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Falwell: Basic rights for all homosexuals
Lynchburg News & Advance ^ | 8/26/05 | Ron Brown

Posted on 08/26/2005 3:41:24 PM PDT by Crackingham

The Rev. Jerry Falwell said Thursday he supports basic civil rights for homosexuals, including equal opportunities to serve as public school teachers.

“I have always believed that all Americans should have basic human rights,” Falwell said. “I’ve made it clear that I don’t consider the right to fair housing or employment a conservative or liberal value. Those are American values.”

Falwell’s comments Thursday were similar to remarks he made earlier this month on the MSNBC television show, “The Situation.” Those comments earned him praise from the Human Rights Campaign, a nationally prominent group that works for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equal rights.

“Like most Americans, it seems the Reverend Falwell has reached the conclusion that everyone deserves basic rights,” said HRC’s President Joe Solmonese on the group’s Web site.

Solmonese thanked Falwell in an Aug. 9 letter.

“You spoke with passion for the civil rights of all Americans - regardless of if they’re gay or straight,” Solmonese wrote.

SNIP

Falwell said his support for basic rights for homosexuals does not mean he favors new laws which give homosexuals expanded freedoms.

“I don’t think homosexuals should be granted a special minority status,” he said.

Falwell said a public school teacher’s conduct on the job should be the determining factor in his or her employment status.

“As long as a person obeys the law and doesn’t recruit a student to a certain lifestyle, they shouldn’t be prevented from teaching,” Falwell said. “Every American should be allowed to work wherever he or she wishes as long as they obey the law.”

Falwell said that does not mean he is going to hire homosexuals for teaching positions at Liberty Christian Academy or Liberty University.

“Our doctrinal belief is that homosexuality is wrong,” he said. “We also believe heterosexual promiscuity is wrong. Those have been standards since the beginning.”

Falwell said faith-based, private institutions are held to a different standard than public-based institutions.

“We have a stricter code than public schools,” he said.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: culturewar; downourthroats; falwell; homosexualagenda; indoctrination; inourfaces; jerryfalwell; publicschools; sexpositiveagenda; taxdollarsatwork; youpayforthis
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1 posted on 08/26/2005 3:41:25 PM PDT by Crackingham
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To: Crackingham

rationality prevails.


2 posted on 08/26/2005 3:43:53 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (Everything I need to know about Islam I learned on 9-11!)
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To: Crackingham
How is this news? Yes, Homosexuals are entitled to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness just like everybody else. Who the hell is arguing they aren't?
3 posted on 08/26/2005 3:44:43 PM PDT by LauraleeBraswell
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To: Crackingham

Homosexuals do have the same basic rights as everyone: to be free from crime, invasion, and intrusive, overburdensome government.

That doesn't mean that we have to give them special benefits. It doesn't mean that we have to adopt gay marriage. it doesn't mean that they have to be hired anywhere they choose. It just means that they're citizens just like you and me and they have the right to walk down the street in peace.


4 posted on 08/26/2005 3:46:14 PM PDT by TBP
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To: Crackingham
I think homosexuals should be able to have any kind of haircut they want.
Is that news?
5 posted on 08/26/2005 3:46:32 PM PDT by escapefromboston (manny ortez: mvp)
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To: Crackingham

And yet we had freepers on this very forum who were all upset at Judge Roberts providing a few hours pro bono work for a gay rights matter.

Some day a certain segment of the conservative party is going to "get it" and understand they don't speak for all conservatives and that Republicans are the big tent party.


6 posted on 08/26/2005 3:46:51 PM PDT by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: Crackingham

"...You have the right to sing the blues. You have the right to cable TV...."


7 posted on 08/26/2005 3:48:28 PM PDT by RichInOC (...this is a public service announcement...with guitars!...)
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Tinky Winky got to him. ;-)


8 posted on 08/26/2005 3:50:05 PM PDT by CounterCounterCulture
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To: CounterCounterCulture

It was the purse.


9 posted on 08/26/2005 3:51:49 PM PDT by pipecorp (Let's have a CRUSADE! , the muslims have already started. 1500 replies and not a single post!)
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To: Crackingham
Basic rights means they have the right to vote and to speak out on issues. They have the right to influence people and persuade people. But it is not a basic human right to force others to hire you, etc. Others have a right to their opinions. Schools are not obligated to hire, say, alcoholics or ex-cons. They can use reason and judgment. That means homosexuals are not automatically entitled to all kinds of jobs. The freedom of others means that they can decide just who is and who is not morally acceptabie to lead their children.

Falwell needs to stick to what he knows: the Bible.

