<p>True. Hatred is in the eye of the beholder: My kids used to say to me when I wouldn’t let them eat all the cookies in the cookie jar before dinner–“you hate me!”</p>
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<p>Falwell, preaching in 1958. The direct quotes in the piece above were taking from a 1988 Washington Post article about Falwell.</p>
<p>Maybe if Falwell had lived long enough, God would have changed His mind about gay people the way He did about African Americans.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/15/BAGGDPRFS85.DTL[/url]”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/15/BAGGDPRFS85.DTL</a></p>
<p>Perhaps. I wonder if the minds behind the charming concept of the “anti-memorial” will also renounce their hatred someday.</p>
<p>Or maybe they won’t, and the anti-memorial will just become a new tradition to mark the passing of especially egregious “homophobes.”</p>
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<p>What hatred? They’re planning to remind people of Falwell’s words and the effect they had on people. That’s not hate; that’s accuracy.</p>
<p>Falwell’s life’s work was his words. My grandfather’s life work was putting tops on buggies and later, making furniture. He died nearly 30 years ago, but we still use some of his life’s work. </p>
<p>It’s no more inappropriate to use Falwell’s words to remember what kind of man he was than it is to sit on a bench my grandfather made and think about what kind of man he was.</p>
<p>If Falwell left a legacy of hate, it’s his own fault.</p>
<p>…Though I realise that won’t be a popular opinion with those who for whom it’s in vogue to resist any sort of personal accountability for what one says and does. </p>
<p>Last I heard some of the anti-accountability crowd were still arguing that no one should quote anything a fundamentalist says back to him if it made the fundamentalist look bad, because doing that would violate the fundamantalist’s “freedom of speech.”</p>
<p>I do not think Falwell hated gays in any direct way. He had a very conservative view of the Bible and what it said just as many other religions do when it comes to gays and other things they don’t accept such as adultery etc. I’d guess that around the world many religions are not particularly gay friendly–at least by some major subgroups. Is Islam gay friendly? I don’t think so–at least not in many countries. Catholics–not so much either. I also think he would have come around on the issue to some extent.
Also his legacy would have to include a large thriving church and university. How they do now that he is dead will be interesting.</p>
<p>He’s dead, doesn’t mean he was any less of an ******* or any less of a nutjob.</p>
<p>If there is a God, I hope he tells Fallwell he’s a dumbass and casts his hateful ass to Hell(again if there is one)</p>
<p>Blaming 9/11 on gays and “pagans,” what a ■■■■■■■■■</p>
<p>I am very good friends with some very devout Catholics, including my best friend. These people have the ability to love and accept me even though I am a lesbian. I do not think that Jerry Falwell would ever be able to call a gay person a friend.</p>
<p>I agree, Co. He was a pretty vile excuse for a human being. One less would-be ayahtollah messing up the planet. The wild-assed blaming of 9/11 as God’s judgment on gays, liberals, and the ACLU is one for the books and makes such a nice symmetric pairing of the some of the rants of radical Islamic mullahs with whom he actually had so much in common.</p>
<p>Let’s be fair: he loved the terrorists, just hated terrorism.</p>
<p>And he thought Nobel-prize winning Bishop Desmond Tutu was a “phony.”</p>
<p>To summarize a slew of posthumous articles I’ve come across: Falwell worshiped at the Grand Temple of the Almighty Dollar.</p>
<p>
Interesting spin on an old sentiment.
But, quite to the contrary, the original version suggests that you do unto others the way you would have them do unto you…not to follow their broke example by stooping and doing onto them the way they did onto somebody…maybe you?</p>
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<p>And Jerry Falwell wins even in death!
