Amen!

Bahaahaha. Pun.

I don’t think you’ve gone too far. quite the opposite. I don’t think you have to respect the dead. how many non neo-nazis will show respect to Hitler? the “Reverend” (as someone who was raised Christian but currently has no faith in christianity, it still turns my stomach to think that someone so hateful can be designated a reverend) was a despicable human being and does not deserve to be mourned. as long as there are people like him, the world is fucked. It’s too bad that they can’t just look past the differences of mankind and work together towards a goal of fellowship and work towards fixing the planet.

He’s probably standing at the pearly gates saying, “Yoo hoo!? Anybody home? Yoo hoo!…Why aren’t they answering?..”

Roy: that had to be said and you’ve said it well.

The only thing death can do for someone of ill repute is wash away the body, which, for someone of ill repute, relieves them of nothing.

Your point is well taken, and not over the edge. And yes, he was a wretched, intolerant person.

But your argument itself is not that tight logically (don’t confuse this with me not agreeing with your premise). On a less one sided topic with a less sympathetic audience your logical arguments could be undressed pretty quickly.

You speak, in the second paragraph, about accountability regarding his legacy, after his death. Technically, the dead cannot be accountable for their legacy as they are dead. Justice, perhaps. But not accountability, and probably not equity either.

Also - the death toll in Iraq is not a direct consequence of Falwell’s neoconservative dogma. Though perhaps he is indirectly complicit.

Regarding a direct line from George Bush to the rise of the Christian right. I think it would be more acurate to say that the Christian right has politically empowered George Bush. He didn’t give rise to the religious right, as this statement implies.

That the Bush Administration is in complete denial of science and reason - this is a leap in logic. There is a big difference between actually being in denial, and using denial as a political tool towards political objectives. To make either assertion requires some evidence to support it. I definitely don’t think it is self evident that the Bush Administration is in denial of science and reason.

To say that Falwell did “the exact opposite of Jesus’ teachings” is a subjective statement, and implies that you know exactly what Jesus’ teachings are, which sounds a bit intolerant in itself, and slightly hypocritical. Same with the next paragraph.

I liked the quotes, I thought they were well placed.

good riddance i say….

I had a similar discussion with some of my friends yesterday. Death is truly a sad fact of life, and I find myself tearing up any time someone dies (yes, I am slightly overly emotional). Yet when I read about his death, I let out a sound of amusement. Not that I was amused or thought him dying was funny. I just could not bring myself to feel one ounce of sorrow at his passing. I asked my friends if they thought this made me a bad person, because for a split second, I did. I felt like an awful person.

Then I remembered a woman who called in to a radio show one day on my way to work. She was praising the name of Jerry Falwell. This was the day of the funerals for most of the Virginia Tech students. Full of hate, this woman regurgitated many of Falwell’s words, and said that those kids deserved to die, because they weren’t born again Christians. She said we were all going to hell because we lusted after our neighbors, and because we allowed homosexuality to run rampant through our society (another reason those kids deserved to die apparentl). The radio host was disgusted, but kept her on because basically - it makes for good radio. I don’t think Falwell was single handedly responsible for this woman’s bigotry, but I do think he contributed to strengthening the religious right, and giving them a louder voice than they would have had otherwise, and making it possible for bigots filled with hate to congregate and do things like protest memorial services. Listening to this woman sickened me, and remembering that call I realised that in truth, I’m not a bad person for being glad he is dead.

I felt much better after that.

You missed one of his most disgusting and bigoted quotes of all…

“AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals.”

I am not ashamed to say that I felt no sorrow at his passing and even a heaping dose of satisfaction. In the end the world will be a better place for his not being in it anymore - it was just too bad he was here in the first place as he contributed nothing, in my opinion, but hatred and bigotry.

Hear hear. The article was great and even the comments were all worth reading. Thank God Falwell’s dead! Hee hee.

Xian B beat me to Voltaire, and there is no truer statement on the subject of death than his.

*murdered*

those people tried to protest memorials for the Virginia Tech shootings too.

And it wasn’t the Devil that got Falwell, he did what he did on his own. He was just too fanatical about everything fitting into his narrow point of view to try and find the good in everything.

Don’t think that his passing will change the world, though.

Honestly, I refuse to mourn Jerry Falwell. The man used religion to blanket his hatred and intolerance in the mask of goodness and purity. The only thing that I can wonder is when Pat Robertson is going to join him.