Jerry Falwell

[rm]

So, while I've been running around (spent the day at an unveiling, and have been doing PR errands ever since), Jerry Falwell died.

A lot of people on my friends list have spoken eloquently and some even compassionatly on the subject. Obviously, as a queer woman I found his world view to be both toxic and ignorant. But it was as a New Yorker that his words wounded me most often, because I love my city and I know that by being raised here my life has been not only more peaceful and more full, but largely bereft of the sort of self-hatred he and his kind would wish me to have; his words in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 were simply unaccpetable.

Perhaps more importantly though, it should be noted how much harm the man did to Christianity and the ability of non-religious and non-Christian Americans not to tar all Christians with the brush of Falwell's words. He harmed the faith he claimed to believe in, he harmed the discussion of religious issues in America, and he polluted an already decaying political process.

I don't much care where the man is now or how he feels, but I do hope if there is consciousness in death that he at least knows he needn't have been so grimly afraid -- of people, of life, of my city -- when he was alive. Fear makes us animals and fear is the opposite of love. He revelled in fear, and I hope we've all learned something by it.

Comments

[keever.livejournal.com]

Beautifully said. That's how I feel, too.

[clothing5.livejournal.com]

I just can't abide by his slander of Tinky Winky...

[frawst.livejournal.com]

Thank you for being more eloquent than I was.

[greyenglishrain.livejournal.com]

Eloquently put. It's difficult to tackle a complex topic such as the death of someone whose world views are in direct opposition to one's own, but you did it, and quite well. Cheers.

[beemerbike.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[theodicy.livejournal.com]

Here on the recommendation of violetisblue. Thanks.