"The American Taliban" - I wrote this about Falwell's 9/11 comments the day he said them.

[WilliamPitt]

I wrote this as a DU thread on September 14, 2001. The link to that old thread is here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=4630&forum=DCForumID35&archive=yesyes

I'd like those who are crying foul over hard words about Falwell to read that thread closely. I'd like those crying foul to appreciate the pain, horror, anguish and woe expressed by your fellow DUers, who absorbed those words from Falwell just three days after the worst day we've ever, ever had.

I appreciate the sentiments of those crying foul, but I think you need to read that thread. Afterwards, you may wonder, as I do, exactly how much of the milk of our human kindness this person truly deserves.

The text of my original post is below.

===

The American Taliban

by William Rivers Pitt
8/14/01

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents."

- Robert Kennedy

Amidst the dust and ruin, amidst the pain and woe, amidst the remarkable unity that is being demonstrated by Americans everywhere, there lurks a vein of hatred and evil that is nearly beyond description.

Some Americans today are leveling fingers of blame towards homosexuals, towards liberals, towards the ACLU, towards those who protect and defend a woman's legal right to reproductive freedom.

That anyone would seek to smear fellow American citizens with blame for the atrocities that have been visited upon us is wretched enough to make any decent human being physically ill.

That those who do this are denouncing our fellow citizens in the name of God is the definition of evil, and is the same kind of hate that drove those airplanes like a dagger into the heart of our nation.

I am ashamed to be an American today because of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

This is what Mr. Falwell had to say on Robertson's nationally broadcast television show, 'The 700 Club':

"The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this...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...all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"

There were more Americans killed on Tuesday than in the attacks on Pear Harbor and the invasions on D Day and Iwo Jima combined, if the estimates prove to be true. There were more Americans killed on Tuesday than in a year's worth of fighting during the Vietnam War.

America has taken a mighty blow, yet we still stand strong. We are pulling together as best we can. So much greatness has been demonstrated by our firefighters, police, medical professionals, rescue workers and ordinary citizens who queue up to give blood, because it is the best thing they can do.

Yet, here is a religious bigot who has the unmitigated gall to lay blame upon some of our citizens because he does not agree with the way they live. He does this in the name of his vicious, hateful, bloody God. His God is not my God. His America is not my America.

Mr. Falwell should take that finger of blame and turn it towards his own miserable face. Religious and cultural zealotry and intolerance - on both sides - lies at the root of this disaster.

No worse fate could ever befall America than to have it to come under the sway of demagogues like Jerry Falwell.

Gay? To the wall.

Pro-choice? To the wall.

ACLU, defender of the Constitution? To the wall.

Not Christian? To the rack, and then the wall.

Support any of the above, or believe those citizens who support the above have the right to do so? To the wall.

Jerry Falwell has done a grave injury to millions of American citizens with his words. The First Amendment of the Constitution allows him to do so, allows him to advocate the destruction of the very rights that protect his hate and evil. Nevertheless, he must be punished for this.

I denounce Jerry Falwell and his lapdog, Pat Robertson. I say they are the worst form of low and awful wretchedness that has ever drawn breath. I say that God would spit in their faces if She could even be bothered to pay attention to such nonsense.

I say, as an American, that these men do not represent the country I love and would die for. They are a cancer on the soul of our country, and they should be treated as such.

I renounce any ties and fealty to the Christian religion as of today, until such time as I can be sure that bastards like Falwell do not and can not purport to carry the Cross. As a lifelong Catholic, this is no small matter for me. I dissent, and my God will understand why.

I say to my homosexual brothers and sisters, to those who are not Christian, to those who support the legal right of reproductive choice, that I am with you. Jerry Falwell and his band of filth will have to get through me in order to get to you.

To Mr. Bush, I demand that you denounce these people as well. Once upon a time you gave your soul to Jesus in the presence of Falwell. I demand that you lay him low, in the name of national unity and love. Be a leader, Mr. Bush. Be a leader of all of us.

To the world, I offer a plea: ignore these villains. They are not us. We will deal with them the way they should be dealt with. Religious extremism of any sort is the most dangerous threat in the world right now. That this breed of the Taliban are American makes them all the more so.

Mr. Falwell, you will burn in hell for your words. God sees you, and is not pleased. Neither am I.

- - -
Jerry Falwell blames gays for terrorist attacks
http://www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=692&sd=09/14/01

[dogman]

1. Precisely.

He was as much an enemy of this country as any person in the world. He sought to undermine our Constitution and victimize citizens of this nation. His hypocrisy undermined Christianity.

[TriMetFan]

2. Well Said!!

I don't shed one tear for Falwell at all. May his God forgive him for the hate he had had towards others.

[Breeze54]

3. Spot On!!!! K & R'd!! A MUST read !

:kick: & Recommended!

Thank you for that link! I wasn't here at DU that day or that week or that month,
so I am VERY interested in what was posted on September 11th, 2001 and after.

[senseandsensibility]

4. Thanks for the reminder

I wonder how many DUers remember what Falwell said. He was a partisan opportunist and used one of our nation's greatest tragedies to divide and hurt us. I wished him no ill will, and feel sympathy for his family. But the truth should never be forgotten. Reading those very old DU threads is a real treat, too.

