Jerry Falwell:Criticisms
From Wikinfo
Jerry Falwell has been subject to criticisms and in some cases to actual attacks and as one may see from the following material copied from Wikipedia, guilt by association.
In the 1980s, fundamentalism began to get a negative image. Another televangelist, Jim Bakker was convicted of fraud and received jail time. Falwell then took over management of Bakker's ministry, Praise The Lord (PTL), in 1987. PTL was soon bankrupt. Some argue (source A&E's "Biography") that Falwell deliberately scuttled the competition.
In November 1983, Larry Flynt's sex magazine Hustler carried a parody of a Campari ad, featuring a fake interview with Falwell in which he admits that his "first time" was incest with his mother in an outhouse while drunk. Falwell sued for compensation, alleging invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A jury rejected the invasion of privacy and libel claims, holding that the parody could not have reasonably been taken to describe true events, but ruled in favor of Falwell on the emotional distress claim. This was upheld on appeal. Flynt then appealed to the Supreme Court and won on February 24, 1988 (Hustler Magazine, Inc. et al. v. Jerry Falwell, 485 U.S. 46); the ruling confirmed that public figures cannot recover damages based on emotional distress suffered from parodies.
Controversial Remarks
In a February, 1999 article in the National Liberty Journal, Jerry Falwell claimed that the Teletubbies character, Tinky Winky, could be a hidden homosexual symbol, because the character was purple (which he claimed was a color symbolic of homosexuality), had a triangle on his head and carried a handbag. This claim made him the object of derision by the general public and an easy target for comedians who viewed the contention as ridiculous.
After the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, he (along with fellow televangelist Pat Robertson) made comments interpreted as blaming various groups for the attack. The two were widely condemned for having made these comments. Falwell said:
- 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."
Robertson then responded:
- 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.
Falwell later 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.
In an interview given on September 30 2002 for the October 6 edition of 60 Minutes, Falwell said: "I think Mohammed was a terrorist. I read enough by both Muslims and non-Muslims, [to decide] that he was a violent man, a man of war." These comments led to rioting particularly in the town of Solapur, India, leaving 8 people dead.
The following Friday, Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, the spokesman of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khameini, issued a fatwa for Fallwell's death, saying, that fallwell was "mercenary and must be killed," and, "The death of that man is a religious duty, but his case should not be tied to the Christian community."
External Links
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Jerry Falwell" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Falwell December 31, 2003
