All in all, I agree with Barry Goldwater.

Specifically, when he said that “I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.”

Typically, I’m a believer in not speaking ill of the dead, but I’m about to make an exception.

You think one should only speak good of the dead? Fine, here you go:

He’s dead. Good.

Jerry Falwell had best hope that I’m right and there is no Hell. He was a hateful hypocrite, a bigot, and a racist. This was a man who blamed the events of 9/11 not on Al Qaeda, or Saudi Arabia, or even Saddam Hussein–specifically, here is exactly what he said: “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 America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’”

How about encouraging his parishioners to buy Krugerrands in order to help support apartheid in South Africa, through the 1980s? Calling Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu a “phony” for claiming to speak for black South Africa?

The fraud investigation by the SEC against his unsecured “church bonds” in 1973? Oh, and the deliberate lie told in his official biography that he won the suit and was cleared of the charges. The reality? He admitted that the SEC was “technically” correct back then. And of course, there were fines levied against him by the FEC for illegally transferring church money to political causes.

This is a man of whom even Jimmy Carter was moved to say, “In a very Christian way, as far as I’m concerned, he can go to hell!”

Enough said. Good riddance. I won’t miss him a bit. Sure, I know his friends and family are hurting right now. I hurt when he blamed me as a liberal, a non-Christian and a gay man for 9/11. The country still hurts for the damage, division and hate he’s sown. If he’s lucky, I’m right and there is no god–a far more gentle afterlife fate than he deserves.