Rev. Falwell is dead

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Bababooyee

Not exactly the same move...posting something to convey similar feelings is different than posting some whack job stuff as objective facts.

Ok, then either you said it wrong or I read it wrong the first time around. I just don't know how I'm going to talk about it yet so I left it to other people for the time being to say it for me. There's no joy on my part, thought part of me feels like there should be, which is messing me up.

Originally Posted by Bababooyee

I haven't even tried to get mine framed yet...life has been crazy! Matt did mention that they may be an 1" or so too big (? - something like that). I figured I would have to get it custom framed...and hope that isn't too pricey. I accept full responsibility...but just think how valuable that print will be with JuLep's signature when he wins a Derby (and he will! )!

Yea, mine is like 21 3/4 by 23 3/4 which would work if it were 20x24 like it was supposed to be, but I can't find a frame for it. I went to Michael's to see about custom framing it, but even with their half off sale it was like $200, which is about 1/4 paycheck....I can't deal with that. So I'm leaning towards getting a 20x24 frame and just having Jordan cut it down to size for me.

Originally Posted by Bababooyee

WRT Falwell's politics, theology, bigotry or what have you, when he or his followers start posting here, I will question them on such.

Aka, never. Gambling is inherently wrong and should be exiled...like gays.

[somerfrost]

I'm staying out of this pretty much as I want to remain true to my belief that we should not take a person's death as an opportunity to discredit him/her. I've heard him say some pretty outrageous stuff over the years, and I honestly think the "christian right movement" (defined by Falwell, Robertson and others...not me) has done a lot of harm to our society...no one man is to blame for that however. To clarify a point raised earlier, if my memory serves me correctly and I'm pretty sure it does, Flint went far beyond ridiculing Falwell in Hustler, he published at least one cartoon (may have been several) depicting Falwell's mother in hardcore sexual activities...I read Hustler in those days and I thought they went far beyond any level of decency (I think they were far worse than his Chester the Child Molester cartoons). Again, there is plenty we can debate about the man, but I wouldn't have appreciated those cartoons either!

[somerfrost]

Originally Posted by Bababooyee

Are you suggesting Flint wouldn't have the balls to do something like that to someone like 50 Cent or The Game??

Well, one thing I never heard anyone say was that Flint lacked the balls to do anything. When he printed those graphic pictures of himself after he was shot, he proved that he'd do pretty much anything to be noticed.

[somerfrost]

Originally Posted by DaHoss9698

To be honest with you I don't know the specifics of it. I just remember seeing a part in the movie about it and figured it might help Scavs realize who he was. I think it did have something to do with his mother and maybe even a sheep.

Baaa baaa, I wish Papa was here...but I think that was one!

[GenuineRisk]

Let's let Rev. Falwell speak in his own words, shall we?

“Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions”

“AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals”

“Billy Graham is the chief servant of Satan in America”

“The idea that religion and politics don’t mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country”

“If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being”

“The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews”

“God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve”

“(re: 9/11 attacks) “...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 try to secularize America…I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen.””

“[homosexuals are] brute beasts…part of a vile and satanic system [that] will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven.”

“I think the Moslem faith teaches hate.”

I myself don't think a rigid adherence to one's principles/idealogy is necessarily a character asset- one could say that about Hitler, too, after all. And the current feller in the White House. He's doing a heck of a job, isn't he?

[GenuineRisk]

So you admire Hitler for his rigid adherence to his idealogy, B? I'm confused as to what that roll of the eyes means.

The selective quoting of me, however, was an excellent example of taking things out of context. Which a lot of right-wing Bible thumpers do like to do with their book, too.

I actually left out Falwell's comment that:

Is the Antichrist "alive and here today? Probably, because when he appears during the tribulation period he will be a full-grown counterfeit of Christ. Of course he'll be Jewish."

Tempting though it was, because I do really believe, after reading all his comments on it, he really didn't intend that particular comment to be anti-Semitic. But out of context it's pretty inflammatory, huh?

Even in context, it's still pretty silly, but hey, it was Falwell. Here are some more highlights from his "principled" career:

<<February 1993: The Internal Revenue Service determines that funds from Falwell’s Old Time Gospel Hour program were illegally funneled to a political action committee. The IRS forced Falwell to pay $50,000 and retroactively revoked the Old Time Gospel Hour’s tax-exempt status for 1986-87.

March 1993: Despite his promise to Jewish groups to stop referring to America as a “Christian nation,” Falwell gives a sermon saying, “We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation. We must take back what is rightfully ours.”

1994-1995: Falwell is criticized for using his “Old Time Gospel Hour” to hawk a scurrilous video called “The Clinton Chronicles” that makes a number of unsubstantiated charges against President Bill Clinton — among them that he is a drug addict and that he arranged the murders of political enemies in Arkansas. Despite claims he had no ties to the project, evidence surfaced that Falwell helped bankroll the venture with $200,000 paid to a group called Citizens for Honest Government (CHG). CHG’s Pat Matrisciana later admitted that Falwell and he staged an infomercial interview promoting the video in which a silhouetted reporter said his life was in danger for investigating Clinton. (Matrisciana himself posed as the reporter.) “That was Jerry’s idea to do that,” Matrisciana recalled. “He thought that would be dramatic.”

November 1997: Falwell accepts $3.5 million from a front group representing controversial Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon to ease Liberty University’s financial woes.

April 1998: Confronted on national television with a controversial quote from America Can Be Saved!, a published collection of his sermons, Falwell denies having written the book or had anything to do with it. In the 1979 work, Falwell wrote, “I hope to 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!” Despite Falwell’s denial, Sword of the Lord Publishing, which produced the book, confirms that Falwell wrote it.>>

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Bababooyee

Oh, and as far as I can tell:

a) He never advocated killing anyone; and


b) Unlike many on the far left, he never celebrated or made light of the death of anyone he disagreed with.

To be fair, while it may not be hollering, arm waving celebration, or a one-liner as direct as "we should kill gays," there is certainly strong approval of God creating and then using AIDS to kill gays and those who just can't bring themselves to hate gays with every fiery ounce of their soul.

That's pretty nasty any way you cut it, and sort of does advocate killing people.

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Bababooyee

Saying X comes from God is hardly ADVOCATING any action...let alone any overt action on the part on any human.

What about those who hear messages from God telling them to blow up abortion clinics? Dubious as it may be, that "comes from God" and advocates action. (And yes, I know this is a ridiculous example, you needn't point it out. Intentionally so, since for whatever reason, talking about Falwell makes me somehow completely extreme and entirely irrational. His spirit rubbing off, I guess.)

Falwell's case is semantically different, because he could just sit back and revel in others' diseased misery without having to "do" anything, but the implicit approval of it is no less sickening.

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by DaHoss9698

Brian, take it to a place that takes photos like a place in the mall. They'll set it for you and frame it for a lot less than that.

I've gotta look into that, cuz I'm sitting here with a print in a tube mailer with nowhere to put it, but that I can't afford to pay a ton of money for it!

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Bababooyee

What if you got a bigger frame (I have no clue as to what the standard sizes are, though) and paid Michael's (or Hobby Lobby or whoever) to do some cool matting around the print to "fill in" the empty space?

My wife had Hobby Lobby do the matting for the Genuine Risk "collage" she put together for me, and it turned out sweet.

I've thought about that too -- using a green or yellow matte. I'll be sure to let ya know when I get it right