Say Anything Blog

Good riddance. For him to die sooner would have been better, but later is better than never. His death should be celebrated, but his life should be justly mocked. If only we could get rid of his replacement.

Geez dude.  I don’t think any of us ever “deserve” to die.  It just happens that all of us will.  It also happens that yesterday was Falwell’s day to go.  Someone’s death shouldn’t be a cause to celebrate no matter how much we dislike their opinions or what they say.  Now, genocidal maniacs, serial killers, and such is a slightly different story, but death in general isn’t something we should celebrate when it happens to someone else.

So that said and despite my general rule that you don’t talk ill of the dead, Falwell was a douchebag.  He served as an ignorant lightning rod for the religious right along with Robertson.  I don’t like their theology and I think that their existence harms the cause of Christianity.  But these folks would not exist as leaders if other people were not willing to follow them.  And the right wing of the Christian voters chose Falwell as their leader.  There will be another one and then one after that.  And if it wasn’t Falwell in the past, someone else would have said what he said.

Pray for his family that they are comforted.  And ultimately, he is either in Heaven or Hell right now or worm food.  I certainly hope that there is a God as opposed to the worm food and that right now Falwell is finding out whether Tinky Winky is gay and whether God allowed 9-11 to happen because of the ACLU, the abortionists…

Vincenzo,

Spoken like a true small-minded, anti-Christian, liberal.  So much for all that diversity and inclusiveness crap, right?  Who needs civility or decorum when a leftist adolescent feels the need for a tantrum… right, bigot-boy?

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

Vincenzo Castigliane: As I believe in God, I just as surely believe in Judgment Day; and I can tell you that Jesus said that the way, manner and measure you have used to judge other people like Falwell will be applied in the exact manner to your life. Every word or thought you have used to condemn and judge Falwell and others will be applied to your life; and despite his many flaws in life, I suspect Falwell well fare much better on that day than will you, unless you repent of such harsh judgments before that day.

No matter the age or state of health, for a military man it is always glorious to tilt at windmills, rescue a fair Dulcinea and be a gallant knight in armor in a glorious cause.

So much for all that diversity and inclusiveness crap, right?

No one thinks he should have been censored, prevented from marrying, or “killed by a just God” (ala teh gays and their AIDS, per Falwell) for his reprehensible beliefs. 

He was as free to be as immoral as he wanted to be.

A week ago Falwell, on CNN,
said he had asked God for
20 more years of life so
he could complete his work.

A week ago Falwell, on CNN,
said he had asked God for
20 more years of life so
he could complete his work.

Guess the answer was “no”.
WOOF: Maybe you could ask for 20 more IQ points (but don’t hold your breath!)

Barack Obama: All hat and no cattle since 1997!

...or God felt that he had done quite enough already.

...or God felt that he had done quite enough already.

Barack Obama: All hat and no cattle since 1997!

jpe: You are using a wholly secular, liberal definition of morality; and you are therefore unable to judge morality or immorality from God’s perspective. You are employing a subjective standard and liberal partisan definition to morality which is absent any real meaning. If your personal morality was exposed to close examination by the media as was his, covering your lifetime, I suspect you might make Jerry Falwell appear like a super saint by comparison.

Woof: As I read Scripture, Seth Williams is right and God simply said something like this, ‘No Jerry, you have finished all that I intended for your life!’ God and God alone has taken the proper, the only true measure of Jerry’s life and ministry and Jerry has faced that judgment. He was, as I have said many times, as it applies to everyone, a flawed human being with imperfect understanding of God’s Will and while none of us can know his heart, perhaps he was deceived by riches and the power he gained with international recognition; and maybe his was a much more exemplary life than other men, with the wealth and power only a stumblingblock and a testing of his faithfulness, while his ministry accomplished a great deal of good. Only God knows!

No matter the age or state of health, for a military man it is always glorious to tilt at windmills, rescue a fair Dulcinea and be a gallant knight in armor in a glorious cause.

