A Moral Majority R.I.P.

Any idea why this pic was so prominent on the newswire after the father of the moral majority departed mortal earth?  If there is one expectable theme in the social dynamics of the religious right, it has to be idolatry.

If you have your own epitaph, by the way, be my guest...

(image: Steve Helber/A.P. Liberty University. Lynchburg, Va. June 20, 2006)

Comments

[Kitt]

Not me......not without the word 'fuck' or its variant thrown liberally (said proudly, BTW) thruout. I'm just wondering what he's saying to G*d now that he has found out she's a dread-locked, black lesbian with tattoos and a wicked sense of humor who thinks Jerry can now spare Sisyphus.

The absolute best, as well as succinct, entry I saw was from Norm Jensen over at 'One Good Move'

And then there's always Christopher Hitchens.....and from what better source than 'The World Nut Daily.'

Whatever 'face of g*d' Falwell portrayed is one which I want no part.

[susan]

Your request for epitaphs drew me into the comment well. Here I go:

Jerry Falwell was a religious man, but he was not spiritual. There's a huge difference. Where a religious man points a judgmental finger with the intention of causing pain and guilt, a spiritual man walks the path of humility, finding ways to be of service and a source of joy for others.

Many people will rejoice upon hearing the news of his passing, but I can't help but feel a sense of deep sorrow for this unhappy man. After all, his favorite life manual, the Bible teaches,

"You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." ~ Matthew 12:34

I happen to be a Buddhist, but I agree with Jesus. I also think Jesus would have compassion for Jerry, who, over the course of his lifetime, frequently spoke from a well of hatred and condemnation in his heart. What do the words he spoke over the course of his lifetime reveal about condition of his spirit, and his sense of self?

"If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being."

“[homosexuals are] brute beasts...part of a vile and satanic system [that] will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven.”

“(re: 9/11 attacks) "...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 try to secularize America...I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen."

The handwriting on his spirit's wall reveals a man with low self-esteem ~ a man who judged himself harshly, and felt a deep sense of failure.

By contrast, the Saviour which Falwell claimed to be so familiar with had these words to share about how to live compassionately and decently:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
for they shall possess the earth.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.

Jesus was an enlightened being who graced this earth with his unselfish teachings of radical love and acceptance. The grief we all should be tapping into on this day of great sorrow is for a starving world where so many of us build barriers of prideful protection around our hearts instead of reaching out and embodying the change we wish to see in the world surrounding us.

Rest in peace, Jerry. The data reveals you never found it during your visit here on earth. We pray you will find it in a future lifetime.

[PJ]

Conspicuously absent from every obit I've seen -- it's de mortuis, I suppose -- is any mention of the story which first put Falwell in national headlines. He told a group in Alaska that he had stood up to President Carter (at a breakfast meeting, I believe) and demanded to know why homosexuals were allowed to serve his Administration. Follow-up and referencing, late as usual, found no such confrontation. Asked later to explain, Falwell said he had not meant for people to take the story seriously; it had been sort of a parable, don't you know. In other words, I got where I am by lying, and now that I'm here, I can get away with lying about the lie.

The only quote which comes to mind is from Clarence Darrow: "I don't rejoice at any man's death, but there have been some obituaries I've read with satisfaction."

[Gail]

I'm with Clarence Darrow - couldn't have been said better regarding Falwell.

What goes around comes around - Rest in Peace? Hope not.

[Jay Wozny]

Newseum's website offers a variety of photographs of the late minister on the front pages of today's papers around the country. Many of them are simply thumbnail head shots or head and shoulders pictures. Several photos in larger format appear above the some papers' title headline and several others are prominently featured at the center of the news page or lower down. None of the ones I reviewed show the shot you have included.

Perhaps the two most interesting shots I saw were of Falwell standing outside next to an empty upholstered formal [dining room type] chair his hand on the crosspiece under the overarching limb of a large oak tree. The headline: What Falwell Planted. (Huntville Times, Huntville, AL)

The other is of two men embracing in grief in front of a portrait of the deceased minister. (Tuscaloosa News, Tuscaloosa, AL)

The OC Post had a full page photo of Falwell on its front page, captioned "Culture Warrior." OC Post, Santa Ana, CA.

