The picture that started it all. I knew more would be coming.
George Takei played the part of Sulu in the original Star Trek series.
The minute I saw the picture of Falwell with his pants unzipped and his arm around a woman who was dressed in a similar fashion, I got the Wartburg Tingle. I knew we would be hearing about some sort of deviation from acceptable Christian behavior at Liberty University. This story does mention some political figures. I would ask that there be no comments about the elections, etc. I get in enough trouble as it is.
First, Becki Falwell accused by hubby of having an affair with *pool boy* and Falwell Jr. said he lost *80 pounds* over this.
First of all, I have seen more pictures than I ever wanted to see if Falwell Jr.’s naked body. In my opinion, he didn’t lose 80 pounds.
Julie Roys reported this first: Jerry Falwell Jr. Says Wife Had Affair with “Pool Boy” in which she wrote:
President Jerry Falwell, Jr., released a statement late last night to Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard, divulging that his wife had an affair with a young pool attendant the couple had befriended eight years ago.
Falwell said the “inappropriate personal relationship” was short-lived and that he and his wife “forgave each other.” But Falwell added that the affair was “very upsetting,” caused him to lose 80 pounds, “and people who saw me regularly thought that I was physically unwell.”
Falwell claimed that the young man— identified in multiple news reports as Giancarlo Granda, or the “pool boy”—also tried to extort money from the couple and Liberty University. Falwell added that recently Granda had stepped up his “threats to share more outrageous and fabricate(d) claims about us.” Falwell said he and his wife “decided the only way to stop this predatory behavior is to go public.”
If you go this link for the New York Times you will see Donald Trump shaking the hand of Giancarlo Granda, aka *pool boy*at Liberty University in 2016 Roys continued (Pay close attention to the highlighted final sentence):
The questionable relationship between the Falwells and Granda first surfaced last year. That’s when Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, told comedian Tom Arnold that he had buried racy “personal” photographs of the Falwells that involved the “pool boy.” In his statement, Falwell said he was “not involved” in the personal relationship his wife, Becki, had with Granda.
Jerry Falwell Jr released a statement to the Washington Examiner of 8/23/20
Since I’m not sure if this is meant to be a public release, I’m going to only reprint a portion of the statement. Go to this link at the Washington Examiner and scroll to the end of the post to read the entire, lengthy, statement. (If anyone knows that this to be a public release to all parties, let me know and I will fully reprint it here.) Pay close attention to what he claims is his full support of his wife. Are you thinking more might be more coming?
My family has been blessed with the opportunity to serve Christ and our community over the past 50 years — from when my father founded Liberty in the early 1970’s through today. When my father suddenly passed away in 2007, I quickly and unexpectedly went from being the lawyer working in the background on the business aspects of the school to becoming a very public person, having to overcome my fears of speaking in front of audiences of tens of thousands, with many more responsibilities to the Liberty community and to my own family.
My priority was to build on my father’s vision and to work hard. Thanks to the help of the Board and the extraordinary Liberty faculty, executives, staff and community, we have ensured the University’s sustained growth and financial health while providing the best and most modern on-campus and online educational and spiritual resources to a wider range of students both in person and through digital platforms. Unchanged: My priority was to build on my father’s vision and to work hard. Thanks to the help of the Board and the extraordinary Liberty faculty, executives, staff and community, we have ensured the University’s sustained growth and financial health while providing the best and most modern on-campus and online educational and spiritual resources to a wider range of students both in person and through digital platforms.
My commitment to Liberty became and has remained my primary focus — and while I am so grateful and thankful for our collective successes, I also realize in hindsight that there was a toll that this took on me, which extended to my family too. During this time of reflection for us and this especially challenging year, and even more so following the events of the past few weeks, my wife Becki and I agreed that this was the right time for me to share more of our story, because the Liberty community deserves to hear it directly from me and from us. My commitment to Liberty became and has remained my primary focus — and while I am so grateful and thankful for our collective successes, I also realize in hindsight that there was a toll that this took on me, which extended to my family too.
During this time of reflection for us and this especially challenging year, and even more so following the events of the past few weeks, my wife Becki and I agreed that this was the right time for me to share more of our story, because the Liberty community deserves to hear it directly from me and from us.
During a vacation over eight years ago, Becki and I met an ambitious young man who was working at our hotel and was saving up his money to go to school. We encouraged him to pursue an education and a career and we were impressed by his initiative in suggesting a local real estate opportunity. My family members eventually made an investment in a local property, included him in the deal because he could play an active role in managing it, and became close with him and his family.
Shortly thereafter, Becki had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person, something in which I was not involved — it was nonetheless very upsetting to learn about. After I learned this, I lost 80 pounds and people who saw me regularly thought that I was physically unwell, when in reality I was just balancing how to be most supportive of Becki, who I love, while also reflecting and praying about whether there were ways I could have been more supportive of her and given her proper attention. I came to realize that while it may be easy to judge others on their behavior, the King James Bible reminds us — “Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I sayeth unto you, that whoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart.” In fact, there are ways we may all be sinning, but the Lord believes in this self-reflection.
