Liberty Student: Why I Didn’t Cheer for Jerry Falwell Jr

[Peter_J]

In context, with the “before they walked in” part of what he said (in other words, before those radicalized Muslims walked into a room full of innocent defenseless victims), well, yes, I do think it was pretty clear at the time that he wasn’t generalizing about all Muslims.

Let’s hope.

Btw a question for anyone: is a video or transcript of the full speech available? (Not that I want to obsess over this. )

 

[Peter_J]

P.S. as long as I’m asking questions, how many posters here believe that Falwell’s speech* doesn’t* play into the hands of Clinton, Obama, Lynch, etc.?

 

[badnewsbarrett]

P.S. as long as I’m asking questions, how many posters here believe that Falwell’s speech* doesn’t* play into the hands of Clinton, Obama, Lynch, etc.?

I’d agree that it does play into the hands of anyone who generally opposes Falwell and Liberty as a matter of general principle, and I actually do think he did put a vague impetus out there that exacerbates generally bad feelings toward Muslims in general. (Although, if I may, not nearly as much as the acts of terror in and of themselves. Let’s keep this in perspective).

With that being said, yes it plays into the hands of those who don’t very much like him, but here I would make a distinction between poor judgment and malicious intent. I doubt that he had truly malicious intent, but for a variety of reasons it is an exercise in poor judgment. And for that he did earn himself a bit of criticism.

 

[abucs]

I think that we are way too stupid ( i can’t think of a better word) to be telling ourselves that ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, etc etc etc has nothing to do with Islam. It seems to be a liberal brainwashing that forces practitioners to impose ‘equality’ on different aspects of life. In this case an equality of religion.

That being said, we have to be careful that we don’t go the other way and think of all of Islam as being involved in this horror. I think, even in the context provided, the speaker crossed the line in this particular aspect of his speech.

 

[Peter_J]

I think that we are way too stupid ( i can’t think of a better word) to be telling ourselves that ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, etc etc etc has nothing to do with Islam. It seems to be a liberal brainwashing that forces practitioners to impose ‘equality’ on different aspects of life. In this case an equality of religion.

That being said, we have to be careful that we don’t go the other way and think of all of Islam as being involved in this horror. I think, even in the context provided, the speaker crossed the line in this particular aspect of his speech.

Well said.

 

[SAVINGRACE]

What else could “those Muslims” mean?

When I first saw it, I knew he was prompted to do so by the still-ongoing wall-to-wall coverage of San Bernardino. It was within 48 hours of us knowing enough to call it an act of terror with any degree of confidence, and further investigation was still ongoing. Of course it was about that, I thought this was blatantly obvious even without further context.

Even more specifically, he was talking about any Islamic extremist who might go to LU and kill Christians for reasons that are religious and ideological in nature, most likely a young person born in the US and radicalized by someone they probably haven’t met in person. This is the new threat that we now face, and to his credit, Liberty University is likely to be pretty high on the list of potential targets.

Still working to his credit for the moment- it’s a dry campus and there are various restrictions as to who can have a gun on campus, no one under the age of 21 for example, and there are some hoops to jump through in order to get permission from the school. You can’t just get your permit and then show up packing out of the blue. There are also certain parts of campus where you can’t bring your weapon, general rule of thumb is that if it’s a secured building where you need a card or a key to get in, you don’t bring your gun with you. Less secure parts that qualify as being very soft, they’re more likely to be in play. In other words, it’s not a complete free-for-all and some of the drawbacks that exist at party schools are not really a problem there.

Not so much to his credit though…this is something that can be worked around, and it would only stop a shooter who’s a non-sniper. Improvised explosives are still very much in play if anyone is so inclined. And in general, even when good guys with guns are present, it requires years of ongoing training in order for the good guy to be of any use in a surprise-be-a-hero situation. Too many people say the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, but that’s only true in 3% of the cases where a bad guy gets stopped. For the most part, it’s unarmed people who are able to put a stop to it, speaking for the moment exclusively about incidents that are resolved before the authorities are able to step in. And that’s not because very few people have guns- it’s because so few people with guns and concealed carry permits possess the training and experience to be of any use even when they have all the physical tools to be successful. And I guess it’s partly because premeditated killers have a well established habit of choosing targets where they know there will be no other guns and they avoid those risks as much as they possibly can.

Overall, it’s not likely to be a very effective strategy, although it probably will be enough to limit the terrorist playbook in terms of ways they’re most likely to attack if they ever do. I thought the context was fairly clear, he was talking about a potential act of terror on the campus of LU and that is not an entirely unreasonable thing for him to be worried about. It’s not the most effective solution, but that wasn’t what most people had a problem with.

I guess this is what I’m really saying. Although I’m certain that some mosques are within easy driving distance of LU, I do believe there is a zero percent probability that any LU students in the audience are going to be radicalized to the point where they will drive out to a mosque and kill innocent people. That is not going to happen.

I repeat. Not. Going. To Happen.

But there are literally thousands of imams in the world today who talk about various non-Muslims in ways that can and do incite religiously motivated acts of terror. That is what we should be worried about, and it is those very people that Falwell is trying to get his campus ready for, albeit not in the most effective way.

To answer your question, that is exactly what else “those Muslims” could possibly mean.

According to who? You? English is his first language, I think we all know what he meant especially when calling for violence. It was hate speech.

 

[SAVINGRACE]

I think that we are way too stupid ( i can’t think of a better word) to be telling ourselves that ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, etc etc etc has nothing to do with Islam. It seems to be a liberal brainwashing that forces practitioners to impose ‘equality’ on different aspects of life. In this case an equality of religion.

That being said, we have to be careful that we don’t go the other way and think of all of Islam as being involved in this horror. I think, even in the context provided, the speaker crossed the line in this particular aspect of his speech.

Millions of people make uninformed and uneducated generalisations about Catholics and christians in general. According to an acquaintance, all Christians are like the KKK and Westboro Baptist, ignorant, uneducated and full of hate. Doesn’t matter how many times you engage them and attempt to explain the differences and what “true” christianity is about, he will continue to justify what he wants so desperately to believe.

I am reminded of him when I read some of the posts condemning ALL muslims.

 

[abucs]

Millions of people make uninformed and uneducated generalisations about Catholics and christians in general. According to an acquaintance, all Christians are like the KKK and Westboro Baptist, ignorant, uneducated and full of hate. Doesn’t matter how many times you engage them and attempt to explain the differences and what “true” christianity is about, he will continue to justify what he wants so desperately to believe.

I am reminded of him when I read some of the posts condemning ALL muslims.

Hello SAVINGRACE. I have also come across people that hold onto anti Christian or anti Catholic thoughts even in the face of reasoned discussion. I just accept that some people need a ‘bogey man’ to blame everything on.

A good indicator of someone like this, is to ask if there is anything in Christianity/Catholicism/ etc etc that they like or admire and then watch whether their emotional rejection response overwhelms any considered fraternal response.

God bless.