it comes in pints?

Yes. Much as I detested him, I consider it unseemly to spit on the corpse.

I agree, Emily. I had no love for Falwell either, for the reasons that you state, but I didn't see him as a mortal enemy. A fool, no doubt, but more of an example of what not to be than as a potential target for a precision guided missile.

I've been known to treat the deaths of evil people as good news, and even gloat. But I guess I define "evil" somewhat differently, focusing on those that actively engage in or support tyranny. And God knows there are enough of those bastards around as it is; setting broader parameters is not exactly a good idea, IMHO.

That's the thing, Jeff. People seem to feel their bile is justified because they've deemed Falwell "evil." Well, not really. He was a bad representative of his espoused Christianity and he's said some pretty mean-spirited stuff over the years (I'll never forgive him for his remarks following the earthquake in Northridge. Some of us lived through that and didn't necessarily appreciate the suggestion that we deserved it because of the geographical location of a large portion of the porn industry), but he hardly shaped public policy and was considered a marginal political figure at best. Not exactly Hitler incarnate, even with all his inane anti-Semitism. At his worst, he called a Teletubby a homo.

As you know, we disagree on the bile bit. Maybe it lowered me down a notch or three on the moral level for a day, maybe I should have left it with a "good fucking riddance", but I didn't. I thought he was a particularly odious human being and I felt like expressing it. I leave open the possibility that it was wrong to do so.

But at his worst, he tried to blame the September 11th attacks on those with whom he disagreed, politically and religiously. This is a bit worse than questioning a teletubbie's sexuality. At his worst, he wanted to compel the rest of us to live according to his moral values. While he never achieved this objective, I'm not going to grant him any credit for failing.

I also think you're underestimating his political clout. Sure, he never ran a major political party, but he did have every Republican Presidential candidate for the last 25 years drop by and pay homage to him. Alone, he wasn't influential by himself, but was one of the leaders of the evangelical bloc, and I never saw the rank and file of that bloc try to disown him. And that bloc helped move the Republican party much further to the right on social issues. I wouldn't call him a marginal political figure, or at least he wasn't until he marginalized himself on September 13th.

Bill, I was thinking of NPR myself. Your comment (which I did notice) was at least for rational reasons, and not some touchie-feelie "Oh God, not another rabid Christian" rant. And you do accept the possibility that it was wrong to do so. I doubt that NPR will even do that.

I don't think he was nearly as hateful as he's been made out, either.He did have some strong ideas as to what kind of people were headed for hell, but he never wanted them to. I think if he had had the choice, he would have saved them from it himself.

That said, he embarrassed the hell out of me every time he opened his mouth. At least he won't be holding press conferences in heaven; no journalists there.

If I follow the general rules of obit civility, I won't be doing obits on Jimmy Carter or Hillary Clinton. I have nicer things to say about disco.

I find it kind of funny that so many people who openly condemn Jerry Falwell for being hateful have plenty of their own to spare on his passing.

That man hated me, not because he knew me and he saw me mistreating his family members, or being bigoted to the people that he cared about, or to him, but because he decided that my behavior was going to send me to tell. He hated me because I am responsible for September 11th, because I disagree with his ideas on who should be running things.

I do not feel the need to be tolerant of this kind of intolerance.

Emily,
I think you have a point, to a degree. One of the things my father taught me growing up - "one of the hardest challenges in life is learning to tolerate the intolerable." Many of Falwell's incendiary comments - especially what he said after September 11th - left a bad taste in my mouth, but I'm glad I live in a place where he's allowed to say them. He deserves at least that much toleration, but not much more. But I wasn't really talking about that so much as some of the more rude and hateful remarks a few people were making seconds after the news broke.

Oh, I'm glad he lives in a place that he can say them. I'm also glad I live in a place where I can say that I'm glad the world is no longer blighted by his bigoted, hateful ignorance.

Also, I was amused by something I saw on Livejournal. Someone posted a list of ten quotes and asked who had said them - Hitler or Falwell?

The first comment was: "I'm sorry, but I honestly find this to be in very poor taste. The man is dead. We may have had our disagreements with him, but he's dead and I think we can afford one moment of empathy. My deepest condolences to the Hitler family."