10 posted on 08/26/2005 3:52:02 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (The repenting soul is the victorious soul)
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To: Peach

Judge Roberts was wrong and so is Falwell.


11 posted on 08/26/2005 3:52:26 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (The repenting soul is the victorious soul)
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To: Crackingham
“I don’t think homosexuals should be granted a special minority status,” he said.

“As long as a person obeys the law and doesn’t recruit a student to a certain lifestyle, they shouldn’t be prevented from teaching,”

bttt
12 posted on 08/26/2005 3:53:05 PM PDT by John Lenin (Liberalism: Where shame is a virtue)
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To: Crackingham
Falwell said. “I’ve made it clear that I don’t consider the right to fair housing or employment a conservative or liberal value. Those are American values.”

Sounds like he's saying that I have some kind of obligation to hire or rent my property to homosexuals and that I don't have the right to discriminate.

13 posted on 08/26/2005 3:53:05 PM PDT by Jim_Curtis
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

There is nothing rational about putting perversity on display in front of children day in and day out.


14 posted on 08/26/2005 3:53:07 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (The repenting soul is the victorious soul)
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To: John Lenin

So little first graders can can be taught all year by some girly guy in a dress and it's just fine with you?


15 posted on 08/26/2005 3:54:35 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (The repenting soul is the victorious soul)
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To: Jim_Curtis

That is what he is saying. I wonder if he is hiring homosexuals at Liberty University.


16 posted on 08/26/2005 3:55:28 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (The repenting soul is the victorious soul)
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To: Crackingham
“Our doctrinal belief is that homosexuality is wrong,” he said. “We also believe heterosexual promiscuity is wrong. Those have been standards since the beginning.”

BINGO!

17 posted on 08/26/2005 3:57:11 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

Media whores, preachers and pols alike lose their souls to please the DNC keepers of perceptions.


18 posted on 08/26/2005 3:58:02 PM PDT by roses of sharon
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To: Crackingham

I wish people would keep their sex lives private! I don't annouce to the whole world what I do and I don't want to hear it from someone else. I'm getting so sick of it.


19 posted on 08/26/2005 4:00:50 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

Transgender should not be allowed anywhere near children. That's a whole nother universe as far as I'm concerned.


20 posted on 08/26/2005 4:09:07 PM PDT by John Lenin (Liberalism: Where shame is a virtue)
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To: LauraleeBraswell
How is this news?

Liberals think we are all little Himmlers, so this is news to them.

21 posted on 08/26/2005 4:15:37 PM PDT by montag813
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To: John Lenin

Not if everyone get the same rights and those rights are defined as being a school teacher. You can't discriminate! Remember the premise.


22 posted on 08/26/2005 4:19:30 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (The repenting soul is the victorious soul)
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To: LauraleeBraswell
How is this news? Yes, Homosexuals are entitled to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness just like everybody else. Who the hell is arguing they aren't?

Does life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness entitle absolutely everyone to be a school teacher? Can we make any moral distinctions?

23 posted on 08/26/2005 4:21:03 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (The repenting soul is the victorious soul)
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To: Crackingham
So Falwell supports forcing Mrs. Igglesworth to rent her spare room to a couple of homos?

Great leaders them Protestants have .....

24 posted on 08/26/2005 4:21:47 PM PDT by JohnnyZ ("I believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country." -- Mitt Romney)
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To: coconutt2000
We also believe heterosexual promiscuity is wrong.

So he believes that gay sex is okay if it's not promiscuous? Good grief this guy's a moron (as if that wasn't clear previously.)

25 posted on 08/26/2005 4:23:16 PM PDT by JohnnyZ ("I believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country." -- Mitt Romney)
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To: JohnnyZ

Read it again.


26 posted on 08/26/2005 4:24:00 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

Homosexuals define their lives around a sexual fetish.

There are those who wish to teach those fetishes in schools (and were doing so even when the sex acts between two members of same sex were illegal in a number of those states).

Sex education has moved beyond the biology of reproduction and disease into the mechanics and buffet of the sex positive approach (an ideology that finds abstinence wrong and unhealthy, not because "it doesn't work" but because, as with homosexuality, is a "denial of sexual desires"). If it feels good, do it.

It is as bad an idea as it is having communists teaching economics and American history.


27 posted on 08/26/2005 4:24:42 PM PDT by weegee (The Rovebaiting by DUAC must stop. It is nothing but a partisan witchhunt.)
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To: Peach
Some day a certain segment of the conservative party is going to "get it" and understand they don't speak for all conservatives and that Republicans are the big tent party.

