Plot By Walking Bundle Of Contradictions Foiled

by hilzoy

ABC:

"Even in death, the Rev. Jerry Falwell rouses the most volatile of emotions.

A small group of protesters gathered near the funeral services to criticize the man who mobilized Christian evangelicals and made them a major force in American politics -- often by playing on social prejudices.

A group of students from Falwell's Liberty University staged a counterprotest.

And Campbell County authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several homemade bombs in his car.

The student, 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service. The devices were made of a combination of gasoline and detergent, a law enforcement official told ABC News' Pierre Thomas. They were "slow burn," according to the official, and would not have been very destructive.

"There were indications that there were others involved in the manufacturing of these devices and we are still investigating these individuals with the assistance of ATF [Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms], Virginia State Police and FBI. At this time it is not believed that these devices were going to be used to interrupt the funeral services at Liberty University," the Campbell County Sheriff's Office said in a release.

Three other suspects are being sought, one of whom is a soldier from Fort Benning, Ga., and another is a high school student. No information was available on the third suspect."

As Space Cowboy at Shakesville notes, it's a little odd to try to prevent disruption at a funeral by detonating bombs. It's even odder to do this if you happen to be a Christian. Normally I wouldn't assume that a student whose religious affiliation isn't reported is a Christian, but since this is a student from Liberty University, originally Liberty Baptist Bible College, founded by Jerry Falwell, a school whose mission is "To develop Christ-centered men and women with the values, knowledge, and skills essential to impact tomorrow’s world", it seems like a pretty safe bet.

I wouldn't have thought that detonating bombs to stop a legal protest was a particularly Christian thing to do, but perhaps Mr. Uhl missed the part about turning the other cheek, along with the various parts about not killing, or the part where we are instructed to walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering, or the part where Christ, encountering people who were preparing to stone a sinner, said: 'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.' He certainly couldn't have been paying attention to this:

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

Does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

Though perhaps, as we weak-minded liberals are wont to say, he was a just perfectly nice boy who was warped by his environment, and cannot possibly be held responsible for his actions.

-- Nah.

[Note: update below fold.]

Note: I didn't comment on Falwell's death at the time. I did like this comment, though:

"Though there are plenty of loose cannons out there, has anyone come out to declare that God had struck Falwell down for his iniquities? No, and they probably won't, either."

Long may that silence endure.

***

UPDATE: More details:

"Authorities say a Liberty University student arrested after they found homemade bombs car was planning to attend the funeral of the Reverend Jerry Falwell.

Campbell County authorities say 19-year-old Mark David Uhl of Amissville was arrested last night on charges of manufacturing an explosive device."

Napalm??

Also, I had heard that the protests were by followers of the odious Fred Phelps, but I hadn't heard that the particular reason why they were protesting was that they "claimed Falwell was a friend of homosexuals." Huh? (With friends like these...)

""

Comments

[hilzoy]

John Aravosis: "If we would just give all the students bombs, this could have been avoided."

Heh. Indeed.

[gwangung]

Someone out there just isn't getting this Christianity thing...

(*sigh*)(Reality is supplanting all my good sketch comedy ideas....)

[Phil]

So, let's see:

1) Religious fanatic (attends evangelical university)
2) Hates our freedoms (wants to stop protestors from exercising First Amendment Rights)
3) Willing to engage in violence against noncombatants.

I'm sure we'll be hearing the shreiking about this attempted exercise in terrorism from the Malkin/Reynolds/Hewitt arm any second now. Yep, any second now.

[matttbastard]

Man, do I ever loooves me some Gateway Pundit. Who knew that the Westboro Baptist crew are actually 'liberal hatemongers'?

[KCinDC]

Oh, they've been liberal hatemongers for a long time. After all, they're antiwar protesters, and anyone who's against the war or Bush is by definition a liberal.

It's not surprising they view Falwell as a friend of gays. They apparently view everyone outside their cult as a friend of gays.

[cleek]

Who knew that the Westboro Baptist crew are actually 'liberal hatemongers'?

wow. gateway pundit's one dumb mofo.

