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Compiled By Jack Nichols
Fools Rush In
Jerry Falwell: And I agree totally with you that the Lord has protected us
so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time
that we've been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results. And I
fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, said yesterday, that
this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available to these
monsters - the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats - what we saw on
Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact - if, in
fact - God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America
to give us probably what we deserve.
Pat Robretson: Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the
antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to
the major population.
Jerry Falwell: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.
Pat Robretson: Well, yes.
Jerry Falwell: 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."
Pat Robretson: 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.
Jerry Falwell: Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU, and all the
Christ-haters, People For the American Way, NOW, etc. were totally
disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of
Congress as they went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer
and sang "God Bless America" and said "let the ACLU be hanged"? In other
words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and
spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time - calling
upon God.
Pat Robretson: Amen
700 Club Transcript --Thursday, September 13, 2001
Falwell's Odd God
If I am offended by a gay couple, I don't go out in my car and run
over a woman walking her child across the street. I can't believe this
would be God's response either.
Mike Thomas-"Faith can heal, but it can also spawn hatred"-Orlando Sentinel,
September 16
Falwell the Opportunist
It's disheartening and distressing to see such opportunism and misguided comments from a supposed spiritual leader. Just what god is Jerry Falwell worshipping?
Editorial-Des Moines Register, September 15
Yesterday's America is Gone
That fat, daydreaming America is gone now, way gone - as spent as the tax-rebate checks, as forgotten as the 2000 campaign's debate over prescription drug plans, as bankrupt as our dot-com fantasies of instant millions, as vaporized as the faith that high tech surveillance and weaponry would keep us safe.
Frank Rich-"The Day Before Tuesday"-New York Times, September 15
BElieve or BE Beheaded
The genius of the Founders was to appreciate that the state should stay far away from religion - not to suppress faith but to let its diverse forms flourish…This radical breakthrough of religious tolerance as official government policy came after three centuries of religious war. In 1648, the Treaty of Westphalia had produced an uneasy truce by giving the sovereign the right to determine the official religion of each country in Europe. If you happened to be a Catholic in a Protestant country, or vice versa, you converted or you got out. If you were a Jew, you wandered the earth in search of a benign protector. It was Jonathan Swift who declared that ''we have just religion enough to make us hate, but not enough to make us love each other.''
Robert Kuttner- "Bush is Playing with Religious
Fire"--Prospect http://prospect.org/webfeatures/2001/09/kuttner-r-09-10.html
The Missile Shield Debate
President Bush says we are in the first war of the 21st century. Until this point, he has inflexibly pushed his tax cut, the energy plan and missile defense, even when it was clear that they did not suit the times…We will soon see whether this shattering crisis will make him more supple, complex and clever. Can he, Cheney, Rummy and Condi move past the cold war attitude and Star Wars obsession that has alienated the countries we will need to help us fight an enemy too shadowy to be stopped by a shield?
Maureen Dowd-"The Modernity of Evil"-New York Times, September 16
Talibanizing America
Republican lawmakers yesterday vowed to pass a law reversing an Internal Revenue Service ban on tax-exempt churches' involvement in election politics…
Larry Witham-"GOP Targets law muzzling churches at election time"- Washington Times, September 12
Is Retaliation a Trap?
It was a crime against humanity. We cannot understand America's need to retaliate unless we accept this bleak, awesome fact. But this crime was perpetrated - it becomes ever clearer - to provoke the United States into just the blind, arrogant punch that the US military is preparing...Mr. bin Laden - every day his culpability becomes more apparent - has described to me how he wishes to overthrow the pro-American regime of the Middle East, starting with Saudi Arabia and moving on to Egypt, Jordan and the other Gulf states. In an Arab world sunk in corruption and dictatorships - most of them supported by the West - the only act that might bring Muslims to strike at their own leaders would be a brutal, indiscriminate assault by the United States.
Robert Fisk-"Bush is Walking into a Trap"-The Independent, September 16, UK
A Rose by Any Other Name
Confront an irresponsible HIV-positive guy about his bad behavior, and he whines about his depression and his low self-esteem and his loneliness and his safe-sex fatigue. Well, guess what, guys? Your sob story does not give you the right to infect other guys with HIV. And if you do, your sob story isn't going to stop me from pointing out what an asshole you are. A depressed, lonely asshole with low self-esteem and safe-sex fatigue is still just an asshole…And can we talk about safe-sex fatigue for a second? That pathetic excuse is really getting on my nerves. Yes, gay men are going to have to worry about HIV for the rest of their lives. Yes, gay men are going to have to continue using condoms with their casual-sex partners forever and ever and ever. Boo hoo hoo. Straight people have had to worry about pregnancy since the dawn of time, and you don't hear straight people whining about "birth-control fatigue."
Letters (unsigned) -"Savage Love"-The Onion-
www.theonion.com
Tell the Arabs What to Do with their Oil
Stop wasting oil we are going to desperately
need in the future, possibly to fight a war...
Make a national committment to mandatory
conservation. Start building truly energy efficient
houses, recreate the railroad system, upgrade
the national trucking system, rebuild the U.S. maritime
shipping industry and find a way to safely store
nuclear waste...Only then can we tell the Arabs
and Big Oil what they can do with their product.
Fred Robitschek--"U.S. Must Stay Patient, Focused to Win This War"--
Florida Today, September 16
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