Jerry Falwell Is Dead At 73

There's a particularly good Newsweek column about Falwell by Howard Fineman.

By turns gracious and crude, Falwell was a maddening combination of worthy, lofty ambition—and mean-spirited, uncaring ignorance.

His viciousness was well-documented: he said the anti-Christ was a Jew—and was probably alive now. He said 9/11 was the fault of the sin of gays and lesbians.

The ending is apt:

Even so, and in spite of all of that, there was something oddly innocent about him. He craved acceptance, which he never quite got outside of the world he created for himself and his flock. Like all stirring preachers, he seemed to yearn for God's acceptance as much as those he preached to. He helped lead America in these last decades, but I wish I felt more certain that we had made it to a Better Place.

The great thing about this article, to me, is the total absence of REVERENCE. Falwell's legacy is written in the fact that on the day of his death, he is NOT a national hero. He's a man of the "pissant history" of the U.S., a tiny figure who puffed himself up in his own lifetime, but will probably have zero lasting impact. Bush may surprise us with some sort of stirring, stupid rhetoric lionizing Falwell in the next few days, but the word is already out: Even by the twisted standards of the godly, Falwell was not a nice man. He was a hate merchant who took sanctimonious joy in dividing people against each other.

He was a smiling, smug, Christian Ebenezer Scrooge who never got his life-changing epiphany, and who goes to his grave fat and rich on other people’s pain.

...

By the way, I saw many smiles today, heard much laughter. Complete strangers chuckled, friends cracked jokes. His family may miss him. Most of the rest of us – eh, not so much.

Being born in 1973 in relatively conservative central California (Bakersfield area for you redneck connoisseurs) I grew up right in the middle of the "Immoral Minority's" campaign of bullshit. Falwell and his cronies are the main reason I WILL NOT vote republican to this day. Anyone who would align with scumbags that odious to win an election should be run out on a rail.

I will be celebrating with a six pack of Moosehead Lager and a complete listening of Frank Zappa's 1981 masterpiece "You Are What You Is" particualrly tracks 14, 15, and 16, my personal Holy Trinity: "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing" "Dumb All Over" and "Heavenly Bank Account"-songs written for Falwell if ever there were!

In all seriousness, give those tracks a listen if you can, or at least look up the lyrics and give them a read-spend five minutes to find out how on-the-money an artist can be.

Trackback: So Jerry Falwell walks up to Saint Peter and says...

...I particularity like atheist blog Unscrewing The Inscrutable's take on Falwell's passing. Now that is the right way to show they are better people than Falwell could ever have been...

And as for his family...I can't imagine anyone that would marry him and spawn his, um...spawn...is very much deserving of my sympathy, either.

His children more than likely willingly drink the Falwell family kool-aid, or at least suck off the ill-gained profits from Jerry's years of turning hate into cash.

So, y'know, I wished there was a Hell for Jerry to burn in, and really, that whole lot can bugger off to Wish-Hell, too. I don't think I have enough compassion to really be wasting it on the likes of Falwells.

Again, sorry for the dickatude.

My favorite response yet to Falwell's demise. She lists a half dozen of his more hateful quotes and then follows with "Yeah... It's been real, dude."

I intend the following not as criticism but simply because I am legitimately curious: Why this post?

I mean, I feel the same degree of sympathy for Falwell's family that I would for the family members of any random person who died. (This is to say "minimal and perfunctory" as I don't have an easy time getting worked up about the grieving process of perfect strangers.)

So why? Falwell was a hard core scumbag. I can't see going out of ones way to note his passing with a kind gesture.

I dunno. Maybe I'm just a dick.

-Toast

P.S. My reaction on hearing this news was "Well, Tinky Winky will surely be relieved."

I've been waiting 30 years to see the headline "Falwell Drops Dead". The man was a pig and the planet is better off without him. He should be moving into his own special corner of Hell right about now. Hey Jerry, make some room for brother Pat. He'll be joining you very soon.

Sorry, to be a dick, but I really wish there was a hell for this guy to burn in.

Because he is dead or because they had to live with him? Seriously, this man was in the very forefront of the fight against reason. I certainly will shed no tears for him.

I have no idea if his family hold the same believes as Falwell. If they are to carry on in his memory, I can have no sympathy. He has shone none to millions of us.

An awful person than then some. Regardless of what his sycophants, eager politicians, and so-called "journalists" will say, Jerry Falwell was what most people would consider "a piece of shit." Anyone who can preach the message of Jesus while living in a mansion is also a hypocritical piece of shit.

And let us not forget his fake "university" and the young minds he corrupted and will continue to corrupt.

Assholes like Dobson, Ralph Reed, and Co. are already on the air saying what a great man he was. Anderson Cooper asked, after reading a list of terrible anti-gay quotes, (and I paraphrase), "Is this hateful speech? Have you ever heard Jerry Falwell say anything hateful?"

Of course, Dobson and Reed both said, "No, Jerry Falwell never said anything hateful. He loved everyone." Of course, they're fucking lying (a sin, if I remember correct).

To defend his bigoted statements, they pulled the defense of, "Jerry was a man of God and he believed in the scripture, so he only preached the scripture. So he was only saying what he thought was right." So did Jim Jones, you pricks.

Falwell himself tried to pull the "hate the sin, not the sinner" bit a few times, too. And it's just as transparent now as it was when he was alive.

So, fuck Jerry Falwell. He would've rather seen every atheist dead and in Hell than look at us. Hell, fuck him twice.

Only speak good about the dead.

Falwells dead.

Good.

Best news I've heard in a while!