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Saturday 11 December 2010

Do you want to spend Eternity with this man?


We can only presume that the late Jerry Falwell, who died in May 2007 and other like him are in Heaven. He certainly believed that is where he was headed along with the parishioners that this Christian evangelical fundamentalist Baptist pastor administered to.

He started the Christian Political Movement in America known as the Moral Majority a powerful group that was instrumental in electing Ronald Reagan to Office on two occasions.

Falwell attacked the Black Civil Rights Movement singling Martin Luther King out for special criticism; he attacked the anti-Apartheid Movement singling Bishop Tutu out for special criticism. And, of course, apart from Blacks he also attacked Gays, Liberals, Jews, pagans and women activists:

'In 2001 he said "that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians" helped the Sept 11 attacks happen.'

Would you want to spend Eternity with him in Heaven? It sounds more like hell to spend eternity with a sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, racist.

Of course he may not get to Heaven, for those who believe such a place exists. Some may claim he was the wrong sort of Christian, particularly if he wasn’t part of a certain Christian grouping – the ‘true faith’. Some would claim he was a bad person, and I would agree, but and they might say "Why abandon the whole religion just because of some bad people?"

But can you say Falwell was a bad person? He was a fundamentalist who seems to have got his beliefs and morals from the bible. He was in every sense of the word a true Christian and he could justify all his statements with scripture.

So why shouldn't he go to Heaven? He lived and preached according to an interpretation of the bible. Why should his interpretation of it be less valid than other believers? A few decades ago the majority of Christians believed more or less what he preached up until his death and similar or worse is still being preached by some Christian ministers today. If they lived their lives according to it they would be expecting to be going to heaven and the person they pray to every day isn’t telling them any different.

Remember that Falwell was not a one man band either. He had supporters and plenty of Christians agreed with him. They will also be expecting to be going to heaven by following their version of Christian belief. Why should a more modern and moderate version of Christianity be better or be right? He obeyed the Bible. Just because our ethics have changed in the last 2000 years has Gods? And his interpretation is more in keeping with Christianity’s of the last 2000 years.

So it might be expected that anyone who gets their morals and ethics from the bible should end believing like the Late Pastor Falwell. He lived his life according to the scriptures. What I mean is that his version is more similar to the one that led to the burning of heretics, inquisition, crusades and numerous other examples from Christianity since roman times.

'Nice' Christians cherry pick the bible for all the nice bits. Fundies like Jerry Falwell are true to the spirit of the whole book. I'm sure he would have said he loves everyone, which is why he is doing homosexuals the favour or pointing out if they don't change their ways they will go to hell. He certainly wasn’t expecting to be there to meet them.

2 comments:

  1. Check out the film "The People vs. Larry Flynt" which is based on a true story, Falwell was a figure of fun in that, taking Larry Flynt to court for his jokes. Not a nice man.

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  2. I did see this movie quite a while ago. It does seem strange to me that the US manages to create so many notable Christian fundamentalists like the Koran burning Pastor and Fred Phelps from the Westboro Baptist Church but Phelps was different in that he had real political power and influence and left a legacy of other Right Wing Christians that verge on becoming a Christian Taliban.

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