Jerry Falwell created hell for other people by spouting his bigotry, lies and denial, racism mongering, sexism and abuse of others, while CASHING IN on his FOR-PROFIT RELIGION b-u-s-i-n-e-s-s. Peddling bigotry to his faithful and then peddling his faith voter block to politicians in exchange for political power and perks. Jerry was an immoderate, ego-tripping TRICKSTER and huckster.

It's ALWAYS ABOUT the bottom line, stupid: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$...

One one level, good riddence. Thhs hateful reflection of our worst shadow. But there's another issue. Men like Falwell don't exist in a vacuum. As a wise man once said, if a madman walks off a cliff and twenty million follow, is the madman to blame?

Falwell was and is, as many are, a distubing mirror into the perverse psyche of much of America. Underneath his false pieties (which he may have delusionally believed), there exists the troubling reality of the relentless drive and need for power that dominates so much of American life.

How we come to terms with these contradictions and primitiveness is an extraordinarily complex conundrum. The conflict within the country's soul is reflected in men like this.

My hope is that their influence is on the wane but it will be a gradual process of deterioration.

What a strange mix this country is where insanity often is the norm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkAPaEMwyKU

Chris Hitchens world book tour 2007 lashing out at Falwell, Jews, Bush and the usual suspects. I wonder though what we'll be saying at Drunky McStalin's own funeral? I love angry lynchmobs.

even after the Supreme Court ruled interracial marriages were legal Falwell refused to perform them

he spoke at segregationalist rallies. In the fifties, Falwell used the Bible to claim the 1954 Supreme Court integration decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a satanic plot. In 1967 he started a racially segregated "Christian" school to avoid public school desegregation.

in 1973. The SEC charged Falwell's church that year with "fraud and deceit" in the issuance of $6.5 million in unsecured church bonds. Falwell admitted that the SEC was "technically" correct

The Federal Election Commission fined Falwell $6,000 for illegally transferring $6.7 million in funds intended for his religious ministry to political action committees.

Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!

Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.

Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.

Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead. She's gone where the goblins go,

Below - below - below. Yo-ho, let's open up and sing and ring the bells out.

Ding Dong' the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.

Let them know

The Wicked Witch is dead!

Several posters seem to be dampening their own relief with the bromide that "this doesn't matter, because there's always another fascist demagogue waiting to take his place". But that's not strictly true.

Certainly there isn't another with the same kind of media penetration he had, ready and waiting to jump in the hot seat. Nor is there another with his financial and political clout, ballooning over the horizon to cast an new dark age shadow over us. He was a rather singular part of the apparatus, and no so easily exchanged as one might assume.

Even if you disregard that, there is still a measure of relief to be gained by his now and future absence from the national discourse. Removing some of the cancer in your body is much to be preffered to removing none of it. Likewise it's beneficial to kill of part of an infection, even if only on the way to removing it completely down the line.

So do not temper your optimism with the notion that this is an insignificant change and that the vacuum will soon be filled with an identical villian. This is a very real change, the removal of a foundation stone in an edifice of deceipt and hatred.

"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."

Read the rest of Hitchens' absolutely brilliant essay at http://www.slate.com/id/2166337/nav/tap2/. Yes, I spend most of my posting time on Salon pointing out the violence and lies behind mainstream Islam, but I despise the virulently anti-intellectual (hell, anti-intelligence) "Left Behind" strain of Christianity. They are not equivalent, of course, but Hitchen's article is dead on and a delight to read.

Falwells dead!

With all due respect to his family; thank god!

That said, his followers are all still out there preaching the same vile un-Christian hatred that he did. We tend to forget that douche-bags like Falwell, Bush (and just to be dramatic, Hitler) are supported by thousands if not millions of other people and without their support these people would be nothing. Demonizing someone like Falwell lets those who supported him off the hook. His followers are all culpable and some of the hatred towards him should be redirected to those that support his legacy.

This man (and others) have used this opening phrase to spread lies, attack the American people, demonize opponents and push a particular right wing agenda. When I hear someone open a statement with this phrase, I watch my wallet and my back.

Falwell has caused lasting damage by teaching fairy-tale science at his ‘University’, poisoning young, eager minds with ‘new earth creationism’ nonsense. His Hate speech about gay people shows what a vile man he really was. And for what? To make money by claiming that gay people were an imminent “threat”. He had the chance to use the bible for peace and instead used it as a weapon against sections of the community. What an utterly repugnant and shameful thing to do! America has become demented by christianity which has become accustomed to preaching the preposterous at the expense of science. He has done more for society by dying than he ever did in life! As a European, I am mystified at the level of religious hogwash preached in America - I even hear that they (the christians) don’t even believe in evolution in the US. Evolution, unlike the bible, is supported by overwhelming “mutually buttressed” evidence from biology, biochemistry, geology, sedimentology and genetics, palaeontology. Perhaps these creepy christian nutters in the US should read Sam Harris’s book ‘The End of Faith” and Richard Dawkins’s book “The God Delusion”. Then, perhaps, they just might grow up!