[John Biles]

There is a logic to their condemnation of Falwell. Mind you, it's this kind of logic:

God is love.
Love is blind.
Ray Charles is blind.
Therefore, Ray Charles is God.

The Phelps brigade are uber-Calvinists who deny the concept of free will and argue for double predestination, in which God chose who would be damned and saved at the moment of creation.

Falwell was once a holder of this position but later shifted to the more common position which simply emphasizes the role of God's grace in salvation, without being as utterly fatalistic about it. This is enough for them to condemn him as an Arminian (one who holds a stronger view of human action playing a role in salvation).

They believe the shift away from Calvinism to more Arminian theology was the undergirding for the US being swallowed by licentiousness, especially homosexuality.

Ergo, Falwell is a promoter of homosexuality by their viewpoint.

[bernard Yomtov]

double predestination

Is that anything like double secret probation?

[Fraser]

Falwell specifically cited Phelps' protesting at gay funerals as wrong and inappropriate (while making it clear he considers gays to be damned) in a PBS interview a few years back, so it's no surprise the Phelps cult has issues.

[Thud]

It would be interesting to know if this mad bomber attended WarCry events.

[Thud]

Ahem. I mean Battlecry.

[BigHank53]

... so it's no surprise the Phelps cult has issues.

Understatement of the week, right there.

[Sebastian Holsclaw]

"... so it's no surprise the Phelps cult has issues."

I get to see them every Gay pride. One of my friends swears he has slept with one of the protesters, but I can't tell if that is just a tall tale from him or not.

[Gus]

Sebastian, I'd believe your friend's story. Methinks they doth protest a bit too much if you know what I mean.

[carpeicthus]

In other news, there's a town called Amissville, Va.

[matttbastard]

In other news, there's a town called Amissville, Va.

What about a town called 'Malice'?

(Resistance was futile, so I gave in.)

[Gary Farber]

"Napalm??"

I'm not sure what this is in response to, since you quote some lines, and then make this comment, but none of the lines refers to napalm, so it seems like a non-sequitur -- I'm waiting for the link to load now, since I'm guessing that you pasted in the wrong quote, or over-edited it, or something like that -- but napalm is jellied gasoline and soap.

[Jay Jerome]

""Napalm??"
I'm not sure what this is in response to..."

From this? Fifteen lines from the top of hilzoy's comments above?

"The student, 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service. The devices were made of a combination of gasoline and detergent, a law enforcement official told ABC News' Pierre Thomas"

[hilzoy]

Jay Jerome: thanks for pointing that out. I thought I had included one more para. from the story in the update. It reads: "Sheriff Terry Gaddy described the five bombs as "sort of like Napalm" and they were about the size of soda cans."

Thus, 'napalm??'

[Gary Farber]

"From this? Fifteen lines from the top of hilzoy's comments above?"

Well, no, it was from a paragraph Hilzoy didn't include.

I perhaps was unclear in noting that napalm was more or less jellied gasoline and soap, as my point was that referring to "a combination of gasoline and detergent" as "sort of napalm" was a reasonable description of napalm, assuming the mix properly jellied.

Napalm:

Napalm is any of a number of flammable liquids used in warfare, often jellied gasoline.

[...]

One of the major problems of early incendiary fluids (such as those used in flamethrowers) was that they splashed and drained too easily. The U.S. found that a gasoline gel increased both the range and effectiveness of flamethrowers, but was difficult to manufacture because it used natural rubber, which was in high demand and expensive. Napalm provided a far cheaper alternative, solving the issues involved with rubber-based incendiaries.

[...]

Recipes for napalm type substances are commonly circulated on the Internet. These typically purport to produce a thickened gasoline-based substance using soap or polystyrene as a thickening agent (very similar to the napalm of the Vietnam War).

[...]

Composition.

Napalm is usually a mixture of gasoline with suitable thickening agents. The earliest thickeners were soaps, aluminum, and magnesium palmitates and stearates.

[...]

There are two types of napalm: oil-based with aluminum soap thickener, and oil-based with polymeric thickener ("napalm-B").

Etc. Thus my uncertainty as to what was being questioned in the comparison to napalm.