Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Here's something I missed from before Falwell died or I would have written about it. Everyone remembers Falwell's infamous remarks to Pat Robertson on the 700 Club, blaming all of his usual political enemies for 9/11. I'll paste the exchange below the fold:
JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.PAT ROBERTSON: Well, yes.
JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, 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 have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen'.
PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system.
After that, both Falwell and Robertson flat out lied about it. Robertson told Fox News a couple days later, "I thought it was totally inappropriate at the time." Nonsense. At the time he said, "I totally concur" and even expanded on those comments. Falwell's first response was to claim that he was being misrepresented, then when that excuse didn't fly (because the video was being played all over TV, for crying out loud) he offered a fake apology:
Falwell told CNN: "I would never blame any human being except the terrorists, and if I left that impression with gays or lesbians or anyone else, I apologize."
But as it turns out, just last week before he died, Christiane Amanpour interviewed him on CNN and he said he was standing by what he said then. Watch the video here. So he made an appalling statement, then he lied, then he offered a fake apology, and then he went back on the apology. And remember, folks, this is the voice of the "moral" majority.
Comments
So, when will the stories about Falwell's deathbed conversion to atheism start to come out? Oops. Sorry. It's the World Net Daily and its ilk that come out with that sort of thing.
sirhcton
Posted by: sirhcton | May 18, 2007 11:06 AM
sirhcton - :) I was thinking the same thing.
Posted by: Phobos | May 18, 2007 12:48 PM
Interesting bit: "I would never blame any human being except the terrorists"
Notice how, although he does blame various other humans in his 700 Club diatribe, he blames them for angering God, not the actual attack itself. The clear implication is that he is blaming (crediting?) God for 9/11.
Is that better or worse?
Posted by: jpf | May 18, 2007 5:49 PM
"And remember, folks, this is the voice of the "moral" majority."
Hmmm...I guess I hadn't realized that the "moral" majority had a dude designated as their "voice".
In fact, if I've read my bible correctly, there is no one who is considered morally perfect. Falwell certainly had his moments -- just like everyone else.
That doesn't mean we throw the baby out with the bathwater...
Posted by: Forthekids | May 18, 2007 6:50 PM
FtK, get with the program. Falwell was the founder of the Moral Majority. Capital letters. As such, that would make him the voice. And if he had the audacity to proclaim the group that he formed the "Moral Majority" then yes, he had a standard to live up to which, no, he didn't. He used his fame and political clout to influence a lot of people to shore up their hatred, used the banner of the Moral Majority to create discord, blur the separation of church and state, and infringe upon the human rights of those whom he disliked. This bathwater was so filthy you'd never find a baby in it.
Nobody would ever have insisted upon him being morally perfect if he hadn't insisted in the first place that he was. In fact, he used that very same bible you did to state that he was morally perfect, on many occasions. Why you would defend someone who was misquoting your very own holy book for self-aggrandizement is a mystery.
Posted by: Alison | May 18, 2007 8:49 PM
Is that better or worse?
It doesn't really matter what he thought about anything.
Falwell on segregation: "The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line."
Who cares what he ever thought. Bleh.
Posted by: 386sx | May 18, 2007 9:36 PM
Heh. I just had to pull up the song and write down the lyrics. Just had to.
Song: Mother's Lament
Band: Cream
Album: Disraeli Gears
Year: Sixty eight or nine. I can remember the pizza parlor and the jukebox.
"A mother was washing her baby one night.
The youngest of ten, and a delicate mite.
The mother was poor
And the baby was thin;
'Twas not but a skeleton
Covered with skin.
The mother turned round, for the soap off the rack.
She was not a moment but when she turned back
Her baby had gone, and in anguish she cried,
"Oh, where has my baby gone?"
The angels replied:
"Oh, your baby has gone down the plug hole.
Your baby has gone down the plug.
The poor little thing,
Was so skinny and thin.
It should have been washed in a jug
(In a jug).
Your baby is perfectly happy.
He won't need a bath any more.
He's a'muckin about
With the angels above.
Not lost
But gone
Before."
FTK, you are this mother. Your saving grace is that the baby you think is lost (or is in danger of being lost) is really not worth the worry. Don't you hear what the angels all say?
Everyone go find and listen to this song. Major hoot. Good harmony singing too.
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | May 19, 2007 9:38 PM