Dr Jerry Falwell

[Liberty1]

Remember the lady in the bubble doing deaf interpretation?

Harold Willmington's wife.

 

[Tarheel Baptist]

No big named independent fundamentalist preacher at the Sword Conference holds a candle to him.

There is no big name IFB preeeecher any more. I am of the opinion that once the IFB left Jerry, the death spiral of the IFB began.
Regardless, Dr. Falwell was a great friend and mentor to those who knew him.  I have never met a more giving or kinder man.  He is greatly missed.

I think Jerry left the IFB because he saw the extremism for what it was.
Jerry was always busy and 'important' in the eyes of some....but he always had time for us little guys. In some of my darkest days, Jerry spent time with me and gave me solid advice and encouragement!
He was a gracious, Godly example of what a Pastor should be.

 

[subllibrm]

No disrespect to brother Falwell but I did enjoy the time Cal Thomas took him to task for getting sucked into the world of politics. Basically said that by making bedfellows with the Republican party Falwell had sullied his own reputation by aligning with the muck of the political right. Quite entertaining television.

Cal worked for Jerry in the Moral Majority (the political organization Jerry started)...but was 'let go'.
Cal, a political commentator by trade, had no problems cashing his checks, as I recall...

This week, in the local paper, Cal came out AGAINST public prayers at local government meetings. Some of his reversals are hard for me to swallow.

FWIW I oppose teacher led prayer in the local school. By the time you make it pass muster it will be meaningless. Real believers talking to the real God can not be replaced by a canned recitation approved by committee.

 

[Just John]

Seven years ago today, May 15, 2007, Dr Jerry Falwell entered the presence of the God he faithfully served.

15 years, two months, and four days ago today, Dr. Jerry Falwell committed the gaffe that he is forever associated with in the public mind.

I guess he's fortunate that he didn't live long enough to out-stupid Pat Robertson, who puts his foot in it about annually.

"All this appeared before Falwell made his first mention of Tinky Winky."

No doubt Jerry spoke with hyperbole at times but he really was treated unfairly treated on this particular issue. Note a portion of a column below written by Ann Coulter the day after Falwell died. Many secular, mainstream media outlets had "outed Tinky Winky"...including it's creator, long before the statement was actually made not by Jerry but by the editor of Falwell's publication The Liberty Journal  But it was an opportunity for ridicule of Falwell that, as Ransom wrote, he will forever be associated with to some.

From Coulter:

http://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2007/05/16/jerry_falwell_--_say_hello_to_ronald_reagan!/page/full

"Beginning in early 1998, the news was bristling with stories about a children's cartoon PBS was importing from Britain that featured a gay cartoon character, Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubbie with a male voice and a red handbag.

People magazine gleefully reported that Teletubbies was "aimed at Telebabies as young as one year. But teenage club kids love the products' kitsch value, and gay men have made the purse-toting Tinky Winky a camp icon."

In the Nexis archives for 1998 alone, there are dozens and dozens of mentions of Tinky Winky being gay -- in periodicals such as Newsweek, The Toronto Star, The Washington Post (twice!), The New York Times and Time magazine (also twice).

In its Jan. 8, 1999, issue, USA Today accused The Washington Post of "outing" Tinky Winky, with a "recent Washington Post In/Out list putting T.W. opposite Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche, essentially 'outing' the kids' show character."

Michael Musto of The Village Voice boasted that Tinky Winky was "out and proud," noting that it was "a great message to kids -- not only that it's OK to be gay, but the importance of being well accessorized."

All this appeared before Falwell made his first mention of Tinky Winky.

After one year of the mainstream media laughing at having put one over on stupid bourgeois Americans by promoting a gay cartoon character in a TV show for children, when Falwell criticized the cartoon in February 1999, that same mainstream media howled with derision that Falwell thought a cartoon character could be gay.

Teletubbies producers immediately denounced the suggestion that Tinky Winky was gay -- though they admitted that he was once briefly engaged to Liza Minnelli. That's what you get, reverend, for believing what you read in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time magazine and Newsweek. Of course, Falwell also thought the show "Queer as Folk" was gay, so obviously the man had no credibility."

