Farewell to Falwell

Jerrry Falwell, two days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks:

"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve. ... 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'."

Later, in an interview with Tim Russert, Falwell lied about misremembered what, exactly, he had said.

Now that the Lord has finally decided to smite the good reverend, it is a measure of comfort that his shameless notions of why 3,000 innocent Americans died that day are a — perhaps the — dominant part of his tattered legacy.

Also, we owe this close pal of God's a debt of gratitude for his remarkable words, because they made Falwell the pathetic figure who lost the Culture Wars — and they hastened the decline of the formerly serious political force that was Christian fundamentalism, as Reason's Nick Gillespie reminds us here.

Comments

[colson]

I never really wish someone to be dead, but I'm actually pretty happy that the guy died. I just wished it would have been more painful and drawn out. But no, that damned "g-o-d" works in mysterious ways.

[sistergeoff]

May his god exist and may he find him self in its' hell.