After weeks and months of research, much to the detriment of my IMAO posting duties, I’ve been working on what should be the greatest of all Know Thy Enemy posts ever posted on IMAO.
I had a few minor corrections to make, some sources to check in with, but I believe my magnum opus is finally complete.
That’s right: the subject of this Extra Special Know Thy Enemy from IMAO’s Token Jew is the so-called “Reverend” Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, leveraged buy-out conqueror of Jim Bakker’s faltering PTL group, Christian Zionist for Rapture purposes and not the right for Jews to have their own state, and enemy of all cartoon characters purple.
So, here we go!
JERRY FALWELL
- Born in-
CNN: Rev. Jerry Falwell dead at 73
Aw, crap.
British readers be advised: that’s 73 years old, not 73 stone.
(From all appearances, he was likely much heavier than 73 stone at time of death.)
Better luck next time Laurence.
L:
I’m celebrating with a free scoop of ice cream on my way home.
I attended Jerry’s Liberty University for six horrid weeks in 1995. As such, I have harbored very strong feelings of dislike for the man. Verily, I’m pleased he’s dead. (yes, yes, I know it’s wrong to say that)
I take everything light hearted, and I hold very little value for human life, but I’m never happy to see someone go. Even people like Saddam. It’s sometimes entertaining, albeit unrealistic, to imagine what they would be like as Fred Thompson fans.
Wow, internal philosphical debate ahoy.
LOL. Leave it up to Laurence to find humor there. And leave it to wRitErsblock to make a very awkward conversation with sarahk seem ummmmm…..unavoidable.
wRitErsbLock: It is never appropriate to rejoice in the loss of someone even if you don’t agree with their religious affliation or politics. That said Liberty is a private university so you must have chosen to attend. Because you only lasted six weeks is a poor reflection on you not the university. What happened, to much reading, riten and rithmatic for you?
allthatsright:
too little God.
I had some personal problems, and when I spoke with the Dean of Women, she never once offered to pray with me, instead she told me she would bring my case before the Board of Deans to determine if I would be allowed to stay or if they would expel me.
NEVER ONCE OFFERED TO PRAY WITH ME.
I question the beliefs of a school who ignores God altogether when counseling their students.
I dropped out with a 4.0, and all my professors were shocked I was leaving. Dropping out seemed less ignominious than being expelled. And, frankly, when I realized God was not present with the Deans of Liberty, it was not a place I needed to be.
After doing the Dead Pool for as long as I did, I have had years of experience trying to find humor in the deaths of others, beloved and reviled.
It’s also extremely difficult to tailor a post to a blog’s audience, let alone pass the standards of the site’s owners.
Despite that, it’s still find a way to fail in a gigantic way more often than not.
This post is somewhat tame compared to the “Glue the coins to his eyes because his corpse will instinctively pocket them” comment on my own site.
I’m hoping that the others come up with their own, each with their own levels of reverence, irreverence.
Not a fan, but condolences to his family.
RE Falwell: for the most part his motives seemed noble even if his actions and words were at times very questionable and ignoble.
I didn’t like him. In fact, I think he was garish, abrasive, insensitive, foolish, and even downright un-Christian at times.
But despite all that, he seemed to be more of a Reverend that some others of his ilk, like Swaggart, Baker and especially Sharpton & Jackson. And the fact that he was largly responsible for getting Christian conserveratives out of their pews & into political office to fight the good fight is reason enough to pay some respects.
Lefties hated him…I liked that about him. I am a Christian and didn’t agree with everything he said but he brought people to the true religion of peace which should be celebrated. God speed and best wishes to his family!
While respect for the dead only goes so far, showing it for a minimal amount of time does seem to be a good habit to acquire. As far as I know, Reverend Falwell never blew himself up at a bus stop nor did he order anyone to a gas chamber. And despite failing to show any real flair for evil, he drew hatred, as evidenced by the first couple of posts here.
Rev. Falwell seemed to take his faith seriously, even to the point of living by it. We all have our weaknesses, and his was a penchant for smug self-righteousness. I suspect that even so, he was a better man than I.
But just wait for the tell-all books. People will swear he demanded sex from their children or he would order their entire town to the gas chamber where he would blow himself up at them.
I think in some ways we defended him on principle not because we liked him but because of the source and intensity of the attacks. I’m sure many lefties feel the same way about Moore. I’ve defended Fallwell on occasions just because the attacker was a total ass flatulating orally in my direction with post-Meximelt robustness.
In a sense, we defend him for the same reasons liberal heterosexuals with dozens of sex partners defend homosexual dogmas – we feel that any attack on his morality is really a veiled attack on our own, which demands defense and counterattack. It’s human nature to both attack a strawman and to recognize it for what it is.
It is ironic that so many who accuse Fallwell of hate on other sites are so full of hate themselves, or immorality, or corruption, or ignorance. (This isn’t directed at Laurence, because I know his work well enough to not expect special pleading here.) But it does make me feel good to be a conservative knowing that those popping corks (both of the alcoholic and phallic variety) tonight in celebration are the same sort that probably mourned slightly the death of Saddam, despite his murder of five million of his own people.
Poor Laurence, it’s not like you could’ve even seen that one coming. Timing is everything after all, isn’t it?
I liked Jerry Falwell. He wasn’t perfect and I didn’t agree with everything he said and did but I thought he had a good sense of humor and he really did reach out in friendship to those he disagreed with.
Woot!
If it wasn’t for whacko dispensationalist fundamentalist Christians in America who are Zionists for the Rapture and not for the sake of Israel, would there be an Israeli state today? Would there have been one in 1948? What happened to, “the enemy of the enemy is my friend”? I understand you disagreeing with Falwell, and finding him to be a distasteful fellow, but regardless of his motivations, isn’t he a political ally? To paraphrase Churchill, “If Germany invaded Hell, I would find something favorable to say about the Devil,” you can’t find anything nice to say at all? Perhaps you should have simply said nothing.
I am a Calvinist who strongly disagrees with Falwell’s dispensationalist/ fundamentalist outlook, and thinks he has done and said some foolish and unhelpful things in his lifetime. But he’s dead now and facing his Creator, and he is free from the presence of sin (and theological error) in his soul.
Does not a Jew have a heart?
wRitErsbLock:
My apologies for the last part of the post. I stand on the first part, especially as a Christian you are not to rejoice in his passing unless it is because you believe he is now with Jesus and better off. Not because you disliked him or the university. I do agree if I’m at a Christian University and the first response to anything isn’t prayer I’m gone in a New York second. God Bless.
Final score: Laurence 1 …. bigotry and misplaced anger 0 …… yay Mr. Simon
I didn’t know Calvinists still existed.
No offense, just saying I’m ignorant.
Motopolitico: Does not a Jew have a heart?
Nope, we have the money! 🙂
‘What happened to, “the enemy of the enemy is my friend”?’
So since liberals hate Falwell, I have to be make nice with liberals? Screw that.