Proof
Nice setup, with a little work you could be a straight man.

WOOF: Maybe you could ask for 20 more IQ points

With 20 more IQ points you’d be a…

20 less IQ points and you’d be....

If yo Mama had 20 more IQ points…

Neiman: yes, that’s what I was driving at.

Only God knows, we can’t for sure.

jpe: You are using a wholly secular, liberal definition of morality

That you say that tells me that you don’t know what morality is.  If I say “X is wrong,” it means “You ought not do X,” wherein “you” is applied universally.

If you differ with this definition, you’re just a relativist.

with a little work you could be a straight man.

WOOF:  I’ve been a straight man all my life!

Barack Obama: All hat and no cattle since 1997!

jpe: Whatever is not approved of God is sin and immoral. It is an absolute, unyielding Holy Standard, which will be enforced by Him. Such behavior is condemned throughout all time, in every geographic setting and society. For instance, murder has always been condemned; that is, the unlawful taking of a human life.

It is intersesting that you accuse me of relative morality, when you used “I,” referring to you as setting the standard of right and wrong, and “you” as everyone else being under subjection to your standards of morality. Morality cannot be subjected to ever shifting human definitions, which is why God alone can determine right and wrong, as His standard is universal and eternal in nature.

God said near the end of time, men would call things that He called wrong (sin), like abortion or homosexual conduct as being right (good, moral); and that is exactly what society is doing today, changing those things always condemned by God and that agreed to by civilized human beings as being acceptable and good. It is an upside down world concerning morality.

No matter the age or state of health, for a military man it is always glorious to tilt at windmills, rescue a fair Dulcinea and be a gallant knight in armor in a glorious cause.

Knee-high-man

Whatever is not approved of God is sin and immoral.

That’s not even a sentence. We have recently been over this so I am disappointed in you. Remember when we decided that all the stuff available to us was written by people who were ‘inspired by God’ and not God himself. Try using, “Whatever is not approved of by people who wrote stuff a really long time ago while allegedly inspired by God” instead of, “Whatever is not approved of God”.

Yun Chu said, “You must strictly not express in words what is very significant. Both dragon and snake are killed in one blow.”

Sparkie: We never agreed to any such thing. All my life I have claimed and still claim today that every word of Holy Scripture was directly inspired by God and He, being all-powerful, while allowing the personality of His scribes to come through in their writings, He nonetheless controlled every word to make sure it was perfect in every way.

You said:

Try using, “Whatever is not approved of by people who wrote stuff a really long time ago while allegedly inspired by God” instead of, “Whatever is not approved of God”.

I stand by my statement without reservation. Whatever is not approved of God is sin and immoral.

No matter the age or state of health, for a military man it is always glorious to tilt at windmills, rescue a fair Dulcinea and be a gallant knight in armor in a glorious cause.

Neiman
God (or his Jewish intermediary redactors) endorsed ethnic cleansing. I take it you feel ethnic cleansing is moral?

Yun Chu said, “You must strictly not express in words what is very significant. Both dragon and snake are killed in one blow.”

Remember when we decided that all the stuff available to us was written by people who were ‘inspired by God’ and not God himself. Try using, “Whatever is not approved of by people who wrote stuff a really long time ago while allegedly inspired by God” instead of, “Whatever is not approved of God”.

Misinterpreted Spark.  He is talking about actions not scriptures.  Two different things.

Now, my take on what you said:

If there is a God (and we will take this as a hypothetical), then we acknowledge the traditional definitions used by Descartes and assume omnipotence and omniscience.  Therefore God represents all power and all truth.

It is my contention that the Bible is far from the only word of God.  Anything that is true is likewise the word of God.  In that sense, if we assume the Bible to be a perfect record (and I am not a Biblical literalist nor someone that argues that a book that is in several cases several thousand years old and has been translated over and over including by Catholics during the Dark Ages and so on is perfect), then it is THE WORD OF GOD, but certainly not THE ONLY WORD OF GOD.  God did not provide us with his omniscience in the Bible on how to deal with many of the pressing issues that we encounter today with guidance in the Bible.  It therefore follows that God for whatever reason either stopped talking to us except through folks like Robertson and others or through personal prayer, or that God continues to provide TRUTH to us through other means.

