An Eerie Silence

Jerry Falwell is dead, and my Friends list has been awfully silent about it.

Allow me to break it: Jerry Falwell was an unbalanced menace, and I do not mourn his passing. I am not a vindictive man, and so I will wish him no more than what he inflicted on others: hurt feelings, insecurity, doubt, self-loathing, ridicule, the derision of others, and the kind of delusional belief that makes you think that if you give money to an evangelist, you'll somehow buy your way into heaven.

Here are Jerry Falwell's own words following 9-11, lest we forget what a hateful, spiteful human being he was:

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"

If Falwell had had the good grace to marginalize himself like the horribly ridiculous Fred Phelps, those words would have meant nothing, but Falwell was not a marginal character. He had a huge following, and he inspired many otherwise kind and well-meaning people to get it into their heads that the way to save America from itself is to force reactionary Christian values down our throats. He was an enemy of anyone who wished to love his or her neighbor as him- or herself; he was much more fond of pointing out the mote in his neighbor's eye than spotting the beam in his own; and as much as he claimed to be a spiritual physician, he lacked the ability to heal himself.

Most of all, Falwell was the worst kind of hypocrite, an idolator who condemned idol-worshippers, a religious zealot at home with Mammon, a man who preached humility while reveling in the love with his own power. The meager good that his charities have accomplished pales when compared to the damage he did in whipping his followers into a fury of self-righteous hate.

We live now in a much more conservative America than ten or even fifteen years ago, and the late Jerry Falwell had a lot to do with that. May he find himself in the kind of place a man of his actions deserves to go, especially within the context of the hateful beliefs he espoused.