Falwell Embarrasses Every Bigot 

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

[Falwell has embarrassed his fellow bigots and fundy
fellow travelers by saying out loud and on the air
things they too believe but have sense enough to hide.]


source - walterlx@earthlink.net

Los Angeles Times - 20 Sept 2001

FALWELL IS CONDEMNED FOR HIS COMMENTS FOLLOWING ATTACKS

Protest: Despite his apology, the evangelist is criticized by
some of those who he said were partly to blame for the
terrorist acts.

by Bob Pool

The reverend has retreated--but reverberations still rumble in
West Hollywood over an assertion that gays and civil liberties
groups are partly to blame for last week's terrorists attacks.

Television evangelist Jerry Falwell suggested last Thursday
that homosexuals, feminists, abortion-rights groups and others
bear partial responsibility because their actions have turned
God's anger against the United States.

This week he apologized for singling out certain groups and
for making divisive comments. But that's not good enough,
representatives of a dozen groups complained Wednesday in the
heavily gay community's City Hall.

"I'm a forgiving person, but I don't forget," said Gwenn
Baldwin, director of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. "We shiver
when we hear words like his."

Falwell said on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" show on the
Christian Broadcasting Network that God's anger over how
secularized America has become allowed the attacks.

"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,' " Falwell said.

He backed down after the comments caused a public uproar and
prompted a White House spokesman to stress that "The president
does not share those views."

"This was insensitive, uncalled for at the time and
unnecessary as part of the commentary on this destruction,"
Falwell said in a statement issued Monday. "I apologize that...
I singled out for blame certain groups of Americans."

But the damage has already been done, Katherine Spillar,
executive director of the Feminist Majority organization, told
reporters. "We fear what he has said emboldens religious
extremists in the United States," she said. "It wasn't much of
an apology. As he offered it, he reiterated what he meant to
say."

Nancy Sasaki, president of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles,
accused Falwell of "inciting violence and fomenting hatred."

The Rev. Dan Smith of the West Hollywood Presbyterian Church
dismissed Falwell's remarks as "an outrageous affront to
religion."

"The last thing we need is anybody fanning the flames of
hatred in a time of national crisis," agreed Marshall Wong, a
staff member of the Los Angeles County Human Relations
Commission.

Added Martha Matthews of the American Civil Liberties Union:
"Just by saying that, Jerry Falwell has firmly established
himself in the lunatic fringe of America."

West Hollywood City Councilman Steve Martin said he will
introduce a resolution condemning Falwell at Monday's council
meeting.

The proposed resolution notes that "an openly gay man," Mark
Bingham, was one of the passengers aboard United Airlines
Flight 93 who apparently thwarted its hijackers' plan to crash
the plane into a target in Washington.

 
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nytrc-09.23.01-06:25:58-15358