I believe that it is up to all of us to seek truth and in seeking truth, we will find God.  But moreso we are also compelled to seek forgiveness for our sins through Christ.  Now, the belief in Christ is a Biblical Christian belief, but the need to seek truth wherever it exists and wherever we can find it is a human need to cuts across all peoples and all religions and all time.

God created us with the desire and reasoning to seek truth.  If we seek truth, we should arrive at the same place.  And honestly, it is the Christians that believe that they have all the mysteries of life locked in one simple book and stop looking for Truth in all places and all things that are as big of a problem as the Secular Humanists that deny that any truth may exist through Christ or Allah or religion at all.  And I honestly believe Falwell to be in the former category.

But also realize that my belief system borders on heresy for many Christian Faiths, hence why I have difficulty identifying with a particullar brand of “Christianity” that is so exclusive of my views that God is “revealing” his true nature by providing us knowledge of evolution, biology, science, mathmatics, astronomy, etc., as opposed to trying to confuse us about the age of the Earth being 6,000 years.  I also believe in a hands off God that simply provides answers and comfort as well as sets up the rules of the game, but provides little more than spiritual guidance as opposed to tangible actions in our lives.  He gives two shits less that you caught that Touchdown or made that three pointer or had a successful business career.  He simply sets up the rules that if you work hard and live a clean life, you earn its rewards ON THIS EARTH.  It is only through faith and repentence that you get into Heaven and earn your rewards there.

Just me though.

Other belief--It is my belief that aside from the Bible, the most perfect and Godly document ever created and guided by the hand of God is our Constitution.

The Constitution and Dec of Independence reveal all there is that we need to know about my belief in what God wants for all of us.  All men are created equal and should live free to worship and seek truth, life, and liberty of their own accord.  Those that CHOOSE God do so in freedom not out of fear and do it for love of him.

Hence why I hate the doctrine of fear and control preached by the Catholics and the Religious Right.

Justin: My break is almost over and I have to get back to my special needs children, a new one (6th grade) being confined for life to a wheelchair; so I don’t have time now to try and separate the wheat from the chaff in your post.

1. We are made aliens to each other by use of a common language. On so many points we might agree, but your words often hint at meanings other than what the words appear to say, and so we often seem farther separated than I think might be the real case.
2. If God is all-knowing and all-powerful as I beleive Him to be, surely He would be able and desirous of communicating clearly with His human creation with no trckery. If we are to believe that God means exactly what says, then we must be able to trust Him to say exactly what He means[/b. If He said He created the world in six ‘days,’ and He uses the exact word ‘day’ elsewhere and by the context we know it means roughly a 24 hour day as we measure time, then without just cause in the text of Genesis to translate ‘day’ as meaning an indeterminate period of time (Eons, billions of years, etcetera), we must translate the exact same word the same way it was translated in thousands of other references. On the other hand, ‘in that day,’ in context refers to an age or a general time frame or generation, and can be safely translated as being something different than roughly a 24 hour day. So, I have to disagree about Genesis, as I believe God said exactly what He meant and we can therefore trust Him to mean exactly what He said. Now I don’t want to get distracted and discuss the Creation record versus evolution, I am only explaining my approach to Scripture.
3. God gave us wisdom and knowledge and a thirst for truth. Thus, I believe every good thing in life was the result of His placing within us the tools and desire for discovering His world. Yet, if some truth by men contradicts God’s Word, I believe God’s Word is the only Truth and what man tells us must be harmonized to God’s Word, not the other way around.

Finally got it.

Every word or thought you have used to condemn and judge Falwell and others will be applied to your life; and despite his many flaws in life, I suspect Falwell well fare much better on that day than will you, unless you repent of such harsh judgments before that day.
-Neiman on May 16, 2007 at 05:30 pm

What a shit way to live. I feel sorry that you believe this garbage.

