Letters to the Editor
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Everybody wins.
His minions can take comfort in the erroneous belief that he’s in a better place and the rest of us can take comfort in knowing he’s not.
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no sadness around here
"if in life one cannot gladden, then in death one cannot sadden."
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my word...
...that link is quite something. I knew Falwell was a complete whacko, but I hadn't really followed his schtick in a long time.
A dangerous lout. The Republic is safer with his passing. Although is followers bear watching, I think.
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Meanwhile
Fred Phelps thinks "I'm winning!"
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when you presume to speak for God...............
eventually you will have to appear before God and explain just why you said the things you said
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Turn off the TV
We're in for a week of Falwell worship, Falwell revisionism, Falwell rationalization, Falwell romanticization.
Well, Reverend, allow me to feel bad for your family, and to say that you did exponentially more injury to the people of this nation than Sadaam Hussein ever did.
Wherever you spends your afterlife, I hope it involves an eternity of raising sick children without health insurance while corporations poison your air and water and sell you worthless dangerous crap to drive, wear and eat.
Barring that, I would settle for you experiencing an eternity of bringing unwanted pregnancies from rape and incest to full term.
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Not sorry he's gone
Jerry Falwell and his ilk helped usher in the divisive politics we are seeing today. Self-appointed guardians of our "Christian" nation, these hypocritical SOBs can't die off soon enough. Unfortunately, there will be more in their wake. I hope he is burning like a chestnut in the fires of hell.
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what a relief
Did somebody drop a house on him? Ding-dong . . . .
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Sucks
When you are perfectly happy when someone dies. But I am.
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Which of Dante's circles of Hell does Jerry Falwell belong in?
Right now I'm leaning towards putting him with the hypocrites of the 8th circle, where he'd be condemned to trudge around in a gilded lead cloak for all eternity. But a case can also be made for having him hacked perpetually to pieces by devils along with the other sowers of discord.
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There is no solace--it's a double edged sword
"..any man's death diminishes me..." Falwell, in life, attempted to diminish me.
Either way I lose.
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The comments thus far
The comments thus far simply prove that the "tolerant," "loving" hypcrites of the Left are every bit the vicious haters they accuse Falwell of being.
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Warm fuzzy lefties
"The comments thus far simply prove that the "tolerant," "loving" hypcrites of the Left are every bit the vicious haters they accuse Falwell of being."
As far as I can tell, lefties never claimed to be "tolerant" or "loving," so if we feel hatred towards the guy, too bad. BTW, you misspelled "hypocrites."
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Wishing I was a fly on the wall
When the no longer upright Reverand Falwell meets his lesbian liberal Maker boy is his face going to be red.
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alexsim
BTW, you misspelled "hypocrites."
-- alexsim
Okay, I hearby appoint you the official monitor of every typo and instance of bad writing on Salon. I look forward to your many, many reports.
Otherwise, you're just a hypocrite (no typo), too.
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I'm ashamed to admit my first reaction
was not a charitable one. But then, I consider his life to have been hypocritical and uncharitable.
For good or bad, afterlife or no, heaven or hell or no, only now can he speak with any actual authority. Everything else he uttered in life was sheer conjecture posed as absolute truth. He couldn't prove a single syllable of it, but he'd have us run the whole nation by it.
I have the feeling that if he does appear in heaven, Jesus or God or whatever might be saying things like "What part of humility, compassion and charity could you not understand?"
I'm sure Falwell will think that he's gone to hell.
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Truly a great day.
Falwell dead, and the ironic comedy gold of being lectured about nasty, ad hominem attacks by tomreedtoon. It's been a day full of belly laughs.
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"Christianity and Totalitarianism"
Thomas Merton's marvelous essay predicted the rise of the Falwells, the Robertsons, the Grahams, and all the rest of their unfortunate spiritual progeny. Unfortunately, he was right about it all.
The "mass man" that these snake oil salesmen and their ilk helped to create (and then preyed upon) can only be, in Merton's sage formulation, an alienated fanatic. Paradoxically, humanism is the essence of Christianity.
The "personal Jesus" that fundamentalists like Falwell have lionized is anything but. Rather, he's the god of miracle, mystery, and authority (apologies to Dostoevsky).
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It seems like hate,
...but I'm just quoting the man:
* “AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals”
* "It appears that America's anti-Biblical feminist movement is at last dying, thank God, and is possibly being replaced by a Christ-centered men's movement which may become the foundation for a desperately needed national spiritual awakening."
* "If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being."
* After the September 11 attacks Falwell said, “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen."
* “Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions”
* “[Homosexuals are] brute beasts...part of a vile and satanic system [that] will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven.”
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Falwell's financial dishonesty
"He didn't pull financial sleight-of-hand like the Bakkers."
Hate to break it to you:
October 1987: The Federal Election Commission fines Falwell for transferring $6.7 million in funds intended for his ministry to political committees.
February 1993: The Internal Revenue Service determines that funds from Falwell’s Old Time Gospel Hour program were illegally funneled to a political action committee. The IRS forced Falwell to pay $50,000 and retroactively revoked the Old Time Gospel Hour’s tax-exempt status for 1986-87.
1994-1995: Falwell is criticized for using his “Old Time Gospel Hour” to hawk a scurrilous video called “The Clinton Chronicles” that makes a number of unsubstantiated charges against President Bill Clinton — among them that he is a drug addict and that he arranged the murders of political enemies in Arkansas. Despite claims he had no ties to the project, evidence surfaced that Falwell helped bankroll the venture with $200,000 paid to a group called Citizens for Honest Government (CHG).
November 1997: Falwell accepts $3.5 million from a front group representing controversial Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon to ease Liberty University’s financial woes.
Cite: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/10806.html