jimservo wrote:
Sopho wrote:
If there was a hell, then Jerry Falwell would be burning in it.
Many people have expressed that they are glad he is dead, now it has moved onto to saying he would be burning in hell (if it existed). The basic problem is that is if you don't believe in hell then the statement he "would be burning in it" becomes very complicated. Would he be burning in his own Christian theology's version of hell? I do not see that this is obvious based on his own personal personal behavior, which is more then just a individual quotes and actions that he generally apologized for, but included an entire career in which he was involved in charity and the ministry (ministry that did not include the type of personal corruption that so often popped up among televangelists). Another way to say it was to look upon it from another religion or from Fred Phelps perspective and say therefor he was would burning in hell, or perhaps that is not it at all. Perhaps the real answer is that some of those who are so delighted at the death of Rev. Falwell is that they many people they disagree with are not only intellectual opponents, but are simply
bad people and not deserving of any respect whatsoever or even of friendly debate.
ADDENDUM: I'm basically alone here in my position. I'd call for a truce, but that would be kinda unrealistic...
Sometimes I wish I wasn't so politically oriented. I am going to try to let Falwell related posts go from now on...
though i've avoided such statements myself expressly because of such a paradoxical situation....i'm pretty sure most people who are against him and are atheists or agnostics or christians are mostly more just expressing their displeasure with his life of bigotry and spreading hate through christianity. i think the idea of hell for most people is more that they wish that he faces some kind of retribution for all the wrongs he's done. in (my) reality, he just died and that's it. i wish he would have suffered more in his death for all the suffering the caused others.
actions he apologized for? he made a career out of saying hateful spiteful things and then apologizing for it later. he attack the civil rights movement and martin luther king, he attacked the victims of 9-11, and he's basically attacked every single person that doesn't fit into his white supremacist denominational christian world-view. he most likely wasn't sorry for any of it and still cursed them with his illusions of god. he was a vindictive bastard who used religion to attack people, gain wealth, and attacked others who stood in his way (tammy faye baker? anyone?). he accused various women's organizations of witchcraft.
i just can't see this guy as being earnestly sorry for any of the hateful things.