Compassion lacking in Falwell cartoon
One of the ways people of goodwill show their compassion is through exhibiting some respect for the dead. Liberals like Rocky Mountain News cartoonist Ed Stein like to tout their compassion for all.
But they demonstrate again and again their compassion is reserved for certain “approved” groups: illegal immigrants, gays, environmentalists, feminists, Democrats, unions and the like.
Stein demonstrates once again that liberals’ compassion for these groups is so overwhelming, there is no room for compassion toward the religious, the conservative, or anyone who stands on principles not enumerated in George Soros’ handbook of political thought.
Jerry Falwell was a man who stood on principles many can neither understand nor appreciate, but he influenced millions in ways far beyond the narrow confines portrayed by Stein in his cartoon of May 16. Nor was he the kind man who would place conditions upon the God of his beliefs, or make fun of Stein upon his death.
If Falwell demonstrated his compassion by attempting to bring others around to his way of thinking, he and Stein have something in common, right?
Disagreement on principles should not be an excuse for lack of compassion, except, of course, for those whose view of compassion is limited to self-proclaimed victims.
Jon Rhodes, Lakewood
"Every man's death diminishes me". But in the spirit of Orwell's "Animal Farm", I can amend that slightly: Some men's deaths diminish me less than others.
Jerry Falwell abused his power as a "minister to his flock" and instilled attitudes in government policymaking through the Moral Majority that hurt the dignity and quality of life of many people (see the list of "approved groups" in the original letter).
Falwell self-righteously used his pulpit, his great wealth, and the airwaves to demonize anyone who disagreed. That, combined with the Reagan era in which he thrived, set back social progress in this country and made us a moral and intellectual laughing stock in much of the rest of the world.
Though this man's death diminished me very little, it did make my day and outlook a bit brighter.
Posted by Tom on May 24, 2007 06:21 AMRight,Jon. It is not sufficient to just have compassion for gays. We ought to also have compassion for people who hate gays. I mean, how can you not love a man who claims God invented Aids to teach homosexuals a lesson? Should we not have compassion on a man who says that if you're not a born-again Christian then you are a failure as a human being?
Posted by Truth on May 24, 2007 06:24 AM"If Falwell demonstrated his compassion by attempting to bring others around to his way of thinking, he and Stein have something in common, right?"
How does "attempting to bring other around to his way of thinking" qualify as compassion?
It was nothing less than the height of arrogance in my book.
And comparing Stein's benign cartoon and Falwell's use and abuse of his bully pulpit are ludicrous. Stein is simply making a statement. He's not asking anyone to agree with him or passing judgment on those who do not. Falwell, on the other hand, built a career andmassive personal fortune doing just that.
Its clear and obvious that compassion and respect are qualities and Jon Rhodes lacks himself since he feels the need to take a backhanded swap at them while admonishing them for not showing the same things for Falwell.
Gee, John, many of us "illegal immigrants, gays, environmentalist, feminists, unions and the like"..i.e. liberals in your book...are
just people standing on OUR principles.
Where is your respect and compassion for us?
Boing.
I'm sure Jon was shook up when Saddam died too.
Posted by Cripes sake on May 24, 2007 07:23 AMAre we expected to forget that Falwell wanted to change this country into a Christain theocracy and the vial that he preached to the masses just because he died? Not to mention that he thought Tinkie-winkie is part of an evil plot to turn children gay and that 9/11 was God's punishiment on America. The man was full of hate for those that did not share his beliefs, his death just serves as a reminder to all of his lifetime demonizing.
Posted by Sean on May 24, 2007 07:44 AMGimme that ol Je$u$ Bu$ine$$!
Richest corpse in the ce-me-ter-ee!
(You know the tume.)
If Jerry had been a man of good will, it might be easy to find compassion. He wasn't; he was vicious
Posted by gadfly on May 24, 2007 07:54 AMFalwell certainly didn't show any compassion while he was alive. I don't know what happens when people die, (nobody does) but I hope that Falwell was able to see and understand all the hate he spewed for many years. This man was no hero and the world is a better place without him.
Posted by Speed Racer on May 24, 2007 08:04 AMTo quote Bill Maher, Falwell made a career out of speaking ill of the dead; those who died of AIDS, those who died in 9/11.
I think it sums up Falwell's personality nicely. He wouldn't even enter Heaven if it had any of the people he despised on Earth. More righteous than God himself.
Posted by Roger on May 24, 2007 08:29 AMJerry Falwell was a vile and hateful man. He deserves no compassion now that he is worm food.
Falwell makes me wish I believed in an afterlife so I could be satisfied that he was in Hell. But alas there is no such place and Falwell is simply worm food.