There are several other interesting layouts covering Falwell's death. I noted that the Chicago Tribune did not include any mention of the story on its front page (for what that's worth).

I suspect the photo you have included came because it was the easiest to retrieve at the time.

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/default.asp?p_size=553

[tina]

What's to say? Good riddance, but there is always more where they came from. Now if only Pat Robertson would go home to Jeebus.

[KansasKowboy]

I am reminded of a quote from Jesus in the bible which would relate to Falwell and Roberts and Dobson and all the others like them. "I say to you it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven."

[Brigid]

It is when he started hitting on Rinky Dink, the purple tele-tubby, for being gay that I was absolutely convinced this man was in the throes of tertiary syphilitic dementia.
May he twitch in peace.

[jtfromBC]

intro to obit

Espousing Jesus Christ as his personal savior while unflinchingly spewing vitriol on those who did not share his myopic view of Christianity, that celebrated Moral Midget, Jerry Falwell died yesterday at 73 years of age.
His demise will provide a welcomed respite particularily for those members of the moral majority who were the recipients of his unique brand of targeted hatred. May they enjoy this moment how ever brief to rest in peace while still breathing.

[Neal]

My epitath of choice:

Matthew 7:21-27
21 ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” 23Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”

[readytoblowagasket]

I can't contribute any witty epitaphs and I won't go to the trouble of quoting poetry from the Bible for someone so undeserving as Jerry Falwell. I'm not as noble a person as Clarence Darrow, tristero, Jesus, or susan. I will be honest, however, and confess that when I learned the news of Falwell's death, I actually felt happy. I turned to the person next to me and said, "Finally! Some Good News!"

(Full disclosure: When I said it, I didn't cap the "G" and the "N.")

[margaret]

It's gotten to the place that I am ashamed to be a Christian, to be a Southerner, to be an American. What's left is my sex: so far, I'm mighty proud to be a woman, and an artist. God! I hope GWB and the Xian Right don't make me ashamed of that!

[Rafael]

Well since everybody is doing it why can't I...

I hope that he does go to Heaven...and when he does a compassionate God sits him down on his knee and says..."Jerry, we need to talk...."

[mugatea]

On image: that blue plastic (disposable) 'beer cup' is the most symbolic component in that photo.

[ice weasel]

"I don't rejoice at any man's death..."

What Hallmarkian, contempible bullshit. It sure sounds nice though, doesn't it?

So when a human being is a vile, hate filled and avaricious, there's no need to refoice that they no longer walk this plane with the rest of us, no, we should just quietly be glad they're gone. What a loser's philosophy that is.

Sorry, I'm glad he's dead. He was a disgusting human being and the world is better, however slightly, without him. And as someone up above suggested, let's make it a twofer and get pat robertson's filthy carcass into a hole soon as well.

Epitaph? I wouldn't disgrace this planet by marking the spot where falwell's rotting corpse lies. The best we hope for is that nature finds a way to take back a very small amount of what falwell acquired and make something better of it, maybe flowers. That's the very best legacy falwell could get from me.

[LanceThruster]

WWJD - "What Would Jerry Do?" (or "Who Would Jerry Destroy?)

[toomuchtolose]

Cloning is a SIN
except for some people

[tekel]

Oh, I rejoiced at his death. I'm still smiling, thinking of the worms that will eat his face. I would have paid $100 cash to piss on his warm corpse in front of his family. Fortunately Chris Hitchens seems to have done the job thoroughly for me. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

The Rude Pundit did the job with this yesterday. Caution, it's nasty nasty nasty.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2007/05/dead-falwell-jerry-falwell-was-poison.html

[HillWilliam]

This morning has brought some interesting posts to the DNC's Kicking Ass open thread. I posted a response BlueNC that I hope will provoke some thought and (somewhere, somehow) promote thought and truth to action. Herewith:

The thread started with still-more shocked posts at the Sunday bobbleheads who are praising the still-dead Falwell. I had to respond: Falwell? A hero? A man who committed daily sedition, trained moles to infiltrate the government, emplaced them in the loving arms of the Bush administration for the sole purpose of overturning the Constitution, overthrowing our system of laws and replacing our government with a twisted, Moon-soaked theocracy at which, naturally, only he and is closest adherents would be at the top? Falwell is no hero to any patriotic American.

