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From: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.legal,net.misc
Subject: Re: Autodialing Falwell - a different perspective
Message-ID: <959@burl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-Jan-86 00:02:02 EST
Article-I.D.: burl.959
Posted: Fri Jan 17 00:02:02 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Jan-86 07:08:58 EST
References: <1225@mtuxo.UUCP>
Reply-To: rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson)
Organization: AT&T Technologies, Burlington NC
Lines: 54
Xref: watmath net.religion:8877 net.legal:2725 net.misc:9118
Summary: 

In article <1225@mtuxo.UUCP> kwmc@mtuxo.UUCP (k.cochran) writes:
>I cannot find words to express how senseless I think this auto-dialing
>prank is.  A man who supposedly supports the American Civil Liberties Union
>is performing illegal acts to suppress Jerry Falwell's right to freedom of
>speech.

Since when is this autodialing campaign "suppress[ing] Jerry Falwell's right
to freedom of speech"?  Perhaps I would have more sympathy for your viewpoint,
except that the primary goals of these evangelistic churches are (in order of
attention given by the church and therefore, one must assume, in order of
importance to the church):

1) Perpetuation of the church
2) Growth (membership growth, not spelled m-o-r-e- -b-e-l-i-e-v-e-r-s, but
   spelled m-o-r-e- -m-o-n-e-y and spelled m-o-r-e- -p-o-l-i-t-i-c-a-l
   i-n-f-l-u-e-n-c-e)
3) Bringing the church's programs/ideals/philosophies to fruition (a very
   distant third)

Now, if these churches were taxed (that's T-A-X-E-D), like corporations, whose
primary goals are:

1) Perpetuation of the corporation
2) Growth (monetary growth -- here they are more honest than churches but are
   still very cagey about admitting the spelling derivative m-o-r-e
   p-o-l-i-t-i-c-a-l- -i-n-f-l-u-e-n-c-e)
3) Bringing the corporation's programs/ideals/philosophies to fruition (a very
   distant third)

then perhaps I could understand your outrage.  As it is, having a few older
relatives who are died-in-the-wool Southern Methodists and who have come close
on occasion to giving away everything they have to support them for the next
twenty-odd years to some of these money-hungry vampires, I fully support the
man's actions.  He was not attempting to be democratic at all, you see -- he
was striking out at an injustice that was a potential hurt to someone he
loved and over which he had no other recourse except what he did with his
little autodialer.

Please, feel free to write me and explain how this act was abridging
in any way Jerry Falwell's "freedom of speech"; despite my ravings above I
would be sincerly interested in hearing your arguments.

BTW, can anyone out there point me to the Playboy article (expose') some years
ago (like 4-6 years) that uncovered a lot of neat stuff about evangelists?
I remember things like Oral Roberts having 3 people on full-time salary doing
nothing but airbrushing his publicity photos to remove all the expensive rings
off his fingers, Billy Graham appealing to the public that his ministry was
going broke while he and his family purchased 6 loaded Cadillacs and 3 condos
in the Keys, etc.  Thanks in advance for any pointers,
-- 

The MAD Programmer -- 919-228-3313 (Cornet 291)
alias: Curtis Jackson	...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd mgnetp ]!burl!rcj
			...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua masscomp ]!clyde!rcj