Having goaded you on: ‘hey, piggies, jump down here and start throwing some mud with/at me” and, of course, you all jumped into his detritus right on cue. A sloppy mess --but then, I suppose, pigs take comfort in this scatological business.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>
Hey, TheDad, </p>
<p>how many more Muslim Clerics need to be dead before the earth is cleansed of their existence? Afterwards, perhaps you can incite the stooges to go after those that took comfort in their faith, as Shia Muslims, by having Ayatollahs, that is to say the clerics of their faith. Sounds like a hybrid of genocide. Is this another version of “kill ‘em all and let god sort ‘em out. </p>
<p>.</p>
<p>Dear Dorothy Parker: You are no Dorothy Parker.</p>
<p>"Hey, TheDad, </p>
<p>how many more Muslim Clerics need to be dead before the earth is cleansed of their existence?"</p>
<p>Dorothy: I know you do not like the term ‘ayatollah’ (the way it is used here). I think it could be cultural. I feel the same way when many equate all the saffron colored robe wearing religious people from India as Hare Krishna Freaks or Rajnish lovers. I know there are many many ‘ayatollahs’ who are decent, religious and peaceful people. Perhaps you know some of them, and might even respect them. However, some how the term ayatollah has morphed in to describing people who are religious bigots who spew nothing but hatred.</p>
<p>I apologize if I offended you.</p>
<p>No Carlmom, that is just a screen name I prefer for the sake of anonymity, Sadly, Dorothy died some time ago. </p>
<p>…I so hate to be the one to let you know.</p>
<p>I should like to say something witty in reply; something like, “you are no carlsmom” (in the spirit of your little bon mot) but for all I know you are Carl’s mom, for whatever that’s worth. And I am certain that, in this world, as carlsmoms go, you have worked your way into being one of the better “carlsmoms” amongst all of them. </p>
<p>Well done, Madame.</p>
<p>This was also a real zinger:
Take that dead guy!</p>
<p>barrons says:
</p>
<p>I understand your point, but, although I am no expert on the Bible, I suspect that no where in it did Jesus blame the lepers for their disease, as Falwell did for AIDS. Too often, bigotry has been excused as some literal Bible interpretation…</p>
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Thanks Simba, that showed not only decency, but class.</p>
<p>But, at the same time, I suppose other epithets, like “gypped” and “jewed” were morphed into describing people’s prejudice towards other people as well; and I would not share the same air, let alone a conversation with those that felt comfortable in speaking with such hateful ignorance about people they know next to nothing about. To use “Ayatollah” in this way, as a code --intended to offend-- is no different.</p>
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<p>Again, you have my respect for the maturity it took to make this comment. You are alone amongst your peers in recognizing something so terribly obvious. No one else seems to get it. There are bad people from all walks of life and from all over the world, Ayatollahs, Rabbis, Guru’s, Priests, Pastors and secular humanists are no different, but to single out anyone of them as a class is bigotry. There’s no other way to describe it.</p>
<p>In retrospect, I also believe I was a little to “worked up” in my post #92. </p>
<p>But I am so very tired of this constant and bigoted refrain against an entire class/culture/race of people that I felt I needed to say something to get people’s attention. I am glad it got yours.</p>
<p>thanks.</p>
<p>edit:
I said no one else seems to get it and that wasn’t quite fair. Mini actually made reference to this fact as well.</p>
<p>“But I am so very tired of this constant and bigoted refrain against an entire class/culture/race of people that I felt I needed to say something to get people’s attention.”</p>
<p>Dorothy again, you are getting worked up on the perception media has created in people’s mind. You can not do anything to change perceptions - they are reality. The only thing you can do is to change/affect the behavior of people with whom you interface.</p>
<p>Also, bear in mind that an ayatollah from Inran may be diferent than ayatollah from Lebenon. If my hunch is right, you are of Iranian decent. Didn’t Islam in Iran get influenced by the Sufis?</p>
<p>Well, I for one am not as noble and forgiving as others</p>
<p>Some say, well, he “apologized” for his bigotry and vileness towards Blacks, the hate he preached for decades, then we are told he said certain things to get arise out of people, who is to say that he was really telling the truth when he said sorry, he talked like a some other notoble southern figures, just had a different attire</p>
<p>His words hurt many, becasue others followed him, and did what he asked, and believed him, who knows how many people he hurt with this preaching during his life, how many died, yes, died becuase this man used the bible to justify bigotry</p>
<p>Notice I am talking about THIS MAN, no one else, for his preachings</p>
<p>Yes, he is a dead guy, but his legacy will falter on in the form of Liberty University</p>
<p>I found him a discpicable man in life, and in death, he earns and deserve no forgiveness</p>
<p>And how many poor were kept poor by the liberal welfare industrial complex? How many future lives have been eliminated by abortions? That argument easily cuts both ways. He had beliefs and expressed them and the chips can fall where they may. It’s a free country. I probably only agreed with him on one issure but I don’t care if he says outrageous things. That’s part of living in a free country.</p>