Falwell finally fell well. Thank god. Good riddance to bad rubbish. For me, its cut and dry. The guy was a serious nutjob. He abused the honest spiritual fear of the devout for his own money and power interests. In my mind, that is seriously evil shit.

Yun Chu said, “You must strictly not express in words what is very significant. Both dragon and snake are killed in one blow.”

Justin: There is the pastor’s gift, to teach Christ and Him alone, that we might be brought into intimate communion with Him, and by that communion grow more and more daily into His image, imitators of Christ and by His Grace to love everyone unconditionally.

There is the Evangelist’s gift, wherein the Spirit of Christ preaches against sin, introduces sinners to Christ that they might accept His Salvation; and then the evangelist turns the new convert over to those with a pastors’ (shepherd’s) heart to comfort, encourage, teach God’s Word and love each sheep in the local flock (congregation) with the Love of Christ.

Both gifts are of equal value in the body of Christ, and yet too often these gifts are mixed together causing much confusion and harm. Falwell was a pastor trying to also be an evangelist as regards his message, a common error, and that may have caused unnecesary harm, but not necessarily from evil motives. I deliberately leave your concerns about his wealth and the misuse of funds by many calling themselves ministers of Christ, as the answer would be too lengthy.

If those in sin and hell bound are not blessed with God’s Word being preached against sin, causing repentance to the glory of God and their Salvation, then many that would turn to Christ for deliverance would die in their sins. Once saved, the emphasis is upon surrender to Christ that He might strengthen us in the inner man to refrain from sin and to know the peace available in His unconditional love.

Forgive me Justin but I agree that God Will judge America first among all the nations and that more harshly, by withdrawing His protective hand as Falwell suggested, though I think it is for decades of America rejecting God versus one particular sin. Why? God said that those whom He has most blessed (protected and prospered) most, He will judge first. Just think about it like you have many sons, one of them you favored and blessed much more than any other son - though you blessed them all, yet all of them turned against you; and when your patience, longsuffering and warnings have at last reached the point where you need to bring about strong discipline for their good and because they are harming others; would you start with the son you have blessed the least, or would your anger rise up first against the one you blessed the most and yet despising your kindness and blessings was the first to curse you? The rest of the sons need to know that if you more harshly discipline the son closest to your heart (America), they (other nations) need to truly fear your discipline. Thus, our Father poured out such blessings on America that we have prospered and become more powerful than any other nation in all human history; yet, we cast Him out of the public square and have cursed His Name by rejecting His Loving Hand of Protection; thus His Judgment first begins with those He has blessed the most as a warning to the world, that they might repent and He can lift His hand of discipline from the nations. But, it is not a judgment of anger nor must He initiate anything, as we are more than capable, absent His protection of destroying ourselves.

Lastly Justin, you have mentioned your rejection of any message producing fear, rather than love. For those within the Family of God, His Perfect love casts out all fear of judgment and His Love gives perfect rest. But, to those outside the family of God (sinners), the message of fear of eternal punishing, tempered with God’s Love and His plan of Salvation, will produce in many of them sincere repentance that, God might have many more children upon whom He might pour out His Love and blessings without limit for eternity.

Oh, excuse me for adding a few more words: While some of his life and ministry might deserve just criticism, I am absolutely sure of two things, having followed Falwell’s life for several decades. 1. He not only agrees perfection is impossible outside Christ, he would have told you face to face that he was saved by grace, through faith in Christ and that alone, and not by any works of righteousness on his part. 2. He would have confessed that he was a flawed human being and not worthy of Christ or Heaven.

No matter the age or state of health, for a military man it is always glorious to tilt at windmills, rescue a fair Dulcinea and be a gallant knight in armor in a glorious cause.

Finally got it.

And here I thought you would boldly go where no man went consistently!

Barack Obama: All hat and no cattle since 1997!