Posted by Dave II on May 24, 2007 08:58 AMWell, at 400 pounds he did Fall-well, now didn`t he.
Just looking at that man made me ill, but I am recovering nicely now.
Posted by Sharon B. on May 24, 2007 09:08 AMFallwell has gone to a better place
Posted by on May 24, 2007 09:12 AM"Compassion lacking in Falwell cartoon."
Compassion was lacking in Falwell too, so what's the problem? Please don't fall all over yourselves kissing that dead bigot's ass.
Posted by shaupeen on May 24, 2007 10:40 AMGreat! I just need to echo the sentiment found herein recalling the cartoon of Falwell in the outhouse with his mother for which he sued the girlie magazine and lost where from his pulpit he was confident of victory.
Posted by Richard Grimes: Risen Ape, deicide that slays gods. r22037@yahoo.com on May 24, 2007 11:13 AMFallwell has gone to a better place
Posted by on May 24, 2007 09:12
Actually I think you should have said, "Falwell is gone and we are now in a better place"
Posted by just sayin' on May 24, 2007 11:15 AMFalwell spent his life promoting hatred and intolerance. As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
Posted by FYK on May 24, 2007 11:34 AMFartwell stunk! The world is better off now.
Posted by Joe Blow on May 24, 2007 12:05 PMIt's interesting how the opinions people have affect their reaction to a famous person's death. At least one of the posters ripping Falwell (who surely deserves it) accused me of lacking compassion for implying that Molly Ivin's death was a benefit to readers of the RMN by forcing the paper to search for a columnist that knows how to write a persuasive essay. Funny.
Posted by on May 24, 2007 01:41 PMDave II you stole my post! I posted that same thing in another letter about Fallwell:
"If there is a God, and if he really based his religion around Jesus Christ, there is no chance at all that Fallwell is in heaven.
In fact, I'm so personally disgusted with the idea that Fallwell might not suffer eternal damnation for his actions on this planet that I have been trying out Christianity to see if I can fool myself into believing that he will get what he sorely deserves.
I would rather have seen Fallwell get ass cancer like Tony Snow so I could at least be assured he would suffer a little before he kicked the big fat sleazy bucket."
I'm glad you agree with me, though.
Posted by Grog on May 24, 2007 02:51 PMA funeral dirge for Jerry Falwell.
Come on, all together now. You know the words:
He's gone where the goblins go
Below, below, below, yo-ho!
Let's all stand up and sing
And ring the bells out!
Ding-dong, the merry-o!
Sing it high, sing it low!
Let them know...
I love how those that rip on Falwell for his "intolerance" are just as intolerant and mean spirited and indeed, hateful.
Don't these religious - secularist issues just bring out the best in all of us?
Posted by on May 24, 2007 06:45 PMJon-you and I have something in common; we both feel the same way about someone named Jerry. But the Jerry I know who influenced millions was named Jerry Garcia. He was a great guitar player and didn't speak poorly of people he didn't understand, unlike your Jerry.
Posted by hikingartist on May 24, 2007 09:20 PMUh-oh! 6:45 caught on to us. Yes! YES! I admit it! I'm intolerant (of intolerance, that is)!
I know I should throw myself on the ground sobbing with the shame of having my intolerance (for intolerance) found out. But somehow I don't feel like it.
After 6:45 finishes marveling over how religious-secularist issues "just bring out the best in all of us" (if that was the best of Falwell, I hate to imagine the worst--OMYGOD, THERE GOES THAT INTOLERANCE--of intolerance--AGAIN!), perhaps 6:45 will recall that true arch-bigot, the late Rosa Parks, who was intolerant of the white bus passengers who were simply following their belief system that she belonged in the back.
Posted by Hans Christian Brando on May 25, 2007 07:26 AMMr. Brando,
Well said, sir. Perhaps one of the best postings on this line.
It's too bad that so many fail to understand that tolerance - as with freedom, and other basic human expectations, and responses - is always a TWO WAY STREET.
Posted by Old Grouch on May 25, 2007 08:41 AMInteresting. To again paraphrase Orwell, speech and expression seems to be more free to some than to others.
And along with Jerry Falwell's right to free speech, there was no requirement for anyone to listen.
Posted by prima facie on May 25, 2007 10:02 AMSomeone said recently when describing Falwell's death:
"He had an attack where his heart should have been."