Continue reading here
Wut? Falwell invested in a gay-friendly hostel and is now being blackmailed by *pool boy.*
UK’s The Dail Mail posted Former Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. reveals his wife had an affair with their pool boy who he claims is now trying to ‘blackmail them’ after they invested in his gay-friendly hostel and took him on vacation.
Hooo boy, Falwell invested in a gay-friendly hostel with the pool boy. Wait! Is this the Falwell whose dad was the founder of the so-called *Moral Majority?* iI he the guy who has such strict rules for the behavior of students?
You might find this article in the Metro Weekly of interest. Anti-LGBTQ pastor to succeed Jerry Falwell Jr. as acting president of Liberty UniversityThe reason I include it, it is obvious that Liberty University is not known for its friendly relationship with LGBTQIA individuals. So Falwell invested in a gay-friendly hostel. It does seem hypocritical to me.
But surely you know more is coming, right?
Were Falwell and his wife participating in sexual relations with the pool boy?
Reuters wrote: Business partner of Falwells says affair with evangelical power couple spanned seven years. My 91 yeard old mother asked me what I was writing about today. She thinks that I just write about *bad people* who assault children. How would I explain this one to her? I told her that I was writing about some people behaving badly. I left it at that. I feel like I’m back in the Mark Driscoll days again.
Reuters reported that they were shown emails, texts, and even heard recordings of phone calls. This is quite serious since Reuters is respected. Giancarlo Granda, aka pool boy, spoke at length with Reuters’ Aram Roston.
Granda showed Reuters emails, text messages and other evidence that he says demonstrate the sexual nature of his relationship with the couple, who have been married since 1987. “Becki and I developed an intimate relationship and Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room,” Granda said in an interview. Now 29, he described the liaisons as frequent – “multiple times per year” – and said the encounters took place at hotels in Miami and New York, and at the Falwells’ home in Virginia.
His friendship with the Falwells eventually soured, Granda told Reuters, in part because he wanted to dissolve his ties with the couple and fell into a business dispute with them.
Reuters shared their findings with Falwell who responded through his lawyer. At first, he denied everything but then said his wife had an affair with Granda who was trying to extort money from him.
On Sunday night, however, as Reuters was preparing to publish this article, Jerry Falwell issued a statement to the Washington Examiner in which he said that his wife had had an affair with Granda and that Granda had been trying to extort money from the couple over the matter. Granda denies any such intent, saying he was seeking to negotiate a buyout from a business arrangement he says he had with the couple.
Here is one damning recorded phone call that Granda shared with Reuters.
Granda also shared an audio recording that he says captures a conversation he had with the Falwells in 2018. In it, Becki complained about Granda describing his relationships with other people: “He’s like telling me every time he hooks up with people. Like I don’t have feelings or something.” Jerry then chimed in: “You’re going to make her jealous.” “I’m not trying to do that,” Granda replied.
In my opinion, Falwell threw his wife under the bus. Perhaps it was to create a diversion from his own reported activities. Did she agree with Falwell’s statement to the press? Also, I didn’t realize that she, too, is publicly involved in politics
Becki Falwell, 53, is a political figure in her own right. She served on the advisory board of the group Women for Trump, which advocates for the president’s reelection campaign. She alsospoke as part of a panel with her husband and Donald Trump Jr at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, the signature annual gathering of conservatives. Jerry Falwell and others refer to her as “the first lady of Liberty University.”
Falwell is out!!
As I was getting ready to close this post, I found out that Falwell resigned. I believe he would have been fired. Threesomes are considered a bit tacky in certain circles. The Washington Post (along with most media) posted Jerry Falwell Jr. agrees to resign from Liberty University
Opposition to his presidency had been growing but came to a dramatic head after two new reports about a young man Falwell and his wife befriended at a Florida pool, went into business with and who allegedly was sexually connected to the couple. One report painted Falwell as the victim of an obsessive affair; the other as an eager participant manipulating a naive young man.
Update: Falewell is now saying he hasn’t resigned. Others are saying he has. This is crazy
So, in typical TWW classy fashion, we say good-bye to the Falwells.
1st
Weird. Just plain weird.
How the mighty have fallen. Now that Falwell has admitted his wife had “an affair” I wonder if she’ll speak up and out her husband for his sordid part in it all of it. Not that I really want to hear any more. Like you Dee Ive had enough.
board members surely knew some or all of this. All I can think is they’ve been worshipping at the altar of power money and fame too often to confront him.
An absolutely sickening example of a so called “godly man”, and a husband loving his wife!
