Our friend Tony (who has decided, btw, to start a second blog where he writes about the intersection between faith and social and political issues) caught this gem of a story about the Falwell family/company building a shrine to the late preacher/GOP activist. As Tony notes, whatever on the memorial. Certainly, the family and college can do that. But this one includes an "eternal flame," because as his son and current carrier of the family jackass label put it, the flame is "a fitting tribute to his legacy and his vision and his passion to reach soul’s [sic] for Christ."
Nothing says care for other people's souls like an eternal flame. Or the legacy of a person who blamed people like me for 9-11. I guess one nice irony--an eternal flame will nicely represent someone who reveled in his large (and I do mean large) carbon footprint and laughed at global warming.
Sigh.
4 comments:
I have seen "eternal flames" done at war memorials and they were done well. There, they memorialized and celebrated the sacrifices of many and not just one man.
What troubles me more so than the "flame" is the anticipation that this will be some kind of Christian mecca.
"40,000 people a year!!!"
tony, that is a great point. SOF and I just talked about this and we thought how ironic that conservative protestants would erect a shrine to a preacher. After all, haven't protestants made a big deal about not doing that kind of thing? Aren't they in danger of trying to turn Falwell into some kind of saint?
Though the thought of that braying jackass (sorry) as a saint is more than I can stand this morning. :)
Historically Protestants have made that claim. As I remarked to SelahV at my blog, this seems more like veneration and idolatry rather than memorializing the man.
Falwell, Jr. has already made the bold claim that the memorial will draw more students to LU, more members to Thomas Road BC, boost giving to LU, and "cannot wait until people can see it." Forget that God can do all these things on His own.
It is telling IMO, that Billy Graham and his family have detested and literally begged people not to do these types of things for him. Ruth Bell was buried in a plywood casket built by prison inmates.
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