Can you believe this?
Friends and family lauded as a devout Christian and family leader the man who built Enron into an international energy powerhouse before its collapse in the biggest corporate scandal of its time.
Lay’s stepson David Herrold told the nearly full First United Methodist Church that Lay was wrongly convicted, and he was angry about the portrayals of his stepfather in the media.
“He did have a strong faith in God and I know he’s in heaven, and I’m glad he’s not in a position anymore to be whipped by his enemy,” Herrold said.
Lay, who was 64, died while vacationing in Colorado on July 5, just six weeks after a jury convicted him and former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling of conspiracy and fraud in the 2001 collapse of the energy company.
Lay was found guilty of 10 counts of conspiracy, fraud and misusing personal bank loans on May 25 and was facing decades in prison at his sentencing, which was scheduled for Oct. 23.
Lay was a longtime friend of the Bushes, contributing to their political campaigns and was nicknamed “Kenny Boy” by President George W. Bush.
The former president and his wife Barbara entered and exited the church by a rear exit and did not speak to the media.
[…]
One former Enron employee wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with Enron’s crooked “E” logo came by the First Methodist Church of Houston but did not attend the service. She said she came out of respect for Lay.
“He was a good person who did a bad thing. Justice was served by finding him guilty,” said Marie Watkins, a former tax analyst who worked with Lay at Enron and Florida Gas for 27 years. She said she lost 90 percent of her retirement portfolio when the company imploded.
The Reverend Dr. Bill Lawson compared Lay with civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesus Christ, and said his name would eventually be cleared.
“He was taken out of the world right at the right time,” he said. “History has a way of vindicating people who have been wronged.”
“Vindicating people who have been wronged”? Um, exactly how was Kenny Boy wronged? Everything went his way until the guilty verdict finally came in. And even now, everything’s going his way. He got out of jail free. He will never face justice on Earth. (In heaven? That’s debatable.)
If anyone is wronged, it’s the rate-paying US public, who are still suffering under the rotten energy policies that Kenny Boy dumped on them. When will THEY be vindicated, hmmm?
And then there’s that woman who showed up to pay respects even though he bilked her out of virtually everything she had saved for her retirement. She lost 27 years of her working life to this scammer, and she still forgives him? Either she’s way too kind, or she’s hardcore stupid. That is simply unbelievable.
But what really gets me is the comparisons to Jesus and MLK. Exactly WHAT does this conveniently deceased crook have in common with the Christ–or one of his finest earthly followers? Claiming the government “crucified” him is surely the phoniest form of eulogy…especially when you consider that this same government was heavily financed by him during its election campaign, and, along with others, rewrote energy policy to suit him–and he profited hugely from it.
Call me crazy, but I distinctly recall that Jesus did NOT say “screw thy neighbor for every shekel you can get out of him”, and neither did Dr. King. And I strongly suspect that both would be deeply offended to be compared with this hypocrite.
If Kenny Boy is comparable to any biblical figure at all, it is surely one of those crooked moneychangers that Jesus drove out of the Temple.
