Jerry Falwell's Greatest Hits

[CSpec]

On Sept. 11: "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.' "

On AIDS: "AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals."

On homosexuality: "I believe that all of us are born heterosexual, physically created with a plumbing that's heterosexual, and created with the instincts and desires that are basically, fundamentally, heterosexual. But I believe that we have the ability to experiment in every direction. Experimentation can lead to habitual practice, and then to a lifestyle. But I don't believe anyone begins a homosexual."

On Martin Luther King Jr.: "I must personally say that I do question the sincerity and nonviolent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. James Farmer, and others, who are known to have left-wing associations."

On Martin Luther King Jr., four decades later: "You know, I supported Martin Luther King Jr., who did practice civil disobedience."

On public education: "I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again, and Christians will be running them."

On the separation of church and state: "There is no separation of church and state."

On feminists: "I listen to feminists and all these radical gals. ... These women just need a man in the house. That's all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they're mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They're sexist. They hate men; that's their problem."

On global warming: "I can tell you, our grandchildren will laugh at those who predicted global warming. We'll be in global cooling by then, if the Lord hasn't returned. I don't believe a moment of it. The whole thing is created to destroy America's free enterprise system and our economic stability."

On Bishop Desmond Tutu: "I think he's a phony, period, as far as representing the black people of South Africa."

On Islam: "I think Mohammed was a terrorist. I read enough of the history of his life, written by both Muslims and non-Muslims, that he was a violent man, a man of war."

On Jews: "In my opinion, the Antichrist will be a counterfeit of the true Christ, which means that he will be male and Jewish, since Jesus was male and Jewish."

[Drew Dowdell]

Only one of these makes logical sense.....not necessarily theocratic sense...but logical sense.

[ehaase]

I sure don't understand all this uproar on this board over Jerry Falwell's death.

Since he first became involved in politics in 1979, abortion is still legal, there is still no prayer in the schools, pornography is available for anyone who wants it, people are much more tolerant of homosexuals. In 2004, 34 percent of the population believed that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, today only 28 percent do. Attendance at 70 percent of Baptist churches is declining.

Falwell and the religious right have lost, and those of you who oppose everything he stood for are winning.

[Drew Dowdell]

I sure don't understand all this uproar on this board over Jerry Falwell's death.

Since he first became involved in politics in 1979, abortion is still legal, there is still no prayer in the schools, pornography is available for anyone who wants it, people are much more tolerant of homosexuals. In 2004, 34 percent of the population believed that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, today only 28 percent do. Attendance at 70 percent of Baptist churches is declining.

Falwell and the religious right have lost, and those of you who oppose everything he stood for are winning.

Hence so many of us singing "Ding Dong the witch is dead"

[Enzora]

http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Matter-Kansas-...a/dp/0805073396

[CSpec]

I sure don't understand all this uproar on this board over Jerry Falwell's death.

Since he first became involved in politics in 1979, abortion is still legal, there is still no prayer in the schools, pornography is available for anyone who wants it, people are much more tolerant of homosexuals. In 2004, 34 percent of the population believed that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, today only 28 percent do. Attendance at 70 percent of Baptist churches is declining.

Falwell and the religious right have lost, and those of you who oppose everything he stood for are winning.

I'm sure the same will happen when Pat Robertson kicks the bucket. Both spew such insane and vile things that people are bound to be glad they're gone. Surely you will agree that some of the quotes I posted are vile and sick.

[Drew Dowdell]

Jerry Fallwell, who's not in heaven, wallow in thy shame. Thy time has come, thy life is done, and soon also your bretheren's. Give to the gays your severed head, and Fred Phelps up on pins, as we do to foes who pin against us. And lead us not to lamentation, for we are delivered from your evil. For ours are the Drag queens, the power bottoms, and the glory holes, now and forever. Gay-men

[Chris_Doane]

Jerry Fallwell, who's not in heaven, wallow in thy shame. Thy time has come, thy life is done, and soon also your bretheren's. Give to the gays your severed head, and Fred Phelps up on pins, as we do to foes who pin against us. And lead us not to lamentation, for we are delivered from your evil. For ours are the Drag queens, the power bottoms, and the glory holes, now and forever. Gay-men

[Intrepidation]

Jerry Fallwell, who's not in heaven, wallow in thy shame. Thy time has come, thy life is done, and soon also your bretheren's. Give to the gays your severed head, and Fred Phelps up on pins, as we do to foes who pin against us. And lead us not to lamentation, for we are delivered from your evil. For ours are the Drag queens, the power bottoms, and the glory holes, now and forever. Gay-men

Nice

He's dead, and so the world is a slightly better place.

[Cory Wolfe]

Who's the Queen? Oldsmoboi is! Yeah!

[Guest YellowJacket894]

You forgot his ... "interesting" little ditty on September 11th:

And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. 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."

But let us not forget how he was so righteously owned by Lewis Black:

Jerry Falwell said that the reason that September 11th happened, the reason that God allowed it to happen, was because of certain people in our country. People like, and I'm quoting, 'the pagans,' which is a motorcycle group. Feminists; he brought up feminists. He used the word even. 'God,' I thought, 'I haven't heard that word in a while. Did he really think it was feminists? Is that what upset God? That women, a number of years ago, had decided to leave the kitchen, and enter the work place, and demand equal wages, and demand power equal to a man? That's what upset God? That God looked down into the kitchen, and there was not a stew on the oven and the spice rack was in disarray. He said, I will SMOTE them!' And I couldn't believe it, he said that God had actually talked to him and said, these were the people. That was the reason. It was those people, and that was the reason God allowed this to happen. And I thought, 'That's odd.' Because God had called me 12 hours before, and he said, the reason he was upset was because of people like Jerry Falwell.