 

[Ransom]

There is an obvious categorical difference between gays claiming a television character as a gay icon, and claiming that the character itself is actually gay.

Gays have done the former, for whatever stupid reason.

Falwell did the latter, wrongly, probably to give red meat to the gullible masses who hung onto his every word.

 

[Just John]

There is an obvious categorical difference between gays claiming a television character as a gay icon, and claiming that the character itself is actually gay.

Gays have done the former, for whatever stupid reason.

Falwell did the latter, wrongly, probably to give red meat to the gullible masses who hung onto his every word.

I think the whole issue was stupid to start with but just trying to put the facts out there. Falwell didn't make the original statement and said so but then went on to give credence to it. He should have stopped with, "I didn't make the statement".

I think this is a matter of semantics at best. If you re-read the column from Coulter her claim is different from what you suggest. She states mainstream press publications claimed TW was gay, not just an "icon".  The article below from the Chicago Tribune in February of 1999 quotes gay groups claiming TW as their own:

"By many lights, Tinky Winky has never been in the closet. He's been as out as a White Sox No. 9 hitter since "Teletubbies" went on the air several years ago in England, when the British gay community quickly recognized and celebrated him as one of their own.

Tinky Winky is the largest of the four cheerful, doughy characters featured in a daily, half-hour public-TV show aimed at kids 2 and under. All four communicate in parted baby talk, but where Dipsy, Laa Laa and Po have the high, clear voices of children, Tinky Winky speaks in reedy tones reminiscent of campy gay stereotypes.

Falwell's paper further observes that Mr. Winky, identified by male pronouns (the Tubbies are covered with short, brightly-colored fur, generally unclothed and exhibit no visible sexual characteristics), carries a purse. Also, "he is purple--the gay-pride color; and his antenna (growing from the top of his head) is shaped like a triangle--the gay-pride symbol."

Itsy Bitsy Entertainment Co., the U.S. licensee for Teletubbies, didn't return calls Wednesday, but a spokesman told the Associated Press Tuesday that Falwell's claim was "outlandish . . . absurd and offensive."

Not to mention tardy. The program began airing in this country last April, and in June the Advocate, a biweekly newsmagazine focusing on gay and lesbian issues, featured a commentary approvingly headlined, "Tinky Winky, Little Star."

The character "regularly carries a smart red handbag under his arm," noted writer Barry Walters. "The show offers no explanation why Tinky Winky is so good at accessorizing. He's simply born (or hatched) that way, it seems. Apparently Tinky Winky's purse is meant to show kids that it's OK to take an interest in the accoutrements of the opposite gender--that identity is something we should claim for ourselves and not have thrust upon us. This is all well and good, but Tinky Winky still comes across as a big, fabulous fag."

Out magazine raised the issue of Tinky Winky's sexual orientation in a sidebar to its list of the "Out 100," and in April, Entertainment Weekly quoted gay columnist Michael Musto of the Village Voice that Tinky Winky was "the next step after Bert and Ernie" ("Sesame Street" puppets whose roommate relationship some consider intriguing). Musto said Tinky Winky is "out and proud" and sends "a great message to kids--not only that it's OK to be gay, but the importance of being well-accessorized."

 

[prophet]

There is an obvious categorical difference between gays claiming a television character as a gay icon, and claiming that the character itself is actually gay.

Gays have done the former, for whatever stupid reason.

Falwell did the latter, wrongly, probably to give red meat to the gullible masses who hung onto his every word.

I think the whole issue was stupid to start with but just trying to put the facts out there. Falwell didn't make the original statement and said so but then went on to give credence to it. He should have stopped with, "I didn't make the statement".

I think this is a matter of semantics at best. If you re-read the column from Coulter her claim is different from what you suggest. She states mainstream press publications claimed TW was gay, not just an "icon".  The article below from the Chicago Tribune in February of 1999 quotes gay groups claiming TW as their own:

"By many lights, Tinky Winky has never been in the closet. He's been as out as a White Sox No. 9 hitter since "Teletubbies" went on the air several years ago in England, when the British gay community quickly recognized and celebrated him as one of their own.

