Falwell’s Brain Teaser
I love this. Check out Jerry Falwell completely contradict himself :
MATTHEWS : How did they get to be gay, though?FALWELL : Well, we probably differ there.
MATTHEWS : I’m asking.
FALWELL : But I think all behavior is chosen.
MATTHEWS : I’m open. I don’t know.
FALWELL : I think that…
MATTHEWS : Did you choose to be heterosexual?
FALWELL : I did.
MATTHEWS : You chose it? You thought about it and you came up with that solution? That lifestyle? (CROSSTALK)
FALWELL : Put it this way. I was taught as a child that’s the right way to…
MATTHEWS : But did you feel an attraction toward women?
FALWELL : Oh, of course.
MATTHEWS : When people are born and they find themselves having an attraction to somebody from the same sex, do you think that’s a choice?
FALWELL : I think you can experiment with any kind of perversity and develop an appetite for it, just like you can food.
MATTHEWS : You don’t think it’s nature? You think it’s nurture.
FALWELL : I don’t think any — I don’t think anybody is born a bank robber or born a hostile left-winger or a hostile right-winger or gay or a promiscuous heterosexual. I think there comes a time in childhood where environment may be a part of it, whatever, teaching, instruction, one chooses, I will do this or that. And that’s why good, godly parenting… (CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS : How old were you when you chose to be heterosexual?
FALWELL : Oh, I don’t remember that.
MATTHEWS : Well, you must, because you say it’s a big decision.
FALWELL : Well, I started dating when I was about 13.
MATTHEWS : And you had to decide between boys and girls. And you chose girls.
FALWELL : I never had to decide. I never thought about it. (CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS : I think it’s a ridiculous proposition that you actually sit down and decide. Let me see, boy or girl this week. Anyway…
FALWELL : I don’t think anybody does that.
It all makes sense really. Homosexuality is a choice in which nobody actually chooses anything. It’s a lifestyle that’s chosen, but not decided…or something like that. For someone who’s quick to pat himself on the back from moral certitude, his reasoning is one hell of a puzzle, huh? Perhaps he’s just plying Matthews with a philosphical riddle. Sorta like “How can someone be a man of God, but act like the Devil at the same time?”
Of course, the real story here is that Falwell, like so many of his peers, said something completely retarded and ended up changing his story rather than (a) confessing that he’s fantasized about screwing dudes or (b) completely admitting he’s full of shit. Apparently, flip-flopping is only an issue if Democrats do it. Is it too much to ask that one of the country’s most influental religious leaders shows a little bit of moral and intellectual consistency??
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I’m happy to see Jerry is getting out and mixing a little more. He’s such a, you know, shut-in.
And I’m sure, even if he’s paid Scale according to SAG or AFTRA (and is he required to join?), he can use the money to help buy a third chin.
Comment by Tom S — December 3, 2004 @ 8:10 pm
Isn’t pairing “religious leaders” and “intellectual consistency” an oxymoronic proposition?
Comment by steve duncan — December 5, 2004 @ 8:36 pm
Falwell is looking a lot like Jabba the Hutt these days. I guess he hasn’t heard that gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins.
Comment by Becky — December 6, 2004 @ 2:37 pm
Fundies are vehemently opposed to any suggestion that sexual orientation is not a choice (cuz, hey, everyone would happily choose to be ostracised, hated, and stripped of fundamental human rights by a pack of fundie fuckheads). There are several reasons for this:
1) If you didn’t choose it, it isn’t a sin. It’s like blaming someone for being born with brown hair. They must insist that it is a choice so they can keep saying gays are bad people who have made an evil, ungodly choice.
2) If you chose it, you can change your mind. This means you can be “cured”, which in turn means that you can be lectured, abused, and bullied at will by any Christian who feels like it. After all, you’re damning yourself to hell and they’re just trying to save you.
3) If you can choose to be gay, you can be taught to be gay. I suspect this is the big one. If a gay teacher, gay priest, or gay scoutmaster teaches your kids, they can push their homosexual agenda and recruit more gays. If homosexuality were not a choice, no amount of homosexual brainwashing could create a brand new gay teen.
Let’s be honest – Falwell knows homosexuality is natural, either an in-born neurological trait or a nurtured behaviour unconsciously programmed into the psyche. He knows people don’t just choose to be gay, just as he knows gays can’t choose to be straight. However, he can’t say it, because admitting that point will negate a huge arsenal of homophobic propaganda.
He is (and this will come as a complete surprise) a fucking hypocrite.
Comment by James J. Dominguez — December 6, 2004 @ 7:07 pm