Edited May 17, 2007 by YellowJacket894

[Intrepidation]

I love Lewis Black

[Cory Wolfe]

Lewis Black does rock.

[Sixty8panther]

That was some funny stuff.... What a fu%&ing imbecil.

I think Abortion IS wrong but to find a link between abortion

proponents & Sept. 11th just shows he was MORE of a radical

religious nut than some terrorists.

On feminists: "I listen to feminists and all these radical gals. ... These women just need a man in the house. That's all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home.

That one made me laugh even more than the one about the

separation between church & state. Can you imagine him

saying this to a butch lesbian like the one in the meat factory

at the begining of Boondock Saints...?

Clearly he was a few fries short of a Happy Meal.

[ehaase]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-alter/do...html?view=print

Don't Believe the Falwell Hype

I mean no disrespect to the dead, but I take the British view of obituaries, which is to try to capture the true public significance of the person who died, not just his good qualities. The truth about the Rev. Jerry Falwell is that he was a character assassin and hype artist who left little positive impact on the United States -- and little negative impact either, for that matter.

Besides founding Liberty University, he won't be remembered as nearly as influential as he's made out to be.

First, his real legacy: Falwell built the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia from scratch into a mega-church with a 6,000-seat auditorium. And he built Liberty University into a formidable institution that attracts over 20,000 students from around the world and a qualified faculty. Last year, Liberty's debate team won the national championship. It's not easy to create a university and Falwell deserves credit as an institution-builder. He will also be remembered through a famous Supreme Court case he lost, Hustler vs. Falwell, which established that public figures cannot recover damages when depicted in parodies. (The story of the lawsuit is told in the film, The People vs. Larry Flynt). In that sense, he inadvertently helped bolster the First Amendment.

But Falwell's political legacy is much less impressive. He started out as a segregationist who harshly attacked Martin Luther King through the 1960s and later called Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa a phony. He was a strong supporter of Israel but openly anti-Semitic, announcing on many occasions that the anti-Christ would return as a Jew.

On September 13, 2001, Falwell said this on Pat Robertson's show, The 700 Club: "The enemies of America give us probably what we deserve." When asked to elaborate, Falwell added, "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.'" Robertson replied, "Well, I totally concur." Falwell later apologized, unconvincingly, for offending anyone.

It was fitting that this was said on Robertson's program, not Falwell's. That's because Falwell never had great success as a broadcaster or televangelist. His Old Time Gospel Hour was never the most popular religious program. While he claimed 20 million viewers, the real number was a tiny fraction of that, usually below one ratings point. In the November, 1980 Nielsen ratings, for instance, Old Time Gospel Hour was watched by 1.21 million people -- well behind not just Oral Roberts and Jimmy Swaggert but Rex Humbard and James Robison.

According to lore (and much of the coverage of his death), November, 1980 found Falwell at the peak of his powers. That was the month Ronald Reagan was elected president, after having met with Falwell and other members of his brilliantly-named organization, "The Moral Majority." While Falwell might have contributed slightly to Reagan's margin of victory, he was not even close to being instrumental in his election. With incumbent Jimmy Carter bogged down with the Iranian hostage crisis and double-digit inflation and interest rates, Reagan won with 57 percent of the vote -- a huge landslide. At best, the Moral Majority added a point or two to Reagan's totals. More likely, it contributed nothing. Exit polls showed that Carter bested Reagan among Southern Baptists, 50-46 percent. And abortion ranked well behind foreign policy and economics among issues that mattered most to voters that year.

The Moral Majority claimed to have registered eight million new voters but could never provide any hard figures, and many smaller evangelical organizations said they operated independently of Falwell. (In fact, there was considerable tension within the religious right). The real political muscle was provided by Robertson and his protégé, Ralph Reed. Their Christian Coalition was far more powerful than the Moral Majority, whose voter guides were never credited with winning any particular election.

From the 1980s on, Falwell existed mostly as a media creation, not a real player in national politics. He missed the cable TV revolution, which deprived him of a platform. He took over Jimmy and Tammy Faye Bakker's PTL after it collapsed in scandal, but by then its revenues were a modest $13 million. The related theme park, Heritage USA, went into Chapter 11. His monthly magazine, National Liberty Journal, became a modest success, with an unaudited circulation of 250,000.

Falwell's power was hyped not just by him but by a media establishment that needed a consistently conservative voice -- not to mention a "guest" who could usually be counted on to show up at the studio on time and say something provocative. On shows like Nightline and Larry King Live, Falwell became a spokesman for the religious right and "good TV." Who can forget when he claimed that the Teletubbies character Tinky Winky was actually a hidden symbol of the homosexual agenda? Ironically, he may have loomed larger among secular audiences than religious ones.

In 1994, Falwell paid for a documentary called The Clinton Chronicles that supposedly implicated Bill Clinton, Vincent Foster, Ron Brown and Jim McDougal in a cocaine-smuggling operation. A man shown in the film in silhouette claimed that President Clinton ordered several of his critics killed. Falwell never repudiated the film, though he later admitted "I do not know the accuracy" of it. Some of the characters featured in the film became involved in the Paula Jones lawsuit that led to Clinton's impeachment, though Falwell was not central to that story either.

The rise of the religious right was an important development in late-20th Century American history. Falwell's name is among those associated with the movement. But just because someone is famous doesn't make him significant. Jerry Falwell wasn't.

[FloydHendershot]

On Jews: "In my opinion, the Antichrist will be a counterfeit of the true Christ, which means that he will be male and Jewish, since Jesus was male and Jewish."

Wouldn't that mean a woman and Jewish. Maybe even a woman and an atheist.

Tremendous loss. For who I don't know.