Seriously, you can't be Christian, not HIS Chrisitan, but Christian, and not feel badly that another soul has been lost to evil and bigotry. If some of our world leaders and religious leaders have been troubled people who turned themselves around, then isn't a shame, not for us but for him, that he never turned around likewise?
"So you have wished unto the least of my brethren, so you have wished upon me," to paraphrase.
2007-05-17 04:31:45 · 10 answers · asked by starryeyed 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
In response to some folks' answers so far:
I'm not Christian. I was raised by an almost but not quite fundamentally Catholic father, who actually believed that ANYONE can go to his "Heaven" if basically a good person, regardless of religion, and a crazily depressed fatalist mother. Nowadays I wish I could believe in anything at all that's positive because I would choose Buddhism, of one sort or other.
Anyway, my father taught me Christian compassion and charity.
It seems, thinking about it now, that there is judgment in what I'm saying. Could be.
I thought I was making a solid argument for at least Christians.
One answer I gave somewhere else on YA! uses not only compasion but Kantian philosophy to encourage others to alleviate themselves of the poison of hate.
Any reasoning at all I can make to try to recude the evil that hatred is, is open game for me.
2007-05-17 07:09:30 · update #1
I think he was, in most ways, a confused man. I wish he could have turned this ways around as he offended many points of view and people but I do not celebrate his death. It is barbaric what people are saying about him. He was a human being with a family and a living beating heart - the same as you or I. I think that his "over the top" views and offensive views has lead to some people's "death wish" for him. It's really sad that human life is taken so lightly no matter who we are.
2007-05-17 04:50:35 · answer #1 · answered by Kaliko 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No and no. Compassion is NOT "Christian." Christianity has never had a monopoly on compassion and has rarely practiced it. Falwell is Exhibit A; but see all of history.
And Falwell's death, while perhaps not a cause to "celebrate," is certainly nothing to cry over. The world is better off without some people. Would you have mourned Hitler? Bad analogy? But the point is that death in and of itself doesn't make somebody respectable, and doesn't automatically atone for the despicable life he lived.
Now you're absolutely right that there are Christians and Christians, and that most people who identify as Christian are not the vicious brand championed by Falwell. You have every right to resent his appropriation of the Jesus brand name to rally bigots around a message of hatred and intolerance. But you should also be able to understand why many people have come to resent Christianity because of him and people like him. All the more reason, as a Christian, to omit to regret his death, if not to celebrate it!
By the way, am I the only one who notices the irony of this statement: "You are judging him and that is condemned in God's word, so I question the validity of you saying that you are a Christian." Apparently "questioning the validity" of somebody's judgment isn't considered a judgment in itself. I personally have less of a problem with judgment than with hypocrisy.
2007-05-17 11:35:30 · answer #2 · answered by jonjon418 6 · 3⤊ 2⤋
You are judging him and that is condemned in God's word, so I question the validity of you saying that you are a Christian.
Compassion is Christian, and Falwell's death is not a reason to celebrate. God will judge him, as well as you and I. So why do you judge him?
2007-05-17 11:43:30 · answer #3 · answered by nowyouknow 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Shouldn't all death be celebrated? I mean there are plenty of reasons:
Over population, someone getting to see G-d, someone else not harming the enviroment, and so on.
'Praise for death which makes our life real'
2007-05-17 11:36:16 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Everyone's death is a cause to celebrate--because they are returning to the SOURCE.
No soul is ever permanently "lost".
2007-05-17 11:43:20 · answer #5 · answered by Todd W 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am not Christian and disagreed with almost everything Falwell ever said and yet I feel sad that he died. That is simple human decency.
2007-05-17 11:35:45 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
Compassion is HUMAN. I have not celebrated his death.
2007-05-17 11:35:54 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
heck yea
now there's 2 free chairs
2007-05-17 11:34:22 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I didn't celebrate it.
But, I won't really miss him, either.
2007-05-17 11:41:38 · answer #9 · answered by kiwi 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I agree.
2007-05-17 11:34:50 · answer #10 · answered by Laura H 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