Wow! Powerful thread. Madame Zora, I bow to you as my newfound goddess. You speak truthfully from you heart and from a more worldly view. I now must begin searching back for more of your posts.
For those who are striving to stick to the tenets of their beliefs, bravo. Please don't lose sight of the importance of thinking for yourself. Christianity is rife with problems. I tire of the rhetoric that this country was founded on Judao-Christian beliefs. That is 100% bullshit. Many of the original European conquerors (yes we stole this land from its original owners) that fled Europe did so to flee religious persecution. Amazing how we have managed as a country to make a complete 180 on that front. For the record, many of the founding fathers of this country, where not necessarily Christian. If you look at the signers of the Declaration of Independence, a good many were Diasts. A religion that believed in both a higher power and science.
For those of you who take the Bible to be literal truth, I challenge you to take a long, hard look at this idea. The Bible that most "Christian" churches in this country use is either the King James Bible or a version thereof. This is a translation of a Bible that was written in Greek, which was a translation of the original writtings in Aramaic. If you honestly believe for one moment that there were no errors in the multiple translations and no politics involved in how the translation was created, you are seriously deluding yourself. I honestly believe that the Bible is a series of parables and stories to teach a message, not a literal record of every major moment in Christian religious history. To use the Bible as a literal tool and weapon of choice to promote hate and biggotry is nothing short of a colossal tragedy. People readily accept that the words in the Bible are the direct words of God, Christ, and his disciples. I challenge you to honestly tell me that if someone walked in off the street and proclaimed God had spoken to them directly to provide a new gospel for the Bible, that you would think them anything more than crazy - yet you blindly accept what is written in the Bible.
I am not an atheist. I do believe in a higher power. I honestly question my belief that Christ was the son of God at times. I was rased in the Roman Catholic church ( the oldest of all Christian churches). All this said, I reached a point in my life where I recognized the true purpose of any organized religion (Christian or otherwise - and no, Buddism is not a religion, it is a philosophy) was nothing more than a means to control the masses.
The church is the construct of political powers and nothing else. I challenge you to read up on the Gospel of Thomas, which the Vatican and other Christian churches have deemed to be blasphemy. Funny, since the Gospel of Thomas was found with (or near - can't remember) the Dead Sea scrolls and is written in Aramaic, the language of Christ. Why is it banned, because one of its most famous lines is a quote from Christ. "My Church is not built of brick or stone. Lift a rock and you will find me." To allow this to be belived by modern Christians would be to destroy the power of the church.
Free yourselves of the power constructs of groups of a few powerful people and start to think for yourself. If you believe that God exists, whether or not you believe Christ was the son of God or simply another prophet, all you need to commune with God is a quiet space and your belief. You do not need an interpretor to tell you what you should believe.
Now back on topic. Individuals like Falwell are not representitives of God, Christ or anyone but themselves. To warp the beliefs of the masses to promote hate is unacceptable. Is it wrong for us to hate him and celebrate his death, no. There was nothing in his life that earns him respect in death. Having hate for another is a natural human emotion. The only way to heal from damage done to you by another is to recognize the hate, speak your mind, and get rid of the pent-up feelings you have. It is only through this process that the individual can begin to heal.