The bald truth that he was a seditionist, an enemy of the republic and only escaped a proper hanging by dint of a dark and gluttonous heart that took him out too early for his just and deserved punishment. His cult-followers are equally guilty and deserve hanging as well. At least, that is what we used to do with subversivies, seditionists, treasonists and other scum who attacked the Constitution and tried to topple our government. Now, such nefarious activity starkly and accurately defines the Republican Party.

We wanted desperately to believe that such a thing couldn't happen in America, with its system of checks and balances. We failed because, while we trusted the system, we didn't do enough to support it.

This is what happens when cult-figures are celebrated in the MSM and the population is dumbed-down to the point of abject and sorry stupidity. This is what happens when Americans take their democracy and their Constitution, with its foundation and system of law tempered with liberty, for granted.

To paraphrase Bette Davis: One should never say bad things about the dead; one should only say good. Jerry Falwell is dead.

Good.

We need, desperately need, to go after these people. I agree, the first thing to be done is to kick the legs out by removing Gonzo and Cheney. Rice, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft et cie. must also be held accountable. The 2000 and 2004 elections must be thoroughly investigated and the criminality finally brought fully to light. Apparently, eyewitness to the rushed destruction of the ballots, as well as eyewitness to manipulation of machines thereafter wasn't sufficient. (What else in G'd's name would? I'm astounded that eyewitness to a coup d'état somehow isn't sufficient for conviction.) Video tape must surely still exist of the news coverage of the 2000 ballot destruction -- before the first challenge and recount had begun. There were millions of south Florida viewers. They've posted endlessly to blogs, but where is the MSM in reporting it? (Aside from Channel 7 Miami, that is.)

The extreme right-wing empaneled judges who were accomplices in the crime also deserve impeachment, conviction and jail for the crimes of subversion. The entire docket of the Republican junta Congress must also be repudiated and American law restored. The DOJ must be purged of Moon-moneyed and Falwell trained moles who attempt to hide under a thin veil of assumed religiosity.

The coronation of Sun Myung Moon in the Dirkson Senate Office Building (replete with Republican lawmakers) as "messiah and king of the universe" should have been a tipper to anyone who was awake and aware. The very notion sickened and scared hell out of me. The grand show, billed as a "religious" event happened in our own taxpayer-built government building. Not for nothing, Moon has given millions to right-wing lawmakers, right-wing "Christian" colleges and universities (Falwell, Dobson, LaHaye, Robertson, D. James Kennedy being notable beneficiaries). All of these latter ones preach right-wing hatred and are deeply involved in subverting the Constitution.

With full knowledge and complicity, the Bush administration hired these people to do their propagandizing, bought votes in Congress, allowed their students in corruption access to sensitive government positions. With their co-operation, a war for profit was started, a near-bankrupt Halliburton/Blackwater became not only profitable, but wildly so. VP Cheney has benefitted directly from this profiteering. He also allowed Big Oil to meet with him in secret to design America's energy policy -- that being a marketing name for the rape of the American taxpayer's pocketbook for zillion-dollar oilco CEO salaries and bonuses.

For some reason I cannot fathom, we're supposed to swallow that all of this overt criminality, subversion and sedition are somehow G'd's will. I have a feeling that such a war and profit god is not the G'd of peace, of caring for the poor, the aged and infirm Whom I adore. I refuse surrender my immortal soul to their satanic god of profit and slavery as adamantly as I refuse to surrender my beloved country and Constitution; nor my flag, nor my freedom.

In short, mainstream America slept while its foundation was eroded, its heritage and legacy of liberty and justice were usurped for the good of the few and privileged rather than that of the everyday, walking-around people it was designed to protect against the very, self-same form of subversion. While mainstream America slept, the enemy within grew strong and has come to threaten the very existence of the Union.

It's not yet altogether too late, though it is too late to restore our government and system of laws without a great deal of pain. This is what happens when a cancerous mole is allowed to metasticize and rot the entire body politic. There will be pain to endure and a tough fight to be fought.

But if we treasure the rare and wonderful heritage of American democracy, fight we must.

(Front-paged by Anglico for Sunday mourning.)

[Dimly Thronenberg]

What a wonderfull outlook on life you have. Do you sleep well?

[Robin]

I think Jerry would have wanted the caption to read "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit"