Falwell may be more extreme than **Der Trihs ** but make no mistake, posting extreme generalzations that slander a huge number of people in the name of your personal belief, is spreading hate.
Well, he said this :
That sounds like a call to let AIDS kill as many gays as possible to me. I have never called for the death of injury of those who disagree with me.
He also blamed 9-11 on gays, lesbians and secularism. Here’s his apology, for what it’s worth. He’s also said he wants public education eliminated, and all schools to be run by Christians. Here’s a report of him calling the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State the Anti-Christ.
As far as I can see you haven’t provided cites for your claims. A cite is not just an unverifiable quote. I followed your links. He surely says a lot of foolish things. That just qualifies him as a prejudice zealot. His believeing that Christianity is the solution to many problems isn’t much different than you balming so much on Christianity. I’m asking for a cite specifically on the two accusations you made. You don’t have to convince me Falwell is an irrational nutjob. I already know that.
Point taken, Trihs isn’t advocating action in the name of hate. Also Trihs is approachable, he’ll argue with you all day. Falwell is secure in his fortress of cronies and a system of socialization where he rarely has to meet people outside of his milieu in a fashion that isn’t adversarial.
Erek
Falwll has had several incidents where he had to apologize or explain his comments.Such as his infamous, “Hunt down the terrorists and blow them away in the name of the Lord” The thing that offends me most about Falwell and those like him is that they actually seem to believe they know God’s will and how God 'feels" about gays and America etc. etc. When preachers get to be major coorperations it’s hard to tell if they truly believe the crap they spew or it’s just rhetoric to keep feeding the kitty. MAtbe there comes a time when they can’t tell either.
That’s why I am of the opinion that people like Falwell are the Pharisees of the modern day, and would be dragged from the temple by Christ. Sometimes I want to go and drag them from the temple. Personally I am of the opinion that the best way to deal with these people is to take the protests to their doorstep. I generally hate protests, because I don’t see a whole lot of point in standing on a university campus, or in front of the White House or UN, and bitching about your grievances. I think the protests should be taken directly to the supporters you disagree with, have the dialogue with the people who are being represented, not the representatives.
Erek
Y’know, Erek, although I don’t agree with the majority of the Teeming Millions on the value of religion, I agree that Falwell and his ilk are barking up the wrong tree.
I read part of a book called “The End of Faith” It’s a hard read but one thing I agreed with is the author saying that it’s time to challenge the beliefs that are spilling over into the lives of everyone. I’m glad to see the Sojourners taking a stand and saying loudly that the right wing zealots don’t speak for all of Christianity. It’s time challenge bigots who hide behind their religious beliefs and throw God and Jesus around. It’s time to ask them to justify their beliefs with something other than the Bible. Let’s have some rational and reasonable discussions on what works with a comittment to honesty. It amazes me how much false information is passed among Christians and good people accept it as true.
I’ve been forwarded stuff by my Christian friends that is totally bogus. I’ve pointed this out to them and implored them as people who worship in spirit and TRUTH, to not accept everything that comes their way as true, simply because it has some Christian label on it. Let’s be plain spoken. When you carelessly spread false info as the truth then you are either a liar or bearing false witness, which are two things Jesus no likey.
It’s hard and maybe useless to try to discuss with some people but there are moderates who are willing to share ideas and actually listen. We need to try and use compassion and understanding whenever we can, but be stubborn in making people defend and explain their position. “God said so” ain’t good enough.