Rev. Jerry Falwell has died.

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From the CNN news story:

(CNN)—The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television minister whose 1979 founding of the Moral Majority galvanized American religious conservatives into a political force, died Tuesday at age 73.

Falwell was found unconscious and without a pulse in his office at Liberty University, the college he founded in Lynchburg, Virginia, said Ron Godwin, the school’s executive vice president.

Though paramedics tried to revive him at his office and en route to Lynchburg General Hospital, “Those very timely and very efficient and effective efforts were unsuccessful,” Godwin said.

Godwin said he had breakfast with Falwell Tuesday morning and said they talked about the future.

“He seemed to be in good spirits,” Godwin said.

Godwin said they finished breakfast about 9:50 a.m. ET and Falwell went into his office. He was found there about 11:30 a.m. ET.

The minister, who had a history of heart trouble, was pronounced dead of heart failure at 12:40 p.m. Tuesday, his doctor, Carl Moore, told reporters. He had been hospitalized twice in early 2005 with acute onset pulmonary edema, or congestive heart failure, and at one point was placed on a ventilator.

Moore said it was “a little early to speculate” on what caused Falwell’s death, but said he did have a heart condition.

I’ll admit that my first impulse is to break out in a rendition of “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”, but I must be getting old because I honestly feel that wouldn’t be appropriate so long as Pat Robertson is still alive. I wouldn’t go far as to say that I hated the man, but he annoyed the shit out of me to no end and as such I’m not particularly upset that he’s shuffled off his mortal coil. While I can still sympathize with the people who did care about him over the sense of loss they must be feeling at the moment, it’s safe to say I’m not feeling that loss myself.

In the interest of trying to say at least one thing positive about this turn of events I’ll note that there’s one less person that’ll cause my blood pressure to rocket out of control in the future.

Update: The folks at Boing Boing linked to this entry at Voices of American Sexuality that collects some of Falwell’s stupidest comments which I thought I’d share here as a reminder of why the man annoyed the shit out of me:

  • “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.”

91 thoughts on “Rev. Jerry Falwell has died.”

  2. He sounded like a true asshole who made hell for vulnerable xians, i’d expect those close enough might be feeling some relief behind their mourning mask and feel wrong for it, but feelings of guilt might make them think at least (might kick them off the bandwagon)

    I also thought he was a little loopy to be meeting with ET

  6. Falwell was found unconscious and without a pulse

    Not often a good sign but here’re an exception.

    Get ready for all the fake outpourings of grief and accolades describing him as the 2nd coming.
    The unfortunate Larry Flynt is now down one target.
    “Labor unions should study and read the Bible instead of asking for more money. When people get right with God, they are better workers.”
    “I hope to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we don’t have public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them.”
    That was fun – I wonder when Billy Graham will get the call.  LOL

  8. As soon as any event happens oppertunistic power hungry people like those LJ pointed out (like dead rev) make a grab, i think the top of the xian tree is where true evil lies, clueless xians are used like cannon fodder in an asshat’s battle, their lives controled simply to make them a pawn in a political game

  9. Anybody remember this gem?

    Falwelling Tracey…
    Author Unknown

    NOTE: This story contains NONE of the Seven Dirty Words You
        Can’t Say On The Net.

    Tracey came home from work in a lousy mood. She knocked her hat off the the rack when she hung up her coat. This wouldn’t normally have upset her, but today she yelled “Oh, gingrich!”, picked up the hat, and threw it into a corner.

    “Bad day, darlin’?” I asked.

    “Oh, I’m just all robertsoned-off about this falwelling Communications Decency Act,” she said.

    “Refresh my memory,” I asked. She’d mentioned it before, but I hadn’t paid much attention. She’s the net.junkie in the family.

    “It makes it a Federal crime to say anything ‘indecent’ where a minor might see it, which of course includes the whole Net! And oh-by-the-way one thing that’s indecent is any information about abortion.”

    “Bullgingrich!” I exclaimed, “They can’t do that!”

    “Well, they did,” she scowled, “Really slimy, too; they snuck it in as an obscure rider on a huge bill. Most of them didn’t even know what they were voting for. And the President, that spineless clinton, signed it in a big falwelling ceremony. Grrrr!” She was shaking with indignation.

    “They’d never enforce anything like that,” I assured her.

    “Yeah, unless they want to get you for some other reason, or the local D.A. doesn’t like you, or you’re some uppity black or leftist who’s robertsoned-off the government, or…”

    I drew her into my lap where I was sitting on the chair by the bed. “Relax, honey; something like that, you KNOW they’ll find it unconstitutional.”

    “God, I hope so,” she breathed. But she did relax a bit. I ran my hands softly over her body. She has a luscious figure; I gently stroked her firm senators through her thin bra.

    Suddenly she put her arms around my neck, and kissed me long and hot and deeply. Then she put her lips by my ear, and whispered “Let’s falwell.” I smiled, “Right now?” “Yes, right now, right here,” she moaned, running her hands over my body, and unbottoning my shirt. “I need to be reminded that sex is good, and not all men are impotent old gingrich-heads.” I could feel my exon swelling in my pants. Tracey and I kissed again, long and hard. She stroked my chest, and I squeezed her senators. She stood for a moment and slipped off her panties, then slipped into my lap again and kissed me hotly, probing my mouth with her tongue. I ran my hands up the smooth skin of her thighs, towards her open clinton. She moaned and spread her legs wider, and I gently stroked and pressed her. She toyed with my nipples with one hand, and moved the other one over my crotch, tracing the outline of my aching exon. She unzipped my pants, and took the hot skin in her hands, stroking me as I rubbed her clinton.

    “Oh, I want you!” she gasped. She slid down between my knees and took my exon quickly into her mouth. In a moment, I was gasping and writhing, my exon rock-hard, her lips caressing every ridge of skin. I drew her up and quickly tore off her blouse and bra; her lovely firm senators bobbed before me, and I took them in my hands, kissing and licking the beautiful sensitive tips. She threw back her head and moaned. I slid her skirt up around her hips and she pushed herself forward into my lap; my exon slid easily into her wet open clinton. “Oh, God!” she yelled, “falwell me, fallwell me hard!”

    She rocked in my lap, her clinton moving sweetly up and down over my throbbing exon. With every stroke, new waves of unbearable pleasure ran through us. We were on another and purer plain, far from the slimy machinations of the doles and gingrich-heads in Washington. “I’m close!” I breathed, between gasps. She smiled and bounced, and with a few strong and well-timed thrusts she brought us both off, my exon exploding sweetly in her clinton. We hugged and sighed, and collasped off the chair and onto the bed. After awhile, I got up to take a robertson. When I came back from the bathroom, she was stretched out full-length on the bed, her senators pointed gorgeously at the ceiling, the hairs of her clinton gleaming with our juices. My exon was hardening again, just looking at her. I got back onto the bed. “Feeling better, hon?” I asked. She smilled and nodded. Then she giggled.

    “What’s funny?”

    “Oh, in one of the newsgroups someone suggested that we should start to use some of the politicians’ names instead of the usual naughty words.”

    “You mean like say ‘gingrich’ instead of ‘gingrich’?” I asked.

    “Yeah,” she said, still laughing, “and ‘falwell’ instead of ‘falwell’.” Then she reached up to me. “And speaking of falwelling…” She drew me down to her, and soon my exon was again buried between her legs, deep in her eager clinton.

    As we falwelled, slowly and lovingly this time, we talked. “Wouldn’t that—Ahhhh—wouldn’t that sound kind of—Ohhh—silly?” I suggested.

    “You mean using—ahh! ahh! slowly slowly love—using their names instead of dirty words?” My exon swelled larger and larger inside her, and our breathing became heavier and more desperate. I rolled the tips of her left senator between two fingers, and she arched her back. “I don’ know,” she whispered, “I think it’d—ahhhhhhhh!—it’d be pretty funny. Oh GOD, oh sweet, oh falwell me, falwell me now!”

    And I did.

  11. On the humanity aspect of this issue, it is always sad when someone dies. IN some cases it is less sad for some, but sadder for others.

    The only thing that kept going through my mind was how Jerry and his followers claim to be so righteous and good, yet spew forth such a hateful message. Their position on AIDS to guiding America into future is so full of hate, bigotry, and anger that I doubt that Jesus would even consider these people followers of his teachings.

    Drake

  12. Drake – agreed, I see them as antagonists, and they can cause misguidance, but those who will be misguided, will inevitably be elsewhere if not that way, it all depends on what causes the least harm i guess

  13. Was not a fan of Falweel.  Good that he died? I wish upon nobody’s family that they lose a loved one. I would think that would be the human reaction, but I guess not.

  15. I wish upon nobody’s family that they lose a loved one. I would think that would be the human reaction, but I guess not.

    Consi, are you absolutely sure that anyone here has wished suffering on Falwell’s family?  I think it’s also quite human to be able to separate the public figure of Falwell that we are all familiar with and many of us found so repulsive from his personal (and private) life.  The fact is, he was extremely confrontational, divisive, and as many quotes above show, not exactly a very “human” figure. 

    That of course was Falwell in public.  Who knows?  Maybe he wasn’t such a prick in private.  Even so, he definitely wanted the world to see him that way, why else have such a public facing?

    Personally I don’t give two squats about Falwell the man, aside from the image he presented, and the damage he did with that image. I think it’s perfectly rational to feel certain ways about a public figure’s image and feel total indifference toward the “real” person, his family or otherwise.

    I’m relieved that his image is no longer going to be able to create further damage on credulous and emotionally vulnerable people. No doubt someone else will step up to fill in the gap, but at least Falwell the entertainer won’t be able to do any of that anymore (sadly though, videotapes last a long time).

  16. Sorry to jump the gun in a previous thread.

    Yeah, the Human Reaction.  Bullshit!  The man was a menace to millions. I have about as much sympathy for his adult family members as I have for the Gotti widow and her spawn.  They are leeches that bleed people through ignorance and bigotry and live quite well on the slurry.
     
    Falwell made it clear,in public, regularly, that people like myself were not to be trusted, not fit for office, that we are evil and best ignored or eliminated.  And he made millions doing it, as well as influencing our supposedly secular government.  Fuck ‘em all!  If they want my sympathy they can give back every bit of money made on a religious pretext and renounce the bigoted ramblings of their relative.

  17. Yeah, the Human Reaction.  Bullshit!….Fuck ‘em all!

    The lack of the ability to feel a sense of empathy for others, no matter how far apart ideologically, well, you’ve lost a bit of best of what we can be as people in my opinion. I’m sorry to see it.

  19. Considering some of the things Consi has said in the past here on SEB, I find it somewhat ironic he would bemoan an apparent lack of empathy on the part of anyone else. Granted it’s difficult to truly get to know someone in a limited forum such as this, but empathic isn’t one of the words I’d use to describe Consi based on his comments here.

    As I said previously, I can sympathize with Falwell’s surviving relatives in as much as they have lost someone they care about, but I’m not upset at the passing of the man himself. I think his influence in politics and religion did more harm than good.

  21. Wow, i never knew of the sonnofabitch, but after reading his stuff, i hope hes warming a spot for me in hell, where him and his kindred and kind deserve to be. 

    The day Pat Robertson dies is the day I will start smiling needlessly, and reminding everyone that the world is now a better place for people with a brain.

    And yes, I imagine theres a tragic side to this coin, about how his family feels for his loss, but in recent days, im beginning to shed cares about those who, in my eyes, dont deserve it.  If they gave a damn about him and the world we live in, they would have stopped his misanthropic ignorance-inspiring bullshit from spewing from his mouth, pulled him down from his ivory tower, and had him reflect on the hate he perpetuates, and see the conflict he stirs, and turned him on a more peaceful and serene road. 

    Let the body burn, let the family mourn, let the sheep look for another shepard.  Ultimately, the world becomes a slightly better place in the wake of this deluded charlatain’s death.

  22. I’ve already posted this over at dof, and I’m going to be lazy and just repeat it here.

    This is indeed a moral pickle. What is more precious than a life?  If I rejoice at someone’s death, isn’t that thumbing my nose at those who are grieving?  Doesn’t everyone deserve respect at the end, even if we disagree with them?

    On the other hand, this man was scum, and the world is a better place without him:  there’s more life and hope and love without him.  So shouldn’t I rejoice?

    I suppose I could say, as many others have around the net, that I feel sorry for Falwell as a private person, and sympathize with those who loved him, but rejoice that the public person who spread hatred is dead.  But is there any way to really separate the two Falwells that is not just semantic hairsplitting?

    What the fuck.  Falwell can’t see me now, so his feelings won’t be hurt.  Nothing personal against those who feel loss at his passing- they have my sympathy- but a great shadow has departed, and I’m going to do a little dance.

  23. whitebloodoftheheavens: If they gave a damn about him and the world we live in, they would have stopped his misanthropic ignorance-inspiring bullshit from spewing from his mouth, pulled him down from his ivory tower, and had him reflect on the hate he perpetuates, and see the conflict he stirs, and turned him on a more peaceful and serene road

    Assuming they weren’t beaten into submission, I wouldn’t like to be that close to someone like that, it’s possible they tried to get away from him even. Also 100% closed minds cannot be opened because they reject any attempt to do so, you can only open the mind of someone if you find a weak spot that will force them to think, even then it takes some diplomatic skill to evade their use of negativity to try to keep their mind closed

  24. Falwell can’t see me now, so his feelings won’t be hurt.

    Just for a change I’m not going to mince my words: I wish he was alive so his feelings were hurt at least half as much as he hurt the people HE hurt. The ‘man’ was cunt of the first order. Consi’s a SNAG in comparison.

    Ding dong the bitch is dead. *tears of laughter*
    You know how these deaths often happen in threes?
    I wonder if we can get a trifecta going? Billy must be getting close to just Dropping off his pedestal and when are one of Pat’s fuckin femurs gonna break and stab him in that thing medicos would refer to as a heart? Then again, Benny’s toupee might blow under a bus.
    Ah … we can dream.

    I wonder if the Phelps family will picket Jerry’s funeral; the funeral and the picket lines are gonna be definite crowd pullers seen all round the world on FOX for daze’ndaze’ndaze. There’ll be T-shirts on sale: I saw Jerry on his way to hell; I saw Jerry on the way to heaven – no I didn’t – I was joking; I saw Jerry become grounded; C’mon down … Benny, Pat and Billy; Who turned the lights out? Does that smell like burning flesh to you? Where have all the harp sounds gone? Father, why hast thou forsaken me?
    I gotta stop – life isn’t supposed to be this much fun.  LOL

  25. Gay opponents of Jerry Falwell send condolences

    Soulforce, a taskforce of lesbian and gay people, has demonstrated its commitment to non-violence and love of enemies by sending condolences to the family, colleague and friends of Jerry Falwell, who died yesterday.

    I don’t know if Falwell even has a family, I don’t know if they’re as rabidly homophobic as he was, but I do know that loving your enemy is more than a tad weird in my book.

    (zilch) But is there any way to really separate the two Falwells that is not just semantic hairsplitting?

    Not at all. I’m not separating the two Falwells, I’m separating a bigoted and evil person from his family (if he has any).

  26. I don’t think nonviolence is weird; sometimes it’s the only “weapon” strong enough to break through prejudice. 

    But Falwell’s death brings up the whole question of hatred.  In CS Lewis’ novel Perelandra the main character Ransom can only defeat evil when he allows himself to respond to his previously unacknowledged “purely lawful hatred” for the evil one.

    Hate is a strong revulsion, and a determination to oppose.  It can, if not tempered by other values, explode into violence.  Is there an inconsistency in hating a hatemonger?  Falwell exploited popular prejudices to spread hate for millions of people.  Is it improper to hate him?

    Hate and evil are distinct things, though they are often found together.  Is it wrong to hate evil?  Falwell certainly felt justified in doing so but the difference lay in how he defined “evil”. 

    We all hate something or someone.  Jesus went after the money changers in the temple (and Falwell seemed oblivious to that irony).

  27. Except possibly for his daughter, I don’t really care about Falwell’s family.  His wife tolerated his hatred and his two sons are running his homophobic college and fundy church.  His daughter is a surgeon.

  28. DoF- I think hating hate is ok as its self terminating when it needs to be and aimed with good intentions, i think of it just as a motivator that highlights the need to address unfair hate and reminds me of my stance on that. Negativity can be a way of subconciously identifying the persons problem so you can perscribe what you percieve to be suitable psychological ‘medication’ for it

  29. I must say that…

    I wonder if the Phelps family will picket Jerry’s funeral;

    …the idea of Phelps picketing Falwell’s funeral has a delicious irony to it.

  30. I don’t think nonviolence is weird

    There’s a difference between nonviolence and “loving your enemy”.

    Is it wrong to hate evil?

    It’s foolish. It clouds your judgment and could get in the way of a clean kill (figuratively speaking).

  31. The lack of the ability to feel a sense of empathy for others, no matter how far apart ideologically, well, you’ve lost a bit of best of what we can be as people in my opinion. I’m sorry to see it.

    Well in that case Consi I guess you will be sending flowers to the family of the suicide bomber that killed a bunch of US troops yesterday right?  Or did I get what you wrong?  I guess your statement only applies to touted Christian assholes that die.

  33. According to the godhatesfags website, Phelps and company ARE going to picket Falwell’s funeral.  HOT DAMN!

  34. DOF: Ah, yes; sympathy for the devil.  It’s a bit more than an “ideological difference.” Seriously, the man was evil.

    Yes, evil.

    100% agreed. I have absolutely no sympathy or empathy for this monster. This was the man who could do no better in his rabid zeal to malign homosexuality than to attack a stupid children’s show; he was the one who blamed the 9/11 attacks on just about anyone who didn’t think and act exactly as he did. The hate practically oozed from his pores. If only everyone of his ilk could disappear off the face of the planet.

  36. I understand Consigliere’s point.  I ask myself, “Do I feel good about feeling good about this shitsack’s demise?”

      The answer is no.  I wish it wasn’t this way.  But the man declared WAR on me.  Encouraged divisiveness and hatred every day of his adult life.  Scammed millions of gullible, scared mini-bigots for millions of dollars(dollars that were actually earned by someone)to further his cause of profitable hatred.  Jerry Falwell damned me to hell, and millions of people like me.  He encouraged people not to disagree with me, but to hate and shun me.  He has been an apologist not only for his hateful dogshit version of christianity, but for the murderous policies of the most greedy, amoral politicians since King Tut.  All under the umbrella of a book that he probably believed no more than I do.

    Where does sympathy stop?  Am I inhuman if I refuse to feel sorry for this man and his family?  Fred Phelps?  Al Capone?  How much sympathy do you have for Arafat’s family, Consi?  Did you mourn the Ayatollah?  I bet you’re REAL worried about the fellings of his relatives, right?  Yeah, right.  Differences in degree, not kind, and only because he couldn’t get away with it.

    Bottom line-the man declared war on me, my friends, and the secular nature of our government that has, so far, prevented shitbags like him from actually enforcing their bigotry through law. As far as his family goes, I feel for any children that may have lost a kindly grandpa.  That’s it.  Any adults can be adult enough to accept the fact that they are also profiting from another’s pain.  I have assholes in my family too, and I expect no flowers or tears from those that they have shit on. 

    Of course, even if I believed in Hell, I wouldn’t wish him there-which is INFINITELY more respect and sympathy than he or his relatives ever gave.

  38. Of course, even if I believed in Hell, I wouldn’t wish him there

    You’ll be relieved to know that according to Phelps, that’s exactly where Falwell is heading—among other reasons for being too conciliatory towards gays.

  39. I apologize for the multiple and verbose comments, as I have already made my position clear-but this memory came into my mind and seems appropriate.

    The whole issue of “sympathy for the devil” that
    I’ve engaged in here reminds me of a dinner I had with a good friend’s family a few years back- in the late 90’s, if I recall correctly. 

      My friend’s family are all christians of a fairly conservative bent for California, but generally good, live and let live kind of people.  Once in a while the old Texas style “love it or leave it” attitude would come out but really not too much.  Fairly tolerant for bible-believers, I always thought. But then again I never mentioned, except to my friend in confidence, that I wasn’t on quite the same page.  It just never seemed to matter at the time, and I was still a sort-of liberal christian anyway.
      We were bbq-ing some steaks and my friend’s mom was reading the paper.  As we started to eat, she continued reading, until she got to a sidebar in the national news section.  She let out a half-laugh and told us the news. 
      The article was about the O’Hair family.  I barely knew the name at the time, but they were more familiar, being both fans of school prayer and ex-Texans.  The gist of the article was that while no bodies had been found, police were certain that the O’Hairs were the victims of foul play, robbed and killed.

    The three of them had a nice chuckle over that.
    A whole family robbed and murdered.  They laughed and ate some more steak, put a little sour cream on their potatoes.  The general sentiment, from Mother, Father, and Son, was “Well that’s what you get, telling people there is no God!” 

    To their credit, the bondage and dismemberment hadn’t been discovered yet-but I know for a fact they believed both that there is a hell, and that people like the O’Hair’s go there.

    I have never since felt a chill up my spine as cold as I felt at that moment.

    So I guess you’re right after all, Consigliere.  I shouldn’t be so gleeful at the natural passing of an overpriveleged hatemonger.  It’s a slippery slope, and I could end up being a christian again.

  40. Generaly I base sympathy on the state of mind something leaves people in, that way regardles of past they can be forgiven if they have genuinely changed, which you can tell sometimes. I respect people for when they show strength(bravery) in the face of a situation if sympathy isnt needed and they want to get back on feet

  41. “Or did I misinterpret what you wrote?”

    You did.

    The hate practically oozed from his pores.

    Two negatives only make a positive in some class that I barely understood.

    I have absolutely no sympathy or empathy for this monster

    I actually wasn’t encouraging sympathy or empathy for him.  I was encouraging empathy for his family and behavior that would accord with that.

    But the man declared WAR on me.  Encouraged divisiveness and hatred every day of his adult life.  Scammed millions of gullible, scared mini-bigots for millions of dollars(dollars that were actually earned by someone)to further his cause of profitable hatred.  Jerry Falwell damned me to hell, and millions of people like me.  He encouraged people not to disagree with me, but to hate and shun me.

    In this diatribe, I fail to see how he declared WAR on you or how he could be someone’s enemy.  I have not read about any bullets fired or stab wounds from a bayonet.  Nothing of the sort do I read.  What I do read is that there was a disagreement about your personal lifestyle choices from which you took umbrage.  I thought we were all in favor of the freedom to make up our own minds about what we liked and what we didn’t, even if we engage in dumbassery in the process?  And the freedom to speak about it as well?

