Everyone is born with certain flaws and certain virtues, and I’ll bet everybody about to scroll past this that I’m not going where you think I am.
It seems to me that a man can be intellectually limited enough, morally flexible enough, and well-enough predisposed to blame and bigotry, to become (however well-educated, well-spoken, well-dressed, well-mannered and charismatic) a very bad man. And the men I deem bad deserve the treatment I wish such a man gave his enemies, such as moderation in accusation and reservation of judgment and condemnation. When, however, the man takes the next step of ascribing his flaws to the God of millions, using his attributes to sell that bogus endorsement of hate to the gullible, he transcends his humble beginnings to take on the trappings of a monster, both more and less but absolutely unlike a man, and therefore not within man’s power to blame or forgive.
My hope for him is my hope for us all. That despite no evidence for this sort of miracle in all the annals, he was (and everyone will be) granted a last moment of clarity while still part of the world: that he could see where he went wrong, and when and how he went astray from the beautifully simple instruction to love each other, and that this revelation allows him to regain his humanity, so that he may contemplate eternity with a gentler and wiser modesty.
And you can most certainly count me amongst, if not the gloaters, then definitely one of the people who are relieved to see him go. Being an atheist, I mean, and him trying to make this country as Christian as possible.
As I don’t believe in God anyway, I figure he went where we’re all going. But there is no doubt that there are some people who make the world go smoother and then there are some people who throw a wrench into the gears and then jump up and down on the lever.
I don’t see Falwell’s death as either a good thing or a bad thing. It’s just the ordinary thing. The power of the religious right is not going to be diminished without him, so I don’t think his death is politically significant. His political legacy (i.e. his instrumental role in the RISE of the religious right) was already established history. His death won’t undo that damage.
His death is also not a tragedy. He died of natural causes as a rich old man. That’s kind of the way we all want to go, is it not? The way I see it, he pretty much got away with all his bullshit and died without ever getting much in the way of comeuppance. I won’t miss him and I won’t pretend otherwise, but I do know he had a family and I think it’s possible that they loved him, so I won’t dance on his grave.
I think my most honest response is just indifference. I don’t feel his death as either a loss or a gain. He died too late for either.
Yesterday when I went for a walk I noticed the sun seemed to be shining a little brighter, puffy white clouds were sailing smoothly across the sky, the birds were chirping a little more melodiously, even the plants had a nicer, brighter sheen to them than usual. Then after the walk I learned that Falwell had died, and all was made clear.
Falwell may not have physically hurt anyone himself, but he has managed to poison American political discourse through the Religious Right. That movement seeks political candidates who are too happy to inject personal morality into public policy. His followers have passed laws that cause harm; witness the legal battle involving Terri Schiavo; the movement to teach creationism or “intelligent design” in public schools; and the fight over reproductive rights for women or equal rights for gays. When religion trumps individual rights, harm inevitably results.
I’m not dancing on the man’s grave, but at the same time, I’m not sorry to see him go. He’s caused enough damage.
I agree with that, but what movement doesn’t? The right brings bedroom morality, but the left brings village morality — what you can do for your country, and all that. I cannot favor one candidate over another when each wants to use me to alleviate what bears on his conscience, no matter what his cause.
Of course, Libertarians (as distinct from and contrary to liberals ) bring their consciences into the public square, too – consciences in which personal freedom (from government interference) is the supreme value to be applied whatever the cost.
Yeah, being free from coercive force is such a bummer. Central planners want to be free; they just don’t want anyone else to be free. They want others to do their dirty work, enacting their plans so they won’t have to hear from the riff-raff directly. A social welfare bureaucracy is a long-extended arm that pushes away the faceless masses into obscurity. Out of sight, out of mind.
It’s amazing how few of his obituaries mention his racism. Falwell was by his own admission a “staunch segregationist” who preached against Brown v. Topeka and denounced all Civil Rights legislation. In 1964 his church was the focus of a Civil Rights protest and later that decade he founded an all-white Christian academy. In 1968 he baptized the first black member into his church and later said “I think I was wrong. I interpreted the scriptures wrong.” (If you need a cite, google Falwell 1964 or Falwell segregationist, etc.).
Okay, I’m not going to hold it against a hillbilly who was born in the early 1930s that he was a racist. It would have been more surprising if he hadn’t been. (Of course Jimmy Carter was born a decade earlier in the backwoods of Georgia and he wasn’t, but…) However, by his own admission Falwell still had racist/segregationist notions for more than a decade after he was ordained and pastoring Thomas Road Baptist Church! He was 35 years old when he decided “hey, maybe God does want the races to like each other after all… and maybe it’s not the black folks fault that their ancestors settled the same land we did when they came over here looking for work on the plantations…”. THIRTY FIVE.
Now, again, you can’t help how you’re raised, but you can damned sure help never thinking for yourself later, and Falwell claimed to be a man of GOD. He admitted he was dead wrong on the issue of race (like a lot of Southern power brokers he came to that realization about the same time as blacks got their ability to vote protected and SCotUS decisions supported them and the tide was turning and bigots were becoming lampooned even in their own land, not exactly an early adaptor Jerry), but previously he had supported it with scripture, and in admitting he was wrong he also had to admit that most if not all of the preachers he revered as a child and as a young pastor were dead wrong whether they admitted or not. And yet to the end of his life he remained absolutely convinced that sodomites were evil without considering “Hey, maybe I got that one wrong too”, and he never railed against adultery (one of the big 10) like he did that. Totally a “what I think Jesus meant to say was…” fellow who never in a thousand years would have seen that he was far more Caiaphas than Peter.
But I hate the people who donated hundreds of millions to him over the years more than I do him. And I hate Pat Robertson more than any of them.
I wonder out of curiosity how much Falwell’s personal estate is worth.
Even weirder than that was how Sharpton gushed over him.
I am deeply saddened by the passing of Reverend Jerry Falwell. Though he and I debated much and disagreed often, we shared a very cordial and warm friendship. I visited him in Lynchburg, dined with him, and even talked with him during personal crises. Though we were as politically opposite as two people could be, I truly respected his commitment to his beliefs and our mutual belief in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As I stated to my nationally syndicated radio show, I pray for the Falwell family and join the nation in mourning the passing of this religious leader.http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/05/sharpton-on-falwell.html
I guess the Pharisees have to stick together, regardless of other factors.
According to Tucker Carlson, Al Sharpton doesn’t hate white people, he hates white liberals. This is some evidence in favour of that theory, I suppose.
) bring their consciences into the public square, too – consciences in which personal freedom (from government interference) is the supreme value to be applied whatever the cost.