[quote=bulldogg;314225]Ok, so you wanna go there, sobeit... I may not have agreed with everything he did but he stood up for those things
he believed in, something most people don't do. So good on him for having the courage of his convictions even if I thought he was nuts.
And as far as his racist comments, people change. My grandpa was a bigot and got his tit in a wringer during WWII for telling a black E-7, "
you n____r." But he changed, by the time I married my first wife he welcomed her with open arms and our daughter too.
Are you without sin? Have your beliefs never changed?
Adolf Hitler believed in his convictions too, especially when he was gassing 6 million Jews, do you admire that too? Or maybe Stalin, when he sent 20 Million people to the Gulag. I'm sure Adolf and 'Uncle Joe' was absolutly convinced they were doing the right thing. Personally I would have preferred that they and Falwell been less honest to themselves, and become better human beings because of it. A monster with convictions is still a monster.
Secondly, only SOME people change. Some never do. Some people remain racists their entire life. Falwell comments about his admiration of Apartheid was only 20 years ago, not 50. And like so many on the right, he never apologized for his racism views either. He merely realized the segregationist platform was a lost cause and changed the subject. Thats hardly a change of heart. If Jim Crow ever made a return you can be sure he would be right there supporting it. A Leopard doesn't change it spots.
All Falwell did was to trade his Klansman robes for those of the pulpit, and in doing so sullied the good name of Christians everywhere. Falwell built his entire ministry on hate (blacks, Jews, Homosexuals, Leftists, Mormons, and various others who didn't agree with him). Hate is one of the 7 Deadly Sins (by contrast, homosexuality isn't). Thats the hypocrisy of all these 'moralists'. Gator is right, he'll be judged on that.
Maybe you find his 'convictions' admirable, I find it despicable.