lame denials

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 03:43 PM 9/15/01 -0400, you wrote:
>On 9/14/01 19:45, "sagehen" <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> wrote:
>
> > arnold zwicky writes:
> >> 3.  speaker asserts that members of the aclu, abortionists, pagans,
> >> feminists, gays, and lesbians must bear some responsibility for the
> >> atrocities in new york and washington, because their attempts to
> >> "secularize America" "make God mad", but a spokesperson denies hateful
> >> intent by saying these remarks were "taken out of context".
> >
> > A friend wrote me that NYT & WP were reporting that Jerry Falwell & Pat
> > Robertson had concurred in these just  these opinions on the latter's "700
> > Club" (radio? or tv?) but I didn't hear that either had issued denials,
> > lame or otherwise!
>
>Those denials are in today's paper. I can't find it in the online version,
>but today's New York Times, page A15, right two columns:
>
>"Mr. Falwell released a statement yesterday on the controversy, saying,
>'Despite the impression some may have from news reports today, I hold no one
>other than the terrorists and the people and nations who have enabled and
>harbored them responsible for Tuesday's attacks on this nation.'
>
>'I sincerely regret that the comments I made during a long theological
>discussion on a Christian television program yesterday were taken out of
>their context and reported and that my thoughts--reduced to sound
>bites--have detracted from the spirit of this day of mourning.'"
>
>Robertson had a similar, but shorter denial.
>
>Part of what Falwell said: "The abortionists have got to bear some burden
>for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million
>little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans,
>and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who
>are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People
>for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize American, I
>point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"
>
>--
>
>Grant Barrett
>gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
>http://www.worldnewyork.org/

E. L. Doctorow, on NPR this morning, had it right:  He said Falwell is no
different from the perpetrators of this horrible week when he justifies the
murder of thousands.


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm