, homophobic, hate-filled Nazi who defamed true Christianity? Or that he was fat?

With a lot of these posts, it's hard to tell.

Read this:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/051607.html

I was responding to "southwest's" post and followed my response by pasting in all of his/her original post. Please understand that I was not defending Falwell but I was defending all the posters that felt elation etc. at the passing of Falwell. More to the point I was very happy to hear of his death. I have no belief in an afterlife or god so cannot comment on his whereabouts after death but would assume if there is a hell he is front and center taking in the heat.

It was "southwest" that questioned "liberal tolerance?" with his post. I'm not an expert in how to set up a response to other remarks but willing to learn if someone can give some guidenance so that people like Moira Kelly do not totally misunderstand where I am coming from.

I like the rest of you guys felt compelled to write my thoughts on the passage of Jerry Falwell. When I heard about his death I was very very happy :)

I am not a bad person. As a feminist Falwell did really get under my skin, because my cousin, who I love, is gay, Falwell pissed me off. Thirdly because I'm not a born again but a buddhist, being told I'm an unworthy person and am going to die in the "rapture" he made me #@**# mad. I don't believe in hell but I do believe in karma, he's screwed.

He was a parasite and America will be better off without him, the only scary thing is some people agreed with his views.

P.s. Good for you purple tele tubby, carry your purse proudly!

Only it's NOT true. You believe what the L.U. rep tells you about the school, but I went to the webpages of the 2 national collegiate debate organizations, and read the awards for the last 20 years.

I see a pattern here.

First Anna Nicole Smith,

Then Jerry Falwell,

Who could be next?

Joey Butafuco?

I only wish I could be at the funeral to tamp the dirt down. Maybe instead of flowers in the hole, we could trow tacks!

Are you sure about Liberty U. having policies against interracial dating? I think maybe you're thinking of Bob Jones.

check the National Debate Tournament website. The 2007 national debate tournament season’s top 5 teams are: U. of Georgia, U of Oklahoma, U of Kansas, Dartmouth, Wayne State University. L.U. LIED about winning that honor.

and they didn't get in the top 5 national debate tournament in 2006 either:

1st - Harvard University - Michael Klinger & Nikhil Mirchandani

2nd - Cal Berkeley - Michael Burshteyn & Craig Wickersham

3rd - Michigan State - Ryan Burke & Casey Harrigan

4th - Northwestern - Noah Chestnut & Josh Branson

5th - Dartmouth - Kathryn Clark & Brian Smith

the LIED about that too and stole the glory from these hard-working students

Yes. I'm from Va, we've known about Fallwell years before he hit national headlines. Girls HAVE to wear skirts.

L.U. also requires that their biology professors believe in creationism rather than evolution.

Three students at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University were dismissed because they "refused to stop worshiping at a Pentecostal church," as opposed to the Baptist services mandated by the school. University staff said that the three were "creating some confusion" among the other students by sharing with them their differing religious beliefs. Associated Press, 9/27/91

Referring to the Supreme Courts' decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Christian televangelist and Liberty University founder Jerry Falwell once said [in a 1958 speech], "If Chief Justice [Earl] Warren and his associates had known God's Word..., I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never have been made." There is no record of an apology. [National Journal, 11/3/84]

Falwell gave a sermon on segregation, stating that "The true Negro does not want integration... He realizes his potential is far better among his own race... It will destroy our race eventually... In one northern city, a pastor friend of mine tells me that a couple of opposite race live next door to his church as man and wife... It boils down to whether we are going to take God's Word as final." He apologized for his comments in a 1988 interview. [Washington Post, 7/24/88]

off the LU website itself:

"Required attendance at convocations and chapels three times weekly. "

“I listen to feminists and all these radical gals… These women just need a man in the house. That’s all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they’re mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They’re sexist. They hate men; that’s their problem."

In 2004 Falwell called the National Organization for Women (NOW) the "National Order of Witches,"

No doubt about Falwell having been a segregationist, but I can't find any corroboration of Liberty U having had a ban on interracial dating. You have a source?

Religious fundamentalism is modern society's manifestation of the innate distrust of "otherness" that all human beings share. Centuries of Civilization have made things better. They're getting better decade by decade (despite mountains of anecdotal evidence to the contrary).

The fact that those of us who are well-educated and thoughtful demonize this particular powerful fool as one of the worst threats to our country is a GOOD sign. Think of what a Jerry Falwell of one-hundred years ago would be saying, and asking his follwers to do. He CERTAINLY wouldn't be apologizing for his post 9-11 comments.

All we can do is speak up about how aborrent Falwell's (and others') fundamentalist bigotry is, and hope things keep getting better...decade by decade, century by century.

In regards to Philliejoe's post, Harry Truman, while historically Baptist (he also attended Episcopal congregations as that was the history of his wife), he was never in any way, shape, or form a Baptist "Lay Preacher."