Falwell And Sontag Analysis

It is said that an idea is like a light behind a wall with two holes, two people in a room would see the light differently, but it is still from the same source. Similarly, the idea of Contagion or contagious diseases would be the light source in our analogy, and Dr. Falwell and Susan Sontag would be the people. They would express their individual ideas in their works published such as: AIDS: The Judgement of God and Illness as a Metaphor respectively. Their views are radically different as Sontag is focused on the concept that terrible diseases are romanticized until we find a cure for them or understand the pathology behind them and in turn, the once enigmatic disease becomes a mundane thing. Dr. Falwell on the other hand see’s contagion as a wrath of god and punishment that can’t be lifted without obeying god …show more content…
Falwell’s AIDS: The Judgement of God, the doctor starts off right away with epanorthosis of not a word but a statement, talking about how the AIDS virus is a punishment on the gay community for their “reprobate” lifestyle. It is apparent that he wants to use god for his argument of this disease as the cause. An anecdotal example he uses is of how, “God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah primarily because of the sin of homosexuality.” (Falwell prg.6) He also repeatedly appeals to the Logos of the surgeon general’s authority on the topic commenting on how it could be “the worst ever plague in human history” (Falwell prg.6). Impressive scare tactics to say the least, but Falwell is at heart proposing the idea that the epidemic is more of a consequence of not following god’s laws in the Bible. The blame is also put on the promiscuity of people where we see the balance of worth. That is the worth of casual sex vs. a “medical holocaust” as described by Falwell. (Falwell p.15) He further continues his scare tactics describing how AIDS will affect innocent people in the heterosexual community if the laws of America are preserving gay people and their