This just in ---Jerry Falwell has just arrived in Hell.His rejection at the pearly gates said to be due to his inability to understand the simple concept"DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU"

Meremortal has articulated my position on the posts I have seen here cheering Rev. Falwell's death.

Thank you.

How did he become a public figure? Because lots of Americans agreed with him, because they were - are - stupid and bigoted in the same way he was. It is like asking why Nixon was elected President twice or why Father Coughlin was so popular in his day. The American people are not great and good. They are like all the other peoples of the world. They willingly follow mountebanks and demagogues.

I want to personally sponsor a national 5 day all nude bender the day either Cheney or Bush shuffle off this mortal coil too. Me? I'll be smoking crack with Satan and dancing naked round the bible and baby fire.

"You call yourself the Moral Majority/We call ourself the people in the real world/Trying to rub us out, but we're going to survive/God must be dead if you're alive ..."

Good riddance, Falwell. We're still here. You're not. 'Nuff said.

My thanks to the right wing trolls that came on here decrying Liberals for showing hatred and intolerance toward Falwell. The man was vile and I'm pleased he's dead. I'm also pleased that you're all coming here and saying "You should be ashamed of yourselves, you're acting like conservatives!" Hypocracy simply runs in your veins, doesn't it? Or is it that you all know that Liberals are better than you and are horrified to see that even we have our limits and can occasionally sink to your level?

What is it about internet "conservatives" that they believe it is morally correct to tolerate the right wings culture of intolerance.

Hate gays! Okay! Scapegoat the poor! That is aces with me! Play upon the fears of the ignorant? Whatever turns you on, man! Get rich off your congregation? It's the American way!

Use a climate of fear and loathing for people different from you to get loads of power and lots of money? Well, there you are...the MORAL CENTER OF CONSERVATIVE VALUES!

Tolerate this? Well, pardon me while I laugh at the irony of people who don't have a clue asking to be tolerated. What chutzpah. What complete and utter cluelessness.

Larry King last night said that he'd never heard Falwell utter a hateful word about anyone and that, in person, he was so darn likeable. Ah, CNN. Thank you for employing a man so completely out of touch with everything and giving him a prime time spot.

Quick tangent: Why has King, perhaps one of the worst listeners ever (great quality in an interviewer), been allowed to have a 50-year career?

Out.

Falwell will spend eternity in the Ninth Ring of The Inferno with the demogogues, deceivers, users, mountebanks and con men.

There, you recall, is where the worst punishments are meted out.

The fact that YOU have neither heard nor read any words from any of those praying for Mr. Falwell's soul does not mean that those words were not said or written. So ease back on charges of hypocrisy.

“ One would like to believe that the United States has become a bigger and better country since the days when men like them preached about captive nations and denounced the pernicious influence of rock 'n' roll.”

You’re kidding me, right? That’s like writing: Now that the taste buds of Americans have grown more sophisticated, cheez whiz will disappear from the American diet.

The evangelical movement did not “move on” from Falwell. Falwell simply occupied a different niche of the market than do Warren, Jakes, Robertson, Franklin, Osteen etc. Religion in America is a business - a taxpayer supported, unregulated, unlicenced, and extremely profitable business. Just as there are different segments of the market for cars, vacations, clothing, and other consumer goods, different niches exist for the market in religion. And Falwell - like any demagogue worthy of the name - was infinitely capable of retooling his message and reestablishing his relationships if necessary. Falwell and John McCain kissed and made up because it benefitted them both. The commencement speaker at this weekend’s Liberty University graduation is none other than the blowjob king of Capitol Hill, Newt “I’d screw a doughnut and be upset if it gave me a hard way to go” Gingrich. (Nothing like falling political capital, diminishing political influence, and declining donations to make a sleazy opportunist reconsider his core values.)

Cal Thomas, the conservation Christian writer and commentator, wrote a book with Irish Protestant Ed Dobson titled, “Blinded By Might.” They had worked for Falwell and were involved in the early days of the Moral Majority. The book is a scathing indictment of the ugliness of the Christian-GOP political axis and of Falwell in particular. Some of the more damning chapters deal with Falwell’s cruel streak - and this from people who are serious Christians.

Recently, Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams - sworn enemies - kissed and made up. No, they didn’t experience some kind of religious epiphany. In the last 15 years, greater prosperity in Ireland has given young Irish Catholic and Protestant men and women something to live for other than killing and hating. Jetting off to the Continent for a weekend is more exciting than blowing up the opposition. As a result, Paisley and Adams have lost their sources of funding and of power. Their collaboration - like Falwell and McCain and the efforts of Jakes, Franklin, Warren, et al, are desperate attempts to forestall the dreary prospect of earning an honest living.

As a Christian, a political scientist, and a democrat, I'm not sure whether to loathe Falwell most for what he did to my faith, our public reasoning, or the larger political culture. Amazing that a man whose soul was paper-thin could become such a human wrecking ball, leaving so many ruins in his wake. Wolfe's blunt response to Falwell's death is the only one possible. He is owed no debt of charity simply for his celebrity or influence, and if God sees fit to save his soul, I'll praise the infinite wonder of His grace and the universality of salvation, not the legacy of a demented man who claimed to be His servant.

Wolfe, however, actually goes too easy on "Listen, America!," which is filled not only with cliches but also with the kind of errors that would get you an F in freshman American Government. He didn't know where the Puritans landed, and he couldn't tell the difference between the Declaration and the Constitution. And, strangely for a pastor, he quoted Milton Friedman more than the Bible.

And why haven't any of the memorials I've seen mentioned Falwell's role in creating and marketing The Clinton Chronicles, a best-selling video that used racists and con men to accuse Clinton of being a mass-murdering drug kingpin, while insinuating that he was also a miscegenating child molester? Surely few others contributed more to the right-wing hysteria that led into impeachment. If that's not "bearing false witness," I'm not sure the term has much meaning.