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but in defense of Mark Driscoll (!!!!!), so far as we know, he has never cheated on Grace or been involved in a threesome. Other financial shenanigans, other actions that left people badly hurt, yes, but not this. Mark Driscoll (again, so far as we know) is not this kind of sleazy.
I’d just like to also point out that it’s not political at all to jump on Jerry Jr. His university has well-known and IMHO stringent and potentially abusive standards which students, faculty and staff were required to adhere to. The fact is that while Jerry was overseeing an administration that was punishing students for failures, up to and including expulsion, he and Becki are alleged to have engaged in behavior that would get them kicked out of their own university several times over. The hypocrisy, it smells like a full trash bin at 110 degrees (welcome to Arizona)!
Now I’m wondering if Jerry Jr. (consciously or no) forced the issue with the weird Instagram pic, knowing that this was coming out sooner rather than later? Inquiring minds and all that.
Yeah, so much for Ephesians 5:25-28 and loving your wife like Christ loved the church. Jerry Jr. couldn’t *wait* to throw her under the bus to take the heat off of him. I’m not excusing what Becki Falwell is alleged to have done. I just think Jerry Jr. did wrong by ratting his own wife out to save his own skin.
I commented on the Providence posting but I’ll paste here since this posting actually pertains to the subject. It’s difficult for me, at this moment in time, to see how it is not criminal in nature. That doesn’t mean I see an investigation. It would be vital to various parties to agree this never happened. Various other parties that would stand to gain from an investigation, don’t have much, if any, ability to produce one.
Sigh…
I am so glad I work at a public, secular, humanistic institution..
Apparently Falwell just told Politioc he hasn’t resigned. In thr meantime, other media are reproting his resignation.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/24/jerry-falwell-resigns-liberty-university-401122
dee,
The s$#&-show continues….. remember, Liberty U is a big school… this is no backwater school…
It’s time for the Board to step up and make his departure official.
Jerry Jr. is now denying reports that he has resigned.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jerry-falwell-jr-resigns-president-liberty-university-reports-say-n1237886
Give it up, Jerry, it’s over.
Thanks for showing the photo of Trump shaking the pool boy’s hands AT Liberty University!! Lol!
Well. Does anyone see a Falwell divorce on the horizon, or do ya think Junior’s statement was a mutual decision???
From his bio page at Liberty University:
President Falwell and Liberty’s first lady, Becki Falwell, strive to set an example to the student body of what Liberty’s motto is truly all about: We, the Champions …
http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=14588
Falwell may be about to discover that Boards can fire presidents though given his relatives on the board, the next family get together may then be dicey. I hope the board also take a close look at the university finances. The threesome at least was apparently among consenting adults even if highly hypocritical for two of them; the financial actions may be flat out illegal.
“In my opinion, Falwell threw his wife under the bus. Perhaps it was to create a diversion from his own reported activities.” (Dee)
My thoughts exactly as things unfolded today.
“Falwell invested in a gay-friendly hostel with the pool boy.” (Dee)
There’s much much more to this story.
“I feel like I’m back in the Mark Driscoll days again.” (Dee)
Potty-mouth Driscoll looks like a choirboy now.
Such Manly Man Alpha Males as Junior often sneer at the rest of us males as “Beta Cucks”. Did a little research on that word:
“Cuck” originated in Pornography (not surprising) and had a racist angle. (Germane to the subject since the Falwells are White and this Granda guy is Hispanic, i.e. Not White.) Originally, a “cuck” was a White man who got his rocks off watching a non-White man doing his White wife.
So Junior is a Cuck in the original porno-racist meaning of the word. And since him and his wife had to be a lot older than Granda’s 20 at the time, we can add “Cougar” to the list of C-words.
4th Law of Thermodynamics: Heat on you is heat off me.
Update
It is a bizarre situation out there. Falwell is telling folks he hasn’t resigned. Others close to LU say he has. Is Falwell a substance abuser because he is acting really weird?
Muslin, fka Dee Holmes,
This is totally bizarre. He is saying he hasn’t resigned. Other sources close to LU say he has. My guess is that resignation is a euphemism for fired. Falwell’s behavior is bizarre. I wonder if he hs taking some form of medication if you get my drift
Jeffrey Chalmers,
I think Falwell’s behavior this evening is bizare. I wondeerif he is on medication?
I’m not surprised.
One one of your last, recent Falwell posts, I mentioned in the comments the vibe given off was probably that he was getting young men to have sex with his wife so he could watch.
There was a similar news stories years ago about a preacher who did the same thing. He’d get young men to come to his house so he could watch them have sex with his wife. (Some of them refused, found it revolting, and ran out of the house.)
I knew it would be something like that.
And… I wouldn’t be surprised if Falwell himself had sex with the man (or another man).
One reason of a few I say that is this statement:
‘In his statement, Falwell said he was “not involved” in the personal relationship his wife, Becki, had with Granda.’