[Kurovski]

5. K&R. (nt)

[libnnc]

6. K&R

Thanks Will

[WillyT]

7. Exactly !!! - K & R !!!

:kick:

[flyarm]

8. my co-workers died that day..not because of any reasons Falwell or Robertson stated....they died

because this president and administration failed them..and because of hate..hate just like Falwell and Robertson preach...

I hope i can only hate... that my co-workers and neighbors died, yes i hate that they died..i hate it in my soul..so deep in my heart and soul..

there are consquences for what we do and say in life...

I can only hope a higher power decides what Falwells punishment is and that it is severe enough ... for his hate..his lies, his bigotry, his fear mongering..his deceit ..and his greed.
I have no idea if there is a god or not..or a hell...

I have my beliefs..but they are only beliefs.i do not need any human being to tell me how to behave..how to love, how to nourish..how to care...how to give love and how to recieve love..

i can only try my best..

I do not believe anything Falwell stood for , or his lying , or his utter hatefullness...

but in my heart ..i feel he will pay dearly for his sins against humanity!!

I have to believe that.

He was the worst sinner of all to me..he cloaked his sins in the cloth of god..

fly

[Cha]

15. You have so pinned the reason

for 9/11.."they died because this president(sic) and administration failed them..and because of hate..hate just like Falwell and Robertson preach..."

That may have been what falwel was doing in part when he accused good people in our country of causing 9/11..trying to deflect from himself and the bushits.

[MadMaddie]

9. My friend as always..then and now....these words ring true

this man in life and in death does not deserve our sympathy....just as Hitler and Pol Pot do not deserve our sympathy.....

He was a wretched man who legally robbed the poor and greedily spent the cash on himself and his inner circle....

He along with others are the reason our Great Country is in the dismal shape it's in....

That's all....

[HCE SuiGeneris]

10. Evil men will not receive any quarter from me.

Excellent post WP.

[Kingshakabobo]

11. Hey, did you coin the term "American Taliban"?....I love that term. n/t

[WilliamPitt]

12. It was around a lot after that day

I don't know if I coined it so much as I came to the same conclusions, at the same time, as a lot of other writers.

[WilliamPitt]

13. Just saw the 8/14 date on the actual essay.

Heh. That's an error-in-haste in the original. I remember being too late to edit it then, too.

:)

[NashVegas]

14. Just About Every Anti-Falwell Comment I've Seen Today

Is backed up with logic.

A shame that so few see it.

[argyl]

16. There are limits to my compassion and sympathy. I'll reserve mine for

the many who have been victimized by the intolerance and bigotry of Falwell and others like him.

[proud patriot]

17. I remember this piece Will

When one points the finger of blame , one also has three fingers
pointing back at oneself.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. This is when I started calling all of them 'talibornagains'

And I still believe they are a larger threat than the neocons.

[pingzing58]

19. The measure you measure with

will be measured back to you.  Boy, oh, boy.  I hope Mr.
Falwell doesn't have any skelletons in his closet!  I know
that, just like Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggert, as preachers,
the more they point the finger at others, their hearts filled
with hate, the more I ask myself, what are they hiding? 
They're so filled with hate because they cannot "love
others as they love themselves."  Basic lessons in
Christianity - a lesson that he never seemed to have learned.
Requiescat in pace - but he can't until he learns to love
those he hated in this world or is it too late?  Just
wondering.   

[spoony]

20. You gave up a religion because of an asshole?

sorry, but that's a cowardly response to Falwell. It's like moving away when Bush got in. If you really believe in something, you fight for it.

[tomreedtoon]

21. A reasonable response...but so many others aren't.

As I posted to someone else, "Madmartigan" or some other name, to go around right now, gleefully rubbing hands at Falwell's death, puts the person in the shoes of Reverend Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church. There are certain levels you do not descend to, and that is it.

But simply reposting your complaints from the past, and saying that they are appropriate, is a decent and honorable comment on Falwell's ugly life. You expressed your beliefs honestly and simply. Unfortunately, nobody will recognize it. They'll go for the tasteless, raucous line of protesters lining up to pee on Falwell's grave, as if they think that makes them more noble.

[GeorgeGist]

22. Jerry's life was the Hell ...

he chose to make his legacy. His death means that his onetime soul is home free.

[Cobalt Violet]

23. This thread need about 70 more recommends.

I can't stand it that the other stupid one is on top of the greatest page. :wtf:

[Theres-a]

27. kick.

[Ganja Ninja]

24. An excellent reminder of who and what the man was.

I don't agree with the people that are complaining about DU's reaction to Falwell's death. I don't care what Hannity or Malkin or any other RW shill thinks or says about us. They casually toss around threats to nuke people that haven't done anything to deserve it. They can kiss my ass.

As far as Falwell goes I may make a few unkind comments but I'm not planning to go out of my way to piss on his grave. He simply isn't worth it.

[DinahMoeHum]

25. Falwell's passing - one less fascist pig theocrat to contend with.

Thanks, Will.

[Flatulo]

26. Wonderful words, Mr. Pitt. I feel nothing for Falwell... nothing.

[WilliamPitt]

28. .

[Coexist]

29. I've avoided most Falwell threads, because he was so vile

but he is gone, so I am not interested in putting on my tap shoes.

But his words will be there forever, and for that, how do we forgive him?