Ah, Peachie, once again "coming out" in support of the radical gay agenda.

PLEASE get your nose out from under my tent!!!

28 posted on 08/26/2005 4:24:54 PM PDT by JohnnyZ ("I believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country." -- Mitt Romney)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past


Keep it in the closet and I don't have a problem with it.


29 posted on 08/26/2005 4:26:57 PM PDT by LauraleeBraswell
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

Anyone who needs medical treatments to change their sex falls into a different category in my opinion. It really is a mental illness/disorder and should be recognized as one. Time to get back to common sense in the medical community.


30 posted on 08/26/2005 4:27:16 PM PDT by John Lenin (Liberalism: Where shame is a virtue)
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To: coconutt2000
Read it again.

I read it the first time. I, for one, am not an idiot. I can read.

And I read Falwell saying homosexuality's wrong, and homosexual promiscuity's wrong -- which raises the question, if you have to single out promiscuity, what does that say about non-promiscuous gay sex?

31 posted on 08/26/2005 4:27:54 PM PDT by JohnnyZ ("I believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country." -- Mitt Romney)
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To: Jim_Curtis
Sounds like he's saying... that I don't have the right to discriminate.

Why would you want to discriminate? And do you want tax payer dollars discriminating?

32 posted on 08/26/2005 4:28:18 PM PDT by Alter Kaker (Whatever tears one may shed, in the end one always blows one’s nose.-Heine)
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To: LauraleeBraswell
How is this news? Yes, Homosexuals are entitled to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness just like everybody else. Who the hell is arguing they aren't?

It's only that some people are more entitled than others. < /sarc >.

Everyone's dignity is to be honored, and who you sleep with is your own business, not a political issue.

But they take political action owing to things like sodomy laws -- "we don't want to be criminals just because we like to...." and the benefits of being legally married. So therein lies the thin thread of justification for all the whining.

33 posted on 08/26/2005 4:28:19 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (see my FR page for a link to the tribute to Terri Schaivo, a short video presentation.)
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To: JohnnyZ
We also believe heterosexual promiscuity is wrong.
34 posted on 08/26/2005 4:29:40 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past
How many schools would reprimand a teacher who performed as a stripper or magazine centerfold in her off hours? I certainly know that police forces have done this.
35 posted on 08/26/2005 4:30:11 PM PDT by weegee (The Rovebaiting by DUAC must stop. It is nothing but a partisan witchhunt.)
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To: weegee
Homosexuals define their lives around a sexual fetish.

Do they? The great Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buenarotti was a well-known homosexual, and yet I don't feel exposed to sexual fetishes when I visit the Sistine Chapel. We can reserve the right to object to certain lifestyles while still keeping things in perspective.

I don't think having gay and lesbian schoolteachers necessarily means that those teachers are teaching gay sex in the classrooms (if they are, fire them) any more than displaying Michelangelo frescoes means that the Catholic Church endorses homosexuality.

36 posted on 08/26/2005 4:32:57 PM PDT by Alter Kaker (Whatever tears one may shed, in the end one always blows one’s nose.-Heine)
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To: Crackingham
It is all a ruse. Gays want privileges like blacks and women have been granted. I've always wanted to ask one of these special rights people for just one example of how they were treated unfairly.
37 posted on 08/26/2005 4:33:12 PM PDT by samm1148
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To: LauraleeBraswell

Nobody..

the phantom bogeyman as usual

he pops up behind the tree of most "human rights" issues here in America


38 posted on 08/26/2005 4:34:23 PM PDT by wardaddy (thinking.....)
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To: Alter Kaker
Why would you want to discriminate?

To keep pederasts away from one's children, to not rent to people engaged in sexual perversions.

And do you want tax payer dollars discriminating?

Absolutely! We should not be funding wasteful projects. We should not be funding immoral projects. We should not be paying for health care for gay boyfriends.

Once upon a time, discrimination was not a dirty word. You SHOULD discriminate, it's called having moral standards and common sense. You should discriminate against restaurants that serve bad food. You should discriminate against liars and cheats by refusing to hire them or give them any more trust than they deserve. You should discriminate in who babysits your children, avoiding perverts and other who may have a negative effect on them.

Racial discrimination is bad. That does not mean discrimination is bad. It means racism is bad.

39 posted on 08/26/2005 4:37:25 PM PDT by JohnnyZ ("I believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country." -- Mitt Romney)
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To: John Lenin

To the left it is all about choice.

Whereas some transexuals make the claim that they were born with indetermimate genitalia, and possibly improperly "sex assigned" that is a miniscule minority.

