The world lost a great purveyor of hate and intolerance yesterday as Jerry Falwell died from heart complications. His career spanned more than 30 years as he helped build the religious right in the 1970s with his Moral Majority operation, that helped lead to Ronald Reagan's victory and the growing tide of anti-gay sentiment that can be found on the right.
From The Huffington Post:
The rise of Christian conservatism _ and the Moral Majority's full-throated condemnation of homosexuality, abortion and pornography _ made Falwell perhaps the most recognizable figure on the evangelical right, and one of the most controversial ones, too.
Over the years, Falwell waged a landmark libel case against Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt over a raunchy parody ad, and created a furor in 1999 when one of his publications suggested that the purse-carrying "Teletubbies" character Tinky Winky was gay.
Matt Foreman, executive director of National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, extended condolences to those close to Falwell, but added: "Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America's anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation's appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation."
While I pray for his family and extend condolences, I find it hard to empathize for the man that has done so much to set us back as a nation. The notable stories about the tele-tubbies, the lawsuit against Larry Flynt and his statements blaming liberals et al for 9/11 are sad and amusing. It was the years of preaching intolerance and bigotry against those he feared that I will remember most. The organization he built up that spread so much disease in the nation's collective conscience will never be forgotten....and never forgiven, in life or in death.
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