05/16/07 "ICH" -- --
Jerry Falwell hasn’t been dead
for more than a few hours. Yet, I’ve been inundated by
emails and text messages touting the news. I’ve got mixed
feelings on how to perceive the death of someone who would
probably have celebrated my own death. So, I’ve decided to
call a spade a spade, even in death.
He was a hateful person who
did not serve to inspire the better nature of America.
Instead, he used religion to propagate hate and
discrimination for as long we anyone can remember. Forgive
me if I don’t cry.
The Carpetbagger Report
has a compilation of Jerry Falwell’s most famous
digressions from morality, ethics, and the law. Here is a
classic from 2001:
Falwell blames Americans for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He
said: “The abortionists have got to bear some burden for
this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40
million little innocent babies, we make God mad. 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.’”
I remember, in the wake of
great tragedy, Falwell making this statement. I’m happy to
call attention to it today so people who give commentary on
his life see that it was filled with hate. Forgive me if I
don’t cry.
Howie Klein, at Down With
Tyranny goes a little farther than I would, but shows he is
well versed in literature. Howie’s post actually reminds me
of the book “The Dante Club” by Matthew Pearl. You can read
about it here. If you’re already familiar with the book,
then you’ll know that a “man of God” who does not follow the
spirit of the Word is reserved a particularly painful
punishment in Dante’s Inferno. Forgive me if I don’t cry.
American for Separation of
Church and State show how Falwell
illegally transferred money from tax exempt institutions
to pay for partisan political activities. This was $6.7
million dollars that regular people gave to him for his
Ministry. Instead, he transferred it to political
committees. He showed no regard for the law or the spirit in
which that money was given. Forgive me if I don’t cry.
So, he hated women, blacks,
gays, jews, liberals, progressives, atheists, agnostics,
foreigners, and anybody else who disagreed with him. He
broke the law. He established a university that
institutionalized everything he was about. I hope it all
goes with him. The brand of conservative hate he represented
has no place in what this country should stand for. Forgive
me if I don’t cry.
Lane
Hudson started blogging in July of 2006. By the end of
September, he posted the emails from Mark Foley to a 16 year
old page. Thus began the scandal known as Foley-gate.
This blog first appeared on the
Huffington Post