No one ever changes their sex any more than a man or woman can change his or her race. Until women start to produce sperm and men ovulate in their crafted wombs and their DNA changes, they are how they were born.

Some don't even opt to go all the way with sex change operations, instead choosing to live with female breasts on top and male sex traits down below.

And as to tranvestites, where is the "wear the clothes of the opposite sex" gene? We are born naked. All clothing is fashion and culture.

This is all about embracing the sexual fetishes of some who choose to arrange their whole lives around a kink.


40 posted on 08/26/2005 4:39:29 PM PDT by weegee (The Rovebaiting by DUAC must stop. It is nothing but a partisan witchhunt.)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past
Judge Roberts was wrong and so is Falwell.

Wrong about what?

41 posted on 08/26/2005 4:39:57 PM PDT by Jorge
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To: Crackingham

Seeing as how (statistically speaking) the most likely child molesters are ostensibly "straight" guys (usually a relative or family friend) it might actually be a good idea. Hey, if I were running an all-girls school, I'd hire as many highly-qualified gay guys for teachers as I could get. Likewise (and given several recent media reported incidents) Lesbian females would make good teachers at an all-boys school.
There is a difference between homosexuals and militant gays, and between homosexuals and the pedophiles over at NAMBLA. Homosexuals I don't even notice. I can 'tolerate' even flaming queens. But the NAMBLA crowd gets lumped in with the street gangs and the terrorists.


42 posted on 08/26/2005 4:40:29 PM PDT by Ostlandr (NeopaganNeocon)
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To: coconutt2000
We also believe heterosexual promiscuity is wrong.

Very well. So he compares homosexual sex to hetero promiscuity. Again, failing to express an idea clearly.

Hetero sex is fine as long as it's not promiscuous? And homo sex is fine as long as it's not promiscuous? A "committed" straight or gay couple who are not married can have sex? I don't think so.

What he means is all sex outside of marriage is wrong, one presumes.

But he doesn't say that. He talks about promiscuity.

43 posted on 08/26/2005 4:42:54 PM PDT by JohnnyZ ("I believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country." -- Mitt Romney)
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To: weegee

The AMA wrongly declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder, which it truly is.. I just saw on a dating site where a bi woman is looking for other woman only for the time being, her reasoning is that she is just out of a terrible marriage.


44 posted on 08/26/2005 4:43:17 PM PDT by John Lenin (Liberalism: Where shame is a virtue)
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To: Crackingham
Falwell greases the slippery slope.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

45 posted on 08/26/2005 4:43:27 PM PDT by Fitzcarraldo
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To: Ostlandr
Lesbian females would make good teachers at an all-boys school.

Good looking lesbian teachers? Because if you do that, I don't see how you'll ever get the boys to stop day dreaming.

46 posted on 08/26/2005 4:44:03 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: samm1148

I'd like to see peoples' political rights protected before we start granting them special status because of sexual fetishes.

After the last election there were Republicans who could not get hired at some firms and could not stay at some hotels.

One such employer said that he believed there would be fewer problems designing the gaming software his company made because the workers on staff would be less likely to raise complaints about the morals of the content.

I didn't ever catch the defense of the bed and breakfast owner who wouldn't let guests with Bush bumper stickers stay.

But clear as day it is legal discrimination.


47 posted on 08/26/2005 4:45:05 PM PDT by weegee (The Rovebaiting by DUAC must stop. It is nothing but a partisan witchhunt.)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past
Does life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness entitle absolutely everyone to be a school teacher? Can we make any moral distinctions?

You better believe Falwell DOES make moral distinctions.
But I agree with him here.
We should not ban gays from being school teachers anymore than we should ban ANYBODY for any moral shortcomings, including adultery etc.

As long as they don't teach such things are OK in the classroom.

48 posted on 08/26/2005 4:45:26 PM PDT by Jorge
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To: Ostlandr
Seeing as how (statistically speaking) the most likely child molesters are ostensibly "straight" guys

The most likely sexual abusers of boys who've reached puberty (knows as pederasts rather than pedophiles) are FAR AND AWAY gay men.

I wouldn't let any person with a disordered sexual condition near kids. Better safe than sorry.

49 posted on 08/26/2005 4:45:33 PM PDT by JohnnyZ ("I believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country." -- Mitt Romney)
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To: Crackingham
When we treat AIDS like a Venereal Disease I will care about Homosexuals so called discrimination.

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

50 posted on 08/26/2005 4:47:18 PM PDT by bray (Pray for the Freedom of the Iraqis from Islam)
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