Wherever Jerry Falwell is right now...

[Boozy]

...he's surprised.

The Reverend Jerry Falwell died today. I debated putting this into the Religion section, but that man was more politician than preacher. I know I shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but that guy was a real &*%@! Here's a few gems courtesy of the Reverend:

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

"AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."

He also assigned part of the blame for 911 on the "immorality" of non-Christian Americans and compared Islam to Scientology.

Despite being a world-class dick most of his life, I believe that Falwell is probably in heaven right now.
And shocked to be rubbing elbows with homosexuals and heathens.

[AFPheonix]

I hope he got an earful from God.

"Gee, thanks for making me sound like a complete asshole, Falwell, you dick."

I, for one, am not sorry to see him go.

[MadMike]

I, for one, am not sorry to see him go.

Nor am I.

When my wife told me, the only thing I said was, "Good!"

They say you're not supposed to wish death on people, but then he was already dead inside to begin with.

[DarthRetard]

I'm really, really going to have to step in and disagree here. This was kind of fostered by the recent "stop preaching" thread in CS last night. I was a high school debater, and will be competing in college as well, and I don't usually speak on a lot of things being that I get competitive about it.

Honestly, I don't see why so many people are so damn afraid of things he said?

Boozy, as a christian, there are some things I'd have to correct you on, based on my up-bringing, which is based in the teachings of the bible.

1. It says directly in the bible that "ye shall not lay with another man." It is considered a blasphemous show of disrespect towards God, and a sin.

2. I myself am convinced that part of 911 is to be blamed on a primarily christian belief's based nation turning it's back on what made it great.1/4 of the bible is prophecy, and if you read it, things like this are predicted in the bible.

[TheRoo]

The world is a better place without Falwell in it.

[MadMike]

1/4 of the bible is prophecy, and if you read it, things like this are predicted in the bible.

The bible also warns us about "False prophets", and I think people like Falwell, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggert, and the whole group of crooked televangelists fall into that category.

About the only one I respect out of the whole bunch is Billy Graham. Although I don't agree with him on everything, unlike the others, he seems to be true to his beliefs, and has kept his nose clean.

[Boozy]

"Ye shall not lay with another man" is a roughly worded passage taken from the book of Leviticus. It was written well over 3000 years ago by priests. Leviticus contains many outdated sexual laws, such as stoning women to death should they lose their virginity before marriage. It also includes prohibitions against tattoos, working on the Sabbath, wearing garments of mixed fabrics, eating pork or shellfish, and playing with the skin of a pig. The most overlooked aspect of Leviticus is that its codes and laws applied only to the priests. Homosexuality the way we understand it today is different. Male prostitution was common among the Israelites. It is the prostitution that was considered "an abomination".

About 2000 years ago, God sends Jesus to give us an update on the kind of behaviour he'd like to see. Although there is much ado about forgiveness, acceptance, understanding, and love, Jesus says absolutely nothing about same-sex behavior.

Nor does the New Testament hint in any way that God is a vengeful deity who sets forth disease and abets in terrorist attacks.

There is one point I cannot stress enough: If you are going to use and misinterpret the Bible to justify discriminating against homosexuals, READ THE BIBLE. The whole thing. Don't depend on televangelists and preachers to tell you what it means. They'll often quote passages out of context.

[AFPheonix]

Pretty much. I don't have to go leave camp just because I have my period anymore.

9/11 happened for many reasons, but gays, women's rights, and other things of that cloth are preeeettty far down on the list, if on there at all.
I'd be looking primarily at how the US has handled foreign policy in that part of the world first.

How the Bible can be twisted to say different things than the original meaning would be a good topic for another thread, methinks.

[rahmota]

AFP said:

How the Bible can be twisted to say different things than the original meaning would be a good topic for another thread

Thread? You could weave a tapestry for Buckingham out of that subject. But otherwise I'll agree.

As for Falwell the man was a lying hypocritical scumag piece of trash who was one step above the KKK in his level of hatred of anything that didnt fit into his narrow minded ideals of what a godly good person was. Him and others like him are our own little version of the Taliban. His kind of religion is what made me and many others aethiest. And by his attempts to get the law and government to enforce his twisted code of "morals" he wanted to destroy any freedoms and liberities that the founding fathers and thousands of others have bleed, cried and died for since 1776. One of the mullahs of the chistian taliban is dead. Almost makes me wish there was a hell for him to be tortured and tormented for all eternety in.

