In Memoriam Jerry Falwell...

In memory of Jerry Falwell, what to say? The good news is he hasn't gone to Heaven, the bad news is that he hasn't gone to Hell...

For a life in quotes, click here.

Guardian's CiF has this:

Jerry Falwell is dead. Maybe we shouldn't speak ill of him. But we should speak the truth.

"Just because someone is dead," said Bette Davis, when chided over her lack of respect for a recently deceased acquaintance, "doesn't mean they've changed." And of course, the nasty old cow was right. Although approaching death sometimes encourages sinners to mend their ways, bad people tend to stay bad. As a rule, you can't mend an arsehole.

[small snip]

"The Jews are returning to their land of unbelief. They are spiritually blind and desperately in need of their Messiah and Saviour."

"I think Muhammad was a terrorist."

"I do question the sincerity and non-violent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Mr James Farmer, and others, who are known to have leftwing associations."

"I do not believe the homosexual community deserves minority status. One's misbehaviour does not qualify him or her for minority status. Blacks, Hispanics, women, etc are God-ordained minorities who do indeed deserve minority status."

"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."

On 9/11: "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 secularise America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen'."

On Desmond Tutu: "I think he's a phoney, period, as far as representing the black people of South Africa."

On Tinky-Winky: "He is purple - the gay-pride colour; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle - the gay-pride symbol."

[small snip]

But once again, it's Bette Davis who speaks the uncomfortable truth from her own grave. Who will be the first to follow her example, when told of the demise of her greatest enemy? "You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good," she snarled. "Joan Crawford is dead. Good."

Update: Christopher Hitchens on Falwell



Hitchens in the hot seat at "Hannity's America":


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