Jerry Falwell has arrived at his final destination, and I can only hope the accomodations include shitty humid weather, the constant threat of being thrust into the spiritual company of those he despised, and airline food. Maxwell House coffee and no chocolate. Olympic-style events like the 'shit, acid and broken glass high dive and thousand mile swim'. No women, as a misogynist bastard like himself doesn't deserve feminine company. Nothing to read but gay and Pagan magazines and, as a tribute to the film Little Nicky, being forced to wear something uber-girly while being brutally penetrated with a pineapple several times a day. Sans lube.

Karma is a bitch, Jerrence, and you have undeniably evoked her wrath. And then some.

Truthfully, the world will be a better, brighter place without him, and it sickens me to see him get so much positive press simply because he has gone on to (Golfer's reference) the 19th hole.

Jerry Falwell is part of the reason why so many of us have so little patience with (and tolerance for) fundaMENTAList christianity. He publicly displayed such ignorance of other cultures, religions and people, passed it off as ultimate truth and encouraged his many followers to act accordingly.

It is obvious he knew nothing of Pagans, Muslims or Gays/Lesbians/Bisexuals/Transgendered people, all people who struggle daily with the biases and hatred generated by fundaMENTAList christianity, yet he fanned the flames of that intolerance and sweeping loathing for those who don't adhere to his brand of belief as often as humanly possible. He knew only that they were different from him, with different beliefs and circumstances and felt perfectly justified in widening the chasm between them and christians that would have lead to a greater understanding of one another.

He preached it and thousands happily goose-stepped in time right along with him, accepting whatever he spoonfed them and not bothering to do the research and learn more about the people they were obliged to condemn.

I could go on and on about this man's legacy of hatred and repugnant intolerance toward his fellow beings. I could also show undeniable evidence of his dominionist beliefs and desire to turn the U.S. into a theocratic system, which would no doubt return us to the middle ages and lead to the mass slaughter of thousands of women, Pagans, Buddhists, homosexuals and others deemed 'unworthy'.

I could, but I don't need to.

Instead I'll let the man speak for himself.

* God hates homosexuality - Jerry Falwell (TV broadcast, undated).

* Someone must not be afraid to say, 'moral perversion is wrong.' If we do not act now, homosexuals will 'own' America!...If you and I do not speak up now, this homosexual steamroller will leterally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in its way...and our nation will pay a terrible price! - People for the American Way, "Hostile Climate," 1997, p.15.

* [Vice President Gore] recently praised the lesbian actress who plays 'Ellen' on ABC Television...I believe he may even put children, young people, and adults in danger by his public endorsement of deviant homosexual behavior...Our elected leaders are attempting to glorify and legitimize perversion. People for the American Way, "Hostile Climate", 1998, p.9.

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

* AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals. To oppose it would be like an Israelite jumping in the Red Sea to save one of Pharoah's charioteers.

* Billy Graham is the chief servant of Satan. (WTF?!?! Billy Graham is respected and loved by millions of christians - were thou jealous much?)

* The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews.

* We're fighting against humanism, we're fighting against liberalism ... we are fighting against all the systems of Satan that are destroying our nation today ... our battle is with Satan himself.

* I do not believe the homosexual community deserves minority status. One's misbehavior does not qualify him or her for minority status. Blacks, Hispanics, women, etc., are God-ordained minorities who do indeed deserve minority status. -- Rev Jerry Falwell, USA Today Chat, quoted from The Religious Freedom Coalition, "The Two faces of Jerry Falwell"

* The Jews are returning to their land of unbelief. They are spiritually blind and desperately in need of their Messiah and Savior. -- Jerry Falwell, Listen, America!

* But these things speak evil of those things, verse 10 which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Look at the Metropolitan Community Church today, the gay church, almost accepted into the World Council of Churches. Almost, the vote was against them. But they will try again and again until they get in, and the tragedy is that they would get one vote. Because they are spoken of here in Jude as being brute beasts, that is going to the baser lust of the flesh to live immorally, and so Jude describes this as apostasy. But thank God this vile and satanic system will one day be utterly annihilated and there'll be a celebration in heaven. -- Rev Jerry Falwell, "Old Time Gospel Hour" broadcast, March 11, 1984, quoted by Rev Jerry Sloan, "Is Jerry Falwell a liar?" Freedom Writer, September, 1994

* The Bible is the inerrant ... word of the living God. It is absolutely infallible,without error in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as well as in areas such as geography, science, history, etc. -- Jerry Falwell, Finding Inner Peace and Strength (* me, laughing hysterically*)

* The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country. -- Rev Jerry Falwell, Sermon, July 4, 1976

* There is no separation of church and state. Modern US Supreme Courts have raped the Constitution and raped the Christian faith and raped the churches by misinterpreting what the Founders had in mind in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

* It appears that America's anti-Biblical feminist movement is at last dying, thank God, and is possibly being replaced by a Christ-centered men's movement which may become the foundation for a desperately needed national spiritual awakening.

