Falwell's farewell
Before his death last week, I'd mentioned Moral Majority founder Rev. Jerry Falwell on this blog a total of not once in more than five years of blogging. While Falwell and I would've probably agreed on 98 percent of just about anything, I wasn't a big fan of his style. The foot-in-mouth moment of blaming the 9/11 attacks on America (something he promptly apologized for), his Tinky Winky silliness and various other unwise comments didn't exactly endear me to him.
However, despite all his flaws, the vitriol and absolute hatred emanating from many on the secular left on the occasion of Falwell's death has been disturbing. There are proper ways eulogizing someone who elicited mixed emotions. For example, I point you to this piece in Sunday's Union-Tribune Insight section by Debora Caldwell. And then there's Larry Flynt. The Hustler magazine pornographer disagreed with Falwell on just about everything. Falwell cost him millions of dollars in legal fees several decades ago. And upon Falwell's death, what does he have to say?
I'll never admire him for his views or his opinions. To this day, I'm not sure if his television embrace was meant to mend fences, to show himself to the public as a generous and forgiving preacher or merely to make me uneasy, but the ultimate result was one I never expected and was just as shocking a turn to me as was winning that famous Supreme Court case: We became friends.
Contrast that with this vicious bit of hatred from atheist Christopher Hitchens:
I'm still unsure why CNN invited Hitchens on to comment on Falwell's death. Hitchens is the same man who blasted Mother Theresa of all people when she died several years ago.
The fact of the matter is, whatever you thought of his political forays, Jerry Falwell did more good on this planet than any of his hateful detractors will ever do. Falwell started a facility to help those suffering from alcoholism -- something Hitchens hasn't done. Falwell created a home for unwed mothers -- where everything is paid for -- so that these girls and women wouldn't feel pressured to get abortions; something else Hitchens hasn't done.
It's not all about the friends you've made in this life, it's about the enemies too. If Hitchens and his friends on the secular left count you as an enemy, someone worthy of getting angry about, then you've probably done some good in your life.
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If half of what Mr. Hitchens wrote about Mother T's life was true (and he obviously believes most of it) then she probably should be blasted.
There are people whose faults we forget in death, those who we remember despite their actions, and then there are those whose good side we must forget lest it diminish the evil that they did and our memories of that evil.
I'd put Falwell in that middle group. He was a God Botherer, and a public figure. His comments about 9/11 and Katrina showed his soul. He wasn't a Stalin or a Jimmy Carter, but those were VERY hateful and stupid things to say. (The tinky winky thing was just dumb and funny).
That's the problem, most of what Hitchens knows, at least when it comes to anyone with any religious beliefs, just isn't true. In Hitchens' CNN interview, he claims that Falwell didn't believe any of this God stuff and he was a shameless huckster doing it for the money. If you read Flynt's op-ed piece, it becomes clear that simply wasn't true.
Hitchens is an angry, bitter, anti-religious bigot. All labels he would probably be proud to wear. But that sort of bias and bigotry so colors his commentary as to make it virtually useless.