-I mean, what an odd thing to say. Usually, most people don’t automatically think the HUSBAND also had sex with a male just because the WIFE did.
The fact that he protests he didn’t do anything makes me think, oh yes he did. I mean, there is no need to say that… unless he did in fact have sex with another man but wants to cover it up.
Remember that morning radio interview a few weeks back and it sounded like he was drunk?
Not going to speculate about what’s driving this, but he cannot walk this back without hurting or even destroying LU. Seriously, that horsie is not just out of the barn, it’s gamboling around in the best pasture the next county over.
It was very messy last night when Jerry Jr. threw Becki under the bus, it got ten times messier when the Reuters story came out, and now, ten times more messy with Jerry Jr. not taking the hint and moseying on down the highway.
dee,
As Max and others have stated, the Evangelical/Fundamentalist world, at least the public/political one is crashing and burning..
There is NO excuse for this.. it is my experience that Boards of Trustees at respectable institutions keep much better control of the situation.. this is just one huge….
Even the disaster of Penn State/Sandusky/Paterno had the BofT stepping in and firing the whole line of command above Sandusky to the President.. But as we repeatedly see here on TWW, the “Evangelical/Fundamentalist” are behind the “secular/humanist” world in dealing with this poop..
Muslin, fka Dee Holmes,
unfortunately, you are exactly correct…
dee,
The Board of Trustees should have outright fired him before it got this far
… years ago.
That’s OK … the LU Trustees can now do the right thing and fire him.
From Julie Roys website:
After news of his resignation broke, Falwell told a Virginia business publication that he did not plan to leave the school. He also claimed his leave from the school was his idea, more of a sabbatical than a leave of absence. “I don’t care what you call it. I’ve been at this for so many years and under so much stress, I decided I needed a three-month break.”
Lies like this work (that is they are bought by) people who are under your authority. People one has the power to harm such as firing from their job or expelling them from school. However for those who are not under such a person’s authority the lie just looks ridiculous. Much like Rabadash in “The Horse and His Boy” who made grotesque faces at the kings and queens of Narnia and Archenland thinking they would be greatly frightened. Rabadash did not understand that people in his own kingdom trembled at his faces only because he held the power of life and death over them. His captors had no such fear. Queen Lucy in fact thought maybe Rabadash was going to be ill. Perhaps Jerry Falwell Jr is going to be ill.
Accountability and oversight for the loss at a Christian-affiliated institution, with action only taken after scandals reach prairie-fire level.
Romans 2:24 and its citation of an Old Testament verse is brought to mind once again: “As it has been written: “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.””
The schadenfreude is strong here, considering that a four-letter abbreviation for “cuckold” is the preferred insult of choice used online by conservatives who hold the same general political views as Falwell. They throw around the insult like candy.
I can think of no other time in the history of the church that so many failures by “Christian” leaders have given the lost world an opportunity to say “See, there’s nothing to it.”
He wants to grab attention and be the victim. 80 pound weight loss! Irrelevant but typical to draw attention to poor him. Do voyeurs needs a special kind of counseling? Both husband and wife are lunatics.
They can and they better in a timely fashion. A quick glance:
https://www.liberty.edu/trustees/
One trustee appears to be Jerry Vines, who has been discussed on TWW previously. Note some repeat last names, with brothers and a married couple on the board. Some of the latter’s bio comes from a 2014 press release:
https://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/01/prweb11461746.htm
Jeffrey and Gaye Benson (’83) (’82), Chesapeake, Va.
Jeffrey and Gaye (Overton) Benson met when they were students at Liberty. Jeff was a quarterback on the football team and earned a degree in business administration. Gaye graduated with a degree in political science. Her parents, William and Norma Overton, and grandparents, Alton (“A.W.”) and Lois Overton, were consistent financial supporters of Liberty; the Graduate School of Business was named in her grandparents’ honor. Jeff is a partner in the Overton Family Partnership, which develops and manages commercial real estate, residential development, and home construction in the Tidewater region.
Another pair of brothers were also on the board per that presser:
Glen Thomas, Lynchburg, Va.
Jimmy Thomas, Jr. (’84), Lynchburg, Va.
Brothers Glen Thomas (left) and Jimmy Thomas, Jr. have been faithful supporters of Liberty University. Jimmy Thomas, Jr. is a 1984 Liberty graduate and Glen Thomas also attended Liberty. In 2009, Glen’s generous donation made it possible to open the Thomas Indoor Soccer Center, which is in wide use by Liberty Athletics, intramurals, and large community youth leagues year-round. The brothers also donated the former Lynchburg Inn and Conference Center (now the Residential Annex I) and have donated land on Young Place in Lynchburg for a new transportation center now being planned. The Thomases are the owners of RST Marketing in Forest, Va. They have been involved in real estate developments in the Lynchburg area