Jerry Falwell, homophobe, is dead

Quote of the week

Universal adult suffrage on a common voters roll is one of the foundational values of our entire constitutional order. The achievement of the franchise has historically been important both for the acquisition of the rights of full and effective citizenship by all South Africans regardless of race, and for the accomplishment of an all-embracing nationhood. The universality of the franchise is important not only for nationhood and democracy. The vote of each and every citizen is a badge of dignity and of personhood. Quite literally, it says that everybody counts. In a country of great disparities of wealth and power it declares that whoever we are, whether rich or poor, exalted or disgraced, we all belong to the same democratic South African nation; that our destinies are intertwined in a single interactive polity.

Justice Albie Sachs
August and Another v Electoral Commission and Others (CCT8/99) [1999] ZACC 3

PREVIOUS QUOTES OF THE WEEK

17 May 2007

The Televangelist, Jerry Falwell, died this week. He was quite a nasty piece of work – even for a Televangelist. Some of his choice quotes:

“Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions”

“Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them”

“If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being”

“AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals”

After the September 11 attacks Falwell said, “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.”

“[Homosexuals are] brute beasts…part of a vile and satanic system [that] will be utterly annihilated, and there will be a celebration in heaven.”

The writer and journalist Christopher Hitchens, who has just published a book against religion called God is Not Great: How religion Poisons Everything, appeared on CNN after Falwell’s death and delivered the most extraordinary broadside against him and against religion. He points out that Falwell was anti-semitic and homophobic and says people like that should be in the street with a cardboard sign selling pencils. A must see for people who are sceptical of religion, so I post the clip below. Not for the religiously squeamish…

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