Boozy: Yeah I love it when "christians" quoe leveticus for their basis of hatred and say this is the way the law should be but when you mention the whole stoning of people and such they get bent and say that it isnt meant to be like that anymore. I thought you wernt supposed to pick and choose what you wanted to follow?

Madmike: I'll agree with you on Billy Graham. I may not agre with him but at least he lives what he says and is sincere in his beliefs. Somethign I can respect in a person.

Darth: i gotta say that 9/11 was about ore than jut religion (though that was a big part of it) political ideology, religious ideology, retribution for the US writing Osama off afer we got done using him against the russians in afghanistan. A lot of various reasons hat all added up to one big bad thing.

[Giggle Goose]

[QUOTE=Boozy;1052
"If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being."
[/QUOTE]

I love to go up to those people and tell them: "I was born OK the first time and I plan on staying that way."

My grandfather always used to say: "It's popular to be a reformed whore in this day and age."

I respect people's beliefs, being a Christian myself. But I tend to disagree with the freaky religious right people who say I'm blasphemous because, as a Catholic, I pray to a woman (the Virgin Mary), as well as to the Lord. Yes, I've been told that before. It makes me insanely angry that the narrow-minded views of a few people are supposed to be the law for everyone. Sorry, not gonna happen. I don't speak ill of the dead; I'm just saying I was NEVER a fan of Jerry Falwell.

[IDrinkaRum]

I didn't like Falwell either, but he did have his followers. I was sad and shocked to hear that he had died.

I've never been told that I was blasphemous because I'm Catholic and I pray to the Virgin Mary, but I can believe people saying that. (Back in the 60's, there were people who didn't vote for Kennedy because he was a Catholic).

[rdp78]

Well, this reminds me in 2002 he sued Gary Cohn becuase Mr. Cohn did a website called jerryfalwell.com and it was parody of well Mr. Falwell who claims it was a trademark infringment but I think he doesn't like to be made fun of (ei. Larry Flint). Anyway Jerry didn't win but Gary did give back his the domain name and the site now goes by InternetParodies.org but it still parodies Falwell. They haven't said anything on there about his death but on the message boards someone did and someone else replied with "Happy Days Are Here Again" .

I'm glad he's gone and I don't care where he is as long I'm not going there.

[Dreamstalker]

"Trademark infringement"? If Falwell didn't think enough to register that domain first he has nothing to bitch about. I don't think personal names can be trademarked just because the holder thinks so (IIRC, for it to be a real trademark, it must be used to sell goods or services).

My mom never wishes ill on anyone, and even she applauded at the TV when the news came that he was dead.

[rahmota]

As Queensryche said" Selling sex, selling god the numbers are the same on the credit card."

[Jaden]

Boozy: I'm sorry, but I simply have to post my Biblical refutation. Yes, it is true that many of the Leviticus laws are outdated. Many of them, such as eating shellfish, and not cutting your hair, were around simply because at the time people didn't know about things like germs and hygiene. Purely for sanitary purposes really. However, the language used is important. For most of the others, it doesn't actually say doing these things is an affront to God, it just says don't do them, again due to sanitary reasons. "Laying with another man", it does go out of its way to state that it is an affront to God.

Furthermore, and perhaps a more solid Biblical argument, would be the fact that although you are correct that Jesus didn't say anything, Paul the Apostle did. This is often overlooked by both sides of the people making this argument. Romans 1:27 "In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their actions."

Now, does this mean Christians should hate homosexuals? Certainly not! We shouldn't "hate" anybody! Those Christians who attack homosexuals also need to remember the verse "If you hate somebody, you have committed murder in your heart." We need to love and support people no matter what, It is only through that which the glory of God can shine through us, not by yelling and screaming about it like children. And before any Christian goes around throwing stones at homosexuals, they should take a look at their own lives: I know I'm not perfect. Nowhere in the Bible does it suggest pointless violence and hatred to convert people.