Wednesday, May 16, 2007

On the Death of Falwell

He repeatedly stirred up hatred against gays. He lied through his teeth about Bill Clinton and hurled every vicious smear against the Clintons he could think of. He was consistently dishonest, a complete moral fraud, and a pseudo-Christian. He was a tyrant who wanted to see science driven out of the schools and a theocracy established in our nation. He had extensive ties to far-right psychotic and financier Sun Myung Moon. He was moral ugliness and hypocrisy personified. So I have no tears to shed for this wretched man. Eric Alterman has more here.
Good riddance.
UPDATE: Think I'm being too rough? Check out the Falwell quotes from this article.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fawell was a poster child for the dangers of the radical Christian Right. His hatred for anything not ordained by him and his pervursion of Christianity made me sick.

He, and others like him, consitute a threat to freedom in this country, any idea or group that seeks to preach IT'S moral path as the ONLY moral path does not belong in America.

The saddest part is that there are many many, a majority, I'd imgine, of Christians who are good decent people who get painted by the brush used to paint Jerry Falwell.

-M.N. Wirth

Anonymous said...

What did Fawell do that was so bad? He organized people to vote. Which we still need another 40 percent of Americans to do. Yes his views may be radical to some, but he is not that different in his approach to the Revs. Sharpton and Jackson or the "Preaching of Al Gore." Speaker of the House Nancy "Preaches" her views that are polarizing the nation as we speak. The greatest thing that us Americans have is Freedom of Speech. We don't have to agree on what everyone says, but we have the right to say it.

Joseph Miller said...

Anonymous (2), Falwell preached a kind of hatred and intolerance that bordered on the brutal. He said Billy Graham was a tool of Satan. He hated gays with a passion. He wanted to destroy the public school system. How does that make him no worse than those you mentioned in your post?

Valerie said...

I have been in law school finals and didn't even know Falwell died!!! I agree with Miller - Falwell was a heinous bigot.

Anonymous said...

Bigot? Revamp Public Schools? Yes he sure sounds like our modern sound bite politicians and PR grabbing Reverends. Joseph, have you read the article about the white female teacher in Charleston South Carolina who was repeatedly verbally abused by her Black students and the administration did nothing about it because they said that it was in their culture to speak and act like that. She sued the district and they settled out of court. Bigotry? or trying to change the culture of America?

Joseph Miller said...

I don't think ANY teacher should be verbally abused and reviled by students for any reason. What has that got to do with the issue at hand? Falwell wasn't just trying to change America's culture--he was attempting to take charge of it and exclude anyone who disagreed with him.

Anonymous said...

What does Fawell and the Revs. Sharpton and Jackson have in common? The Revs. are trying to force their ideas and culture on America. They were not there in Charleston to defend the white teacher. If it was the other way around they would have been down there in one hour blasting the white students for racial bigotry. They, the Revs. are trying to take charge and exclude anyone who does not agree with them.