* But these things speak evil of those things, verse 10 which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Look at the Metropolitan Community Church today, the gay church, almost accepted into the World Council of Churches. Almost, the vote was against them. But they will try again and again until they get in, and the tragedy is that they would get one vote. Because they are spoken of here in Jude as being brute beasts, that is going to the baser lust of the flesh to live immorally, and so Jude describes this as apostasy. But thank God this vile and satanic system will one day be utterly annihilated and there'll be a celebration in heaven. -- Rev Jerry Falwell, "Old Time Gospel Hour" broadcast, March 11, 1984, quoted by Rev Jerry Sloan, "Is Jerry Falwell a liar?" Freedom Writer, September, 1994

* I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be! -- Rev Jerry Falwell, America Can Be Saved, 1979 pp. 52-53

* And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. 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." -- Rev Jerry Falwell, blaming civil libertarians, feminists, homosexuals, and abortion rights supporters for the terrorist attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, quoted from John F Harris, "God Gave US 'What We Deserve,' Falwell Says," The Washington Post (September 14, 2001)

* The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this. -- Rev Jerry Falwell, blaming civil libertarians for the terrorist attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, to which Rev Pat Robertson again agreed, quoted from AANEWS #958 by American Atheists (September 14, 2001)

* God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve. -- Rev Jerry Falwell, blaming civil libertarians, feminists, homosexuals, and abortion rights supporters for the terrorist attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, to which Rev Pat Robertson agreed, quoted from John F Harris, "God Gave US 'What We Deserve,' Falwell Says," The Washington Post (September 14, 2001)

* I put all the blame legally and morally on the actions of the terrorist, [but America's] secular and anti-Christian environment left us open to our Lord's [decision] not to protect. When a nation deserts God and expels God from the culture ... the result is not good. -- Rev Jerry Falwell, backpedaling amidst criticism of his statement blaming civil libertarians, feminists, homosexuals, and abortion rights supporters for the terrorist attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, quoted from John F Harris, "God Gave US 'What We Deserve,' Falwell Says," The Washington Post (September 14, 2001)

* I sincerely believe that the collective efforts of many secularists during the past generation, resulting in the expulsion from our schools and from the public square, has left us vulnerable. -- Rev Jerry Falwell, after the 700 Club broadcast wherein he had blamed civil libertarians, feminists, homosexuals, and abortion rights supporters for the terrorist attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, speaking to The New York Times, quoted from Dick Meyer, "Holy Smoke," CBS News (September 15, 2001)

* This is probably as bad a day as the court has had on social issues since "Roe v Wade." -- Rev Jerry Falwell, reacting to the Supreme Court's ruling in the Texas sodomy case, "Lawrence v. Texas," wherein the high court upheld an individual's (or a couple's) right to privacy; "It is a promise of the Constitution that there is a realm of personal liberty which the government may not enter," said Justice Anthony M Kennedy, for the majority in an opinion "as broad in its constitutional vision as any ever issued by the court," wrote Charles Lane for The Washington Post; in his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia, an extremist Evangelical Christian, complained that the justices voting to uphold the right to privacy were creating a new constitutional right, that they were not upholding the Constitution, quoted from "Planned Parenthood Federal Action Report" (July, 2003)

His actions and words speak for themselves. What I find frightening is that he had (has) so many supporters. When fundamentalist christians say they don't want a theocracy it doesn't match what their leaders are openly saying in the press. Falwell, Robertson and other christians talk about putting their god back in schools, place monuments of their faith in public places and attempt to obtain religious rights that they'd deny to others on a regular basis.

One example of this is the recent incident involving Thursday folders. The Thursday folders system is used in elementary schools to inform parents of important school events, class parties, PTA meetings, etc. Falwell supported a group that pushed to add announcements for christian events to the folders in one school in his area, and most likely because he was involved, they managed to squeak them in. So the christian announcements went on for a few weeks without competition, until a local Pagan group (many of whom were parents whose children also attended this elementary school), began to also add announcements for ritual days, gathering, etc. to the folders. Jerry and his followers nearly had a collective coronary when they discovered that the right they wanted to selectively and exclusively keep to themselves was now being enjoyed by others, openly complaining to school officials.

News flash, folks: when you affect a change in the policies, laws, whathaveyou, on both local and national levels, they apply to EVERYONE. Not just you and the groups you support.

This blogger has links to some of the articles as well as to some of the blogs of the people involved. Major boo-hoos all around. WitchVox also posted an article about this, and the general consensus within the Pagan community was one of amusement. The irony of Jerry Falwell opening the door for Pagans to reach more people was absolutely delicious. Better than key lime pie and damn near as decadently enjoyable as chocolate. I personally don't think any religious involvement in schools is a good idea no matter which religion is represented, but the irony was too delightful. I savored it.

So as we say goodbye to the misogynistic, homophobic, pro-theocracy, christofascist nazi gasbag that was Jerry Falwell, I pause to reflect upon the man and his many unwanted intrusions into the religious and personal lives of others (both directly and by proxy via his misguided automaton gistapo), I can only smile. He will not be missed. Not by me, and apparently not by Heather, either. And not by anyone else who values the religious liberties we still have. Nor by the scores of homosexual and transgendered people who have been personally hurt by his rhetoric or physically attacked by his followers.

The world will be a far better place without him. His family should have him cremated so that the foul discharge of his decomposing remains doesn't pollute the environment.

The only part of his passing that saddens me is that much like a poison Pez dispenser, now that he is gone another one just like him will probably pop up in his place.

God and Goddess help us all...