When word came down that Jerry Falwell met his demise my first reaction was shock, followed by a shrug of the shoulders and the need to go the bathroom.
This poor excuse for a man who spent his whole life walking God like a dog was eulogized by some of America's most intellectually challenged talking heads as a man who spearheaded a revolution against the counterculture for the children.
And, of course the mainstream media bought it as usual.
Some things I don't understand.
For whatever reason things have gone completely ass backwards in this country over the last 40 years.
Dr. Martin Luther King, J.R., a man of God, used the core teachings of Christ to promote social justice, and peace. His reward: Getting gunned down.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, a man who became a born again Christian in 1952, used the word of God as an excuse to preach an extremist agenda against women, Gays, Jews, and people who weren't lily-white and Christian. His reward: unneccessary airtime.
Don't people in the mainstream press do their homework?
The core principles of Christ are loving your neighbor, peace, and helping those in need.
Jerry Falwell didn't abide by those teachings, but somehow the mainstream media had a hard-on for this man. They enjoyed the Jerry Falwell freakshow. Watching a man rant and rave like a lunatic about women and homosexuals brings in high ratings.
Could you imagine Martin Luther King, J.R., in today's landscape? My God, the mainstream media today would've eaten him alive. They would've painted him as un-Christian for preaching the core values of Jesus Christ.
Face it, Dr. King's teachings are extreme for today's standards. If you're not talking about the rapture, killing abortionists and stopping the Homosexual agenda, then you're no man of God.
But Jerry Falwell's lasting legacy goes far beyond giving religion a bad name.
Falwell's Moral Majority was instrumental into brining Conservative Christians into the Republican party. The party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt soon morphed into the party of Falwell, Robertson, Ralph Reed and other Evangelical con artists.
This formula of sucking up to Conservative Christians who have no clue as to how government works has been so successful for the Republican party that even Democrats have gotten into the action. The Democratic party is so desperate for the Christian vote that they've castrated their core priniciples.
So, yes, even though Jerry Falwell was a hateful bigot with no clue to how government works, he was successful at one thing:
Puncturing a hole in the wall that separates Church and State.
The damage that the religious right has done to this country will take time to repair. It's politically incorrect today to speak out against religion's horrible influence on politics, especially in the post 9-11 America where I've told many friends that we've enter into a "born-again" phase, 6 years after those attacks.
But to understand really who Jerry Falwell was and how his depravity knew no bounds. One would have to look back at the comments he made on September 13, 2001, two days after the terrorist attacks:
"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."