Posted by Charles B on May 25, 2007 10:12 AMprima facie,
True, there was no requirement for anyone to listen. However, both he and his followers sought to make it a requirement - as the current Elmer Gantrys in the Je$u$ Bu$ine$$ do today. And, in so doing neither he nor his follorwers hesitated to lie, or otherwise engage in fraudulent behavior designed to make both freedom - of speech and all else as well - and tolerance nothing more than a part of your Orwellian illustration. With THEM being the "more free".
It can happen here. It has happened here. The Comstock Law - censorship in the mails - Prohibition, ratings for motion pictures, books banned in Boston, etc., - including the whole "separate but equal" and "State's rights" positions promulgated even today - are all parts of the so called "Moral Majority's" all inclusive intentions to "make the country 'Christian'".
"Christian" according to the whimsies and fantasies of Falwell and his fellow book worshipers and Je$u$ Bu$ine$$ entrepreneurs, that is.
In the pulpit, from the pulpit, in the parochial school - of any level, including the so called "Universities", on and from soap boxes in Civic Center - by word of mouth, written ariticles, radio, TV, other media: Fine and dandy.
In, of, for, or from Executive Offices - Oval or other - Congress, Legislatures, Courts, Public Shcools, and all other governmental and civil areas: Not just NO! But, HELL NO!
That's the other side - or other direction - of the street.
Falwell's gone. Good Riddance. And now stay awake, and aware, of what's going on with the rest of them. (Which does include "listening", so as to be able to defend against them.)
Posted by Old Grouch on May 25, 2007 10:47 AMFalwell's followers only proves that only sometimes all of the fools are on the same side.
I can use the word "fools" because the transmogrified Jew does not scares me. whose rule is not by love but by fear so as to attract more fools and the fools don't even know this "loins from David" is a fiction.
Posted by RG: Risen Ape Member of the deicide r22037@yahoo.com on May 25, 2007 11:15 AMJerry Falwell is a man of principles and demonstrated his compassion says Jon Rhodes. What a crock. Were it not for Separation of Church and State, the homophobic misogynist placing so much value on his opinion would be roasting and stoning those who did not acquiesce to his bias and prejudice called common sense. Falwell rejected Sep. C & S evidenced by words and deeds such as politicizing his pulpit. Yo Jesus: What will you do with this (what Barry Goldwater called him)?
Falwell's followers only proves that only sometimes all of the fools are on the same side.
I can use the word "fools" because the transmogrified Jew does not scare me whose rule is not by love but by fear so as to attract more fools and the fools don't even know this fruit from the "loins of David" is a fiction.
Posted by RG: Risen Ape Member of the deicide r22037@yahoo.com on May 25, 2007 11:27 AMWow, Grouch, sounds dangerous. Maybe I'd better keep an eye -- or an ear -- open.
Stop, what's the sound, everybody look what's going down: socialists, collectivists, higher-taxers, open-border-ers, 9/11 conspiracy wackos, Ward Churchills, cede American sovereignty-ers, collapse-ers of individual and state rights, expanders of the scope of the central government.
Ah, you're right, better run from the preachers....
Posted by prima facie on May 25, 2007 04:21 PMGood ol Charles B.
Such judgement from the one who has worn thin the verse "judge not that you be not judged."
What more proof would one need of the good character and quality of the man's life than to consider the the lack of character and quality of the rogue's gallery of enemies that show up to denounce him.
Well done thou good and faithful servant, Jerry Falwell, enter into your rest.
Posted by skeptical on May 25, 2007 10:39 PMAs a liberal feminist, who according to Mr. F, was partly to blame for 9-11, I would be dancing on his grave, or maybe pissing on it if I cared enough to go there.
They say you can judge a tree by its fruits, if the tree of religion gives us fruits like Falwell, then the tree is corrupt.
Posted by Sharon B. on May 26, 2007 09:22 AM. Sharon B: You are terrific. Shaupeen falls into the same category: 10,000 mourning the Fruit's death with women in attendance. I can understand the ignorant prostrating themselves for the fruit of the tree and the fruit prostrating himself for the fruit of the Virgin as a result of David (of his loins) penetration or the result of spontaneous combustion; however, when the intelligent seek dalliance with a Jew that goad Falwell type characters into existence I go bonkers.
Allsop was indignant that a mummery of an outworn creed (a church service) would be imposed to recognize a man who had fought hard to free fellow humans from the degradation of superstition. Seeing there are no signs nor fruit of religion but in man only, there is no cause to doubt but that the seed of religion is also only in man.
They that approve a private opinion call it opinion; but they that mislike it, heresy; and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion.
Falwell was fond of turning other’s opinion into heresy and was surely a reincarnation of the Church’s grand Inquisitionist who loved disrobing women and poking them with prickers (scissors) in search of devil sign.