    I’ve only to ask you why you cared so much about what someone you viewed as a dumbass said?  Simply put, I have no idea why you needed his approval.

  42. According to the godhatesfags website, Phelps and company ARE going to picket Falwell’s funeral.

    Cool; how could one pick the lesser of two evils between those two packs of hyenas (no offence to those soft and cuddly hyenas)?
    I suppose we (?) could start a third crowd and yell Hooray and Boo alternatively … our heads moving left and right like we were at a tennis match.

    Neil: I could end up being a christian again

    The only way I’d ever become any sorta theist is if ‘they’ passed a law that all atheists would hang at dawn. I don’t like being tied up and I’m not that proud or committed to my atheism nor am I that apathetic about my life.
    I’d start blubbering in tongues quick smart. Hallelujah! Praise Jaysus!

    I do know that loving your enemy is more than a tad weird in my book.

    I’ve come up with a theory about that one – it could be a stretch but stay with me a moment.
    Let’s pretend for a moment Jesus existed and said: Love your enemy.
    This is the tricky part – I reckon (if he existed) when he was cruising round The East he read The Art of War by Sun Tzu and there’s a bit in there where Sun or is it Tzu (?) says: Know your enemy.
    Remember in the bible where ‘To Know’ equates to ‘To Fuck’?
    I’m sure you’ll all manage to work out that Jesus really meant: Fuck your enemies.
    Ahh, there’s some logic in there somewhere and if there isn’t I enjoyed saying that fucking fuck word again anyway.  smile

  43. Consi, you have a point.  There is, in fact, a difference between believing that someone should be killed (which is quite clear from his words)and killing them yourself.  The difference is that it makes him either a dangerous liar, a shameless hypocrite, or a coward.  Your choice.
    Hell, have all three!

    The argument can be made however, that he did more than state a position.  He used the bigotries of gullible, small minded people to gather money and influence, with which he waged a propaganda campaign that included ever growing violent rhetoric of God’s justice and what “should” and “will” happen to these sinners “when that time comes.”  Knowing all the while that stoking these fires gets people hurt and killed even here in the good old land of the free.  So you are still right-he didn’t have the balls to be a warlord and get his own hands dirty.

    He was a lot more like a terrorist.

    The next time the president of Iran says that America or Isreal is evil and Allah will destroy us, remember; he’s just disagreeing with our lifestyle.  Don’t take umbrage.

    Oh and for the record I’m not gay.  Just another godless liberal that knows the difference between disagreeing and disenfranchising.  Sorry I caused 9/11.

  44. Wars are waged in many ways.  Long before violence breaks out, someone has to demonize the unpopular group, suggest they are responsible for the country’s troubles, state that God Himself is against them, and infer that simply refraining from violence against them is itself an act of extraordinary restraint and kindness.

    I couldn’t find where Neal suggested Falwell be censored, only that Falwell was very, very wrong and that people were foolish and wrong for following him.

  46. Long before violence breaks out, someone has to demonize the…group, suggest they are responsible for the country’s troubles,…and infer that simply refraining from violence against them is itself an act of extraordinary restraint and kindness.

    Couldn’t agree more here DOF.  Couldn’t agree more.

  47. Somebody let me know where they end up burying this prick so I can stop by some day and take a piss on his grave, you know, to pay my respects…..

  48. You’ll find no sadness from me. His family and other supporters lost someone, one way or the other; but I had no connect with his family in any meaningful sense. My concern with him would be only for his politics, and the only feelings I muster are driven by that. Censure, as a tax of eminence.

    May his memory fade swiftly.

  49. I would be sympathetic to his family if it we’re not for the great hatred he preached. However, at a certain point the good of someone dieing far out ways the bad. One question for everyone, how many of you feel bad for Hitlers family? I know I don’t. So good riddance and I hope the rest of the hate mongering bastards like him are soon to follow.

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