Wow..Sun-Times religion columnist: calls Falwell Tony Soprano

[wndycty]

Sigh of relief over Falwell death
IN MEMORIAM | Reverend brought others to God, but he also was a bully

May 18, 2007
BY CATHLEEN FALSANI Religion Writer
-snip-
In fact, my very first thought upon hearing of the Rev. Falwell's passing was: Good.

And I didn't mean "good" in a oh-good-he's-gone-home-to-be-with-the-Lord kind of way. I meant "good" as in "Ding-dong, the witch is dead."


Not unlike Tony Soprano
But that thought -- good riddance, I suppose -- was not meant to be cruel or malicious. After all, the faith that the Rev. Falwell and I share teaches us that he was, at that moment, in a far better place, with Jesus in heaven, and not roasting on a spit in Hell's kitchen.
By shrugging off his mortal coil, the Rev. Falwell had ceased to suffer the pain of humanity.

Still, I'm not particularly proud of my knee-jerk reaction. But there it is.

My first thought was not sympathy for his grieving family and friends, or for the students at Liberty University who surely were shocked by the sudden passing of the school's founder in his office on campus. I didn't think of the Rev. Falwell's best intentions, nor about what good he might have contributed to the world during his nearly 74 years on this Earth. That came much later.

My initial reaction to the Rev. Falwell's death was, and remains, relief -- not unlike the ease I felt when a particularly nasty bully who used to spit at me on the playground and threaten to beat me up after school moved to another town.

The Rev. Falwell was a spiritual bully. He was the Tony Soprano to Pat Robertson's Paulie Walnuts.
-snip-
http://www.suntimes.com/news/falsani/391807,CST-NWS-fals18.article

[Kagemusha]

1. That honesty might've taken great bravery to write.

I hope nothing bad happens to the writer, too.

[A Brand New World]

2. That is exactly what I said when I heard of Falwell's demise.

Ding-Dong the witch is dead!

[conscious evolution]

14. Same here

DING DONG!
The WITCH IS DEAD!!!!!!

[momster]

3. Drop her a note

It took courage to write a critical response, rather than slavishly praising him as so many 'Christians' have done.

[yardwork]

4. LOL! Are the etiquette police heading over to chide the columnist?

Snicker.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

5. "He was the Tony Soprano to Pat Robertson's Paulie Walnuts."

:rofl:

[sutz12]

6. That was better than he deserved. nt

[Venus Dog]

7. Amen!

Not many will say anything bad about him now, but just wait until some time passes and then the REAL stories will come out. I'm hoping especially for the Falwell-Sun Myung Moon connections and how Moon pumped money into the conservative christian movement and saved Falwell and Robertson from total annihilation. The MSM won't touch Moon.

[wndycty]

8. Kick

:kick:

[monmouth]

9. I think she's having a bad day. A note to her might be nice....

thanks for your kind note, sheila. greatly appreciated, especially today.
grace,

Cathleen

Cathleen Falsani
Religion Columnist
Chicago Sun-Times
[e-mail]

Love wins.

[wndycty]

11. I like your sig

:kick:

[monmouth]

10. I think she's having a bad day. A note to her might be nice....

I received this from her a short while ago:

thanks for your kind note, sheila. greatly appreciated, especially today.
grace,

Cathleen

Cathleen Falsani
Religion Columnist
Chicago Sun-Times
[e-mail]

Love wins.

[MadBadger]

12. An unforgivable amount of disrespect this writer shows

To Tony Soprano.

[Cha]

13. Everything scuzzy in this country gets

a metaphorical reference to the sopranos!

Here's a gem of a story I found on buzzflash by Jerry Sloan(the only one who's "proven falwell to be a liar in court by 4 judges").

"Although it happened over 20 years ago almost everywhere I go people still ask me to tell them about my confrontation and lawsuit with my former Baptist Bible College schoolmate, Jerry Falwell.


Falwell, in the height of his Moral Majority days, was in San Francisco the week prior to the 1984 Democratic National Convention, to harass the Democrats and the fairies of San Francisco.

On Friday, July 13, he flew up to Sacramento to appear on a local live morning show, "Look Who's Talking." The producer, knew I had gone to Baptist Bible College with Falwell invited me to be in the audience and gave me a bunch of tickets for my friends.

I also took my late mother, Gloria, whom Falwell knew well as he and I drove every weekend of the `55`56 school year from Springfield, MO, to Kansas City where we worked in local Baptist Bible Fellowship churches on the weekends.
Falwell spent many Sunday dinners with his feet under our table and really loved my mother's chocolate meringue pie. She often baked two, one for dinner and one for us to take back to school. Since we usually drove back late at night the pie often had a hard time making it to Springfield. It certainly didn't last long after we got back to the dorm."

Much more~..
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2007/5/16/213627/818