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"This surely is a religious war -- but not of Islam versus Christianity and Judaism. Rather, it is a war of fundamentalism against faiths of all kinds that are at peace with freedom and modernity. This war even has far gentler echoes in America's own religious conflicts -- between newer, more virulent strands of Christian fundamentalism and mainstream Protestantism and Catholicism. These conflicts have ancient roots, but they seem to be gaining new force as modernity spreads and deepens. They are our new wars of religion -- and their victims are in all likelihood going to mount with each passing year." --Andrew Sullivan, 10/9/01
"Reverend Falwell has since clarified his position and sent out an apology, by the way, and felt a little trapped by the nature of the context of the question so soon after beginning his appearance on the program with Pat Robertson. He also called the EIB Network after Monday's program to discuss this implication that American culture has been debased by the combined effects of feminism, abortion and the ACLU types, and that these groups have wreaked havoc on our society.
"I would agree that some extreme groups and causes have caused damage to our way of life, but we live in a free society in America! We live in a free country. These people have given their political opponents an ample opportunity to be stopped. In fact, a lot of people have done a lot of work trying to stop the effects of the feminization of the American male and of the rampant number of abortions that have taken place in this country.
"A number of people have done everything they could to stop the things they oppose, and to change the hearts of their fellow countrymen without pointing fingers, but it's the opinion of many that it has been a failed effort. So we have, in essence, what is apparently a passive population to some people, a population which has sat by for 40 years and allowed way too many institutions to be "taken over." But to blame God for it is where I had to draw the line.
"In order for me to believe that God was sending America a message, I would need to be shown that the people who died Tuesday were all members of the NOW gang, or abortionists, civil libertarians, et cetera. See, because of the things I've said on this program, I cannot sit here and deny various things, nor do I want to try. Yes, I firmly believe that our culture has been under assault, and I think it's been happening in America's classrooms in both secondary and higher education. I do believe that there have been many attempts to devalue the sanctity of life, for example. I don't think anybody who has been a regular listener of mine will have any substantive argument with that over the course of the 13-plus years that I have been doing this...."Rush Limbaugh, 9/18/01
"For the most part this terrible event has brought out the best in Americans. Citizens of all walks of life have come closer together. But there are some, unfortunately, in which this disaster has brought out the worst. Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and the Reverend Jerry Falwell are two such individuals.
"Last week Falwell appeared as a guest on Robertson's daily 700 Club program. He said that in addition to the terrorists who launched the attacks, others were also responsible. He elaborated by suggesting that it was the feminists, gays, abortionists and the ACLU who had angered God to the point that God allowed this to happen to the United States of America. Robertson, in turn, apparently agreed with him. [see next story]
"Suggestions of this kind are one of the reasons why all conservatives get tarred and feathered with this extremist, bigoted, racist, sexist, homophobic label or image that isn't true. The words of Robertson and Falwell are not the words of all conservatives - they are the words of Robertson and Falwell.
"A White House spokesman says the president believes that terrorists are responsible for these acts and does not share the views of Falwell and Robertson, calling their remarks inappropriate. Falwell released a statement on Sunday saying his words were taken out of context, and Pat Robertson came to his defense releasing a statement of his own. You can hear me read them in the links below.
"All I can say is I was profoundly embarrassed and disappointed by their comments. They can try to take them back all they want, but the bottom line is that their words are indefensible."
By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 14, 2001; Page C03
Television evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, two of the most prominent voices of the religious right, said liberal civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals and abortion rights supporters bear partial responsibility for Tuesday's terrorist attacks because their actions have turned God's anger against America.
"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," said Falwell, appearing yesterday on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club," hosted by Robertson.
"Jerry, that's my feeling," Robertson responded. "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."
Falwell said the American Civil Liberties Union has "got to take a lot of blame for this," again winning Robertson's agreement: "Well, yes."
Then Falwell broadened his blast to include the federal courts and others who he said were "throwing God out of the public square." He added: "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.' "
People for the American Way transcribed the broadcast and denounced the comments as running directly counter to President Bush's call for national unity. Ralph G. Neas, the liberal group's president, called the remarks "absolutely inappropriate and irresponsible."
Robertson and others on the religious right gave critical backing to Bush last year when he was battling for the GOP presidential nomination. A White House official called the remarks "inappropriate" and added, "The president does not share those views."
Falwell was unrepentant, saying in an interview that he was "making a theological statement, not a legal statement."
"I put all the blame legally and morally on the actions of the terrorist," he said. But he said America's "secular and anti-Christian environment left us open to our Lord's [decision] not to protect. When a nation deserts God and expels God from the culture . . . the result is not good."
Robertson was not available for comment, a spokeswoman said. But she released a statement echoing the remarks he made on his show. An ACLU spokeswoman said the group "will not dignify the Falwell-Robertson remarks with a comment."
by William Rivers Pitt
9/14/01
"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.
In a country full of people eager for vengeance and with an ample supply of commentators, Ann Coulter can safely take the prize for the most hateful reaction to appear in print. Her column, which appeared on the right-wing National Review Online, ostensibly is a tribute to her friend Barbara Olson -- another frequent on-air commentator and writer who died in one of the hijacked airplanes on Tuesday -- but quickly devolves into something more akin to a call for a Crusade (or is that jihad?). “We know who the homicidal maniacs are,” she wrote referring to the Muslim states suspected of harboring those responsible for the attacks. “They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” And as inflammatory and outrageous as these sentiments certainly are, the National Review's editor said he was more or less OK with what she had to say. “The column was obviously written with some degree of anger, rage, and grief and she probably went a little far on certain things but the essential point I think is accurate that the most drastic possible measures are called for,” says Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review. “What Ann is expressing is something a lot of Americans feel in such situations which is ... once the country is aroused we’re in for the full pound.” Such extreme sentiments, like Coulter’s, are hardly in short supply. Thursday's New York Post offered this assessment: "This is war. It needs to be prosecuted as such. The men behind the men who rained havoc on New York and Washington need to be called to account. The heavens need to fall on their heads. They need to bleed. Not next month. Not next week. Now. Who are they? Who cares? Cast a wide enough net, and you’ll catch the fish that need catching." --Joseph Gomes, 9/13/01
Jerry,
No term of respect here, not after you and Pat committed your unconsciable diatribe. [news story about it follows] I am a licensed Southern Baptist minister who spent three years at SOuthwestern Baptist theological seminary--hardly a hotbed of liberalsim. I believe in the Virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the literal resurrection, the word of God, and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
I don't, however, believe you or people like you, who spew hate in order to sell tapes. Your crony Pat Robertson, the premarital sex-having, had-to-marry his pregnant girlfriend hypocrite should keep his ridiculous opinions to himself, too. Shame on you. Your hatred, and your misplaced zeal, and refusal to obey scripture, pray for leaders, and support them, may in fact mean you are the one to blame. God will, I sincerely hope, punish you for your hatred. If you believe so much that we in this nation are wrong, then follow the scripture you hypocritize about, and go into your prayer closet, in private, and pray God's blessings on our nation. Again, shame on you, you bigot.
Dr. Bill Powers, Houston, Texas, 9/15/01
During this troubled time we join together in support of our national leaders,
Unless, of course, one is Gay or Lesbian.
Oh, we can support our beloved country and our "leaders,"
But, says Colin Powell, one cannot serve one's country,
No matter how much love and devotion for this land ...
You can support us, I guess he means,
But not serve if you're, you know, "that way."
No matter the college degrees,
No matter the life-long teaching, nursing, or other noble records,
No matter the "Q" or "Top Secret" clearances,
No matter this country's trials ...
The Gay/Lesbian ones - may not serve,
May not give their energies,
May not, if asked, offer their lives (as so many have) with heartfelt love of country ...
Not if one is Gay or Lesbian; you understand, I'm sure.
Frank
BS Boston College '59
MA Northeastern Univ. '62
MEd State College at Boston '63
Past "Top Secret" clearance (NSA Reserve)
Past "Q" clearance (LANL)
Oh yes, and, you know, GAY.
- Ralph G. Neas
President of People For the American Way
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