Falwell Part 2: A Comment From Apocalypse Cow

A comment left by a wise friend, Apocalypse Cow, had me writing a long comment in response. So I just decided to make a post out of it. Here goes. He wrote...

"Whenever I see quotations like that from the Rev, I'm torn. I can't comprehend their thought processes, and I am left really wondering if they really believe what they're saying, or if they're going over the top to get a response from their enemies and a result from their allies. I mean, no one can think that the separation of church and state was thought up by the devil...can they?"

To which I add...

I know of what you speak. Recently I saw a poll which stated that over %60 of Americans take the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark literally. Can that possibly be true? And did Falwell really think that Billy Graham was as agent of Satan? I don't know, of course, but I have to assume that they want people to think they do, which is scary enough.

As far as the separation of church and state, I guess a fundamentalist could believe that taking the church out of government provides an opening for the "evils" of abortion and same sex marriage to slip through.

Neither of us are fanatics, though, so we are applying reason where reason is neither invited nor welcomed. I'm not saying that as a smart assed atheist. Reason and compassion are not guides for fundamentalist theists. The wishes of God are most importation.

That's why fanaticism is so dangerous, in my humble view. It robs a person of his or her natural ability to empathize and be reasonable. How else could someone say something so cruel as, "AIDS cures homosexuality" or walk into a crowded market and blow people up?

I guess what I'm saying is that I agree about being torn on the question of whether or not Falwell and the like actually believe their hurtful, foolish comments. But in the end it doesn't matter. He said it, many of his people were oddly inspired by it, and there it is.

I used to sign my Socialist Party correspondance with, "My thoughts are my own, but my actions change the world." This was at a time when I had some disturbing thoughts that really bothered me. I concluded that it didn't matter. Like I say, what matters is action. So Falwell could have been a wonderful person in private, full of compassion and a head full of noble thouhts. But what matters is how he acted and what he said. That's why I'm glad he's not around anymore.

The only thing I regret writing is that I hope he suffered in his last moments. I didn't mean that one bit. I like to think that we all at least deserve a painless exit, no matter what we've done.