Tinky Winky is the largest of the four cheerful, doughy characters featured in a daily, half-hour public-TV show aimed at kids 2 and under. All four communicate in parted baby talk, but where Dipsy, Laa Laa and Po have the high, clear voices of children, Tinky Winky speaks in reedy tones reminiscent of campy gay stereotypes.

Falwell's paper further observes that Mr. Winky, identified by male pronouns (the Tubbies are covered with short, brightly-colored fur, generally unclothed and exhibit no visible sexual characteristics), carries a purse. Also, "he is purple--the gay-pride color; and his antenna (growing from the top of his head) is shaped like a triangle--the gay-pride symbol."

Itsy Bitsy Entertainment Co., the U.S. licensee for Teletubbies, didn't return calls Wednesday, but a spokesman told the Associated Press Tuesday that Falwell's claim was "outlandish . . . absurd and offensive."

Not to mention tardy. The program began airing in this country last April, and in June the Advocate, a biweekly newsmagazine focusing on gay and lesbian issues, featured a commentary approvingly headlined, "Tinky Winky, Little Star."

The character "regularly carries a smart red handbag under his arm," noted writer Barry Walters. "The show offers no explanation why Tinky Winky is so good at accessorizing. He's simply born (or hatched) that way, it seems. Apparently Tinky Winky's purse is meant to show kids that it's OK to take an interest in the accoutrements of the opposite gender--that identity is something we should claim for ourselves and not have thrust upon us. This is all well and good, but Tinky Winky still comes across as a big, fabulous fag."

Out magazine raised the issue of Tinky Winky's sexual orientation in a sidebar to its list of the "Out 100," and in April, Entertainment Weekly quoted gay columnist Michael Musto of the Village Voice that Tinky Winky was "the next step after Bert and Ernie" ("Sesame Street" puppets whose roommate relationship some consider intriguing). Musto said Tinky Winky is "out and proud" and sends "a great message to kids--not only that it's OK to be gay, but the importance of being well-accessorized."

He could've called it mindless drivel.  No one would've argued that.

What's next?  Burt and Ernie are called gay?...

Anishinaabe

 

[Ransom]

I think this is a matter of semantics at best. If you re-read the column from Coulter her claim is different from what you suggest. She states mainstream press publications claimed TW was gay, not just an "icon".  The article below from the Chicago Tribune in February of 1999 quotes gay groups claiming TW as their own:

Yes, in other words, the media is reporting on gay groups claiming the Teletubbies as icons of their own movement, so my point remains.

 

[Ransom]

hat's next?  Burt and Ernie are called gay?...

You're 20 years behind. Charlotte Pentecostal crackpot Joseph Chambers claimed Bert and Ernie were gay back in 1994, and tried to have them banned using an obscure anti-sodomy law.

No shortage of reactionary fundy clownery in the Atlantic South.

 

[Just John]

I think this is a matter of semantics at best. If you re-read the column from Coulter her claim is different from what you suggest. She states mainstream press publications claimed TW was gay, not just an "icon".  The article below from the Chicago Tribune in February of 1999 quotes gay groups claiming TW as their own:

Yes, in other words, the media is reporting on gay groups claiming the Teletubbies as icons of their own movement, so my point remains.

There are examples of both.

 

[Tarheel Baptist]

I think this is a matter of semantics at best. If you re-read the column from Coulter her claim is different from what you suggest. She states mainstream press publications claimed TW was gay, not just an "icon".  The article below from the Chicago Tribune in February of 1999 quotes gay groups claiming TW as their own:

Yes, in other words, the media is reporting on gay groups claiming the Teletubbies as icons of their own movement, so my point remains.

There are examples of both.

Of course there are...but I think Jerry must have spit in Ransom's  tea, or wine at one of Quebec's Day After New Years Day celebrations.

 

[Tarheel Baptist]

I think this is a matter of semantics at best. If you re-read the column from Coulter her claim is different from what you suggest. She states mainstream press publications claimed TW was gay, not just an "icon".  The article below from the Chicago Tribune in February of 1999 quotes gay groups claiming TW as their own:

Yes, in other words, the media is reporting on gay groups claiming the Teletubbies as icons of their own movement, so my point remains.

There are examples of both.

You seem to be one of the "gullible masses who hung onto his every word"....