Jerry Falwell started his rise to fame as an avowed segregationist and racist. He used the Bible and religious racial intolerance to build a right wing Christian based political movement.
When that became unpopular and no longer viable in the political arena, he turned his attention to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community. Once again he used the Bible, fear, ignorance and intolerance to build his church and political movement.
As Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out puts it: "While our hearts go out to his family, we can't help but to reflect on his life and about all the families he's torn apart and teenagers that committed suicide because he made them feel inferior. He never missed an opportunity to kick our better angels to the curb and capitalize on our lesser demons to advance his career." http://www.TruthWinsOut.org
Jerry Falwell became rich and powerful at the expense of GLBT people. He also polarized and divided the country and Christianity itself. Because of the hatred and intolerance espoused by Falwell and his organizations many Christians whose beliefs were based on the loving and forgiving life of Jesus became embarrassed to call themselves Christian and ashamed of the evil that Falwell espoused in the name of Christianity.
For someone who claimed to believe in the strict interpretation of the Scripture he seems to have missed the parts about not exploiting Christianity for personal, financial and political gain. They must be making smaller camels or larger needles these days. I assume that Falwell has finally stood naked before God. He had best hope that She is more loving, compassionate and forgiving than he has been.
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1 comment:
I agree :)
And, much to our dismay, She probably is a lot more forgiving than we are.
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