15/05: Falwell and Race
Category: Religion & Public Policy
Posted by: an okie gardener
As Jerry Falwell is remembered this week, I am sure that someone will bring up his suspicions of the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Among other things, he seems to have believed some of the rumors about Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Communist Party circulating in the South.
No man completely transcends his time and place. Falwell was a white Southerner during a time of momentous changes. Changes so profound that those of us from farther north perhaps cannot fathom the dislocation felt by those who went through them in Dixie.
But, a man should be judged by the legacy he leaves from over a lifetime of work. Falwell's most lasting legacy is Liberty University. According the the official website of the school, of its 9,558 residential students in 2005-2006, 79% were white and 10% were African American. Of the distance learning students, 69% were white and 17% African American. Liberty would not appear to qualify as a racist institution.
And speaking of hate, would you rather be a conservative speaker at Columbia or Harvard, or a liberal speaker at Liberty U.? Which audience do you think would behave most respectfully toward you?
I am not a Falwell fan on all counts, but give the man his due.
Earlier posts here and here.
No man completely transcends his time and place. Falwell was a white Southerner during a time of momentous changes. Changes so profound that those of us from farther north perhaps cannot fathom the dislocation felt by those who went through them in Dixie.
But, a man should be judged by the legacy he leaves from over a lifetime of work. Falwell's most lasting legacy is Liberty University. According the the official website of the school, of its 9,558 residential students in 2005-2006, 79% were white and 10% were African American. Of the distance learning students, 69% were white and 17% African American. Liberty would not appear to qualify as a racist institution.
And speaking of hate, would you rather be a conservative speaker at Columbia or Harvard, or a liberal speaker at Liberty U.? Which audience do you think would behave most respectfully toward you?
I am not a Falwell fan on all counts, but give the man his due.
Earlier posts here and here.
photognome wrote:
This response isn't so much about Falwell, more about thughts on disease as God's Judgemetn (and even more an excuse to deepoen my familiarity with roots of Blues.)
I have not yet listened to the original - just a cover by Glenn Kaiser of JPUSA which I like
Interesting that with all the pandemi flu discussion this reference hasn't popped up.
to wit
Blind Willie Johnson
(from nobod's fault but mine recorded @ 1927-30)
see http://www.guitarseminars.c...
In the year of 19 and 18, God sent a mighty disease
It killed many a-thousand, on land and on the seas
We done told you, our God's done warned you, Jesus comin' soon
We done told you, our God's done warned you, Jesus comin' soon
Great disease was mighty and the people were sick everywhere
It was an epidemic, it floated through the air
We done told you, our God's done warned you, Jesus comin' soon
We done told you, our God's done warned you, Jesus comin' soon
The doctors they got troubled and they didn't know what to do
They gathered themselves together, they called it the Spanish'in' flu1
We done told you, our God's done warned you, Jesus comin' soon
We done told you, our God's done warned you, Jesus comin' soon
Soldiers died on the battlefield, died in the counts too
Captain said to the lieutenant, "I don't know what to do"
We done told you, our God's done warned you, Jesus comin' soon
We done told you, our God's done warned you, Jesus comin' soon
Well, God is warning the nation, He's a-warnin' them every way
To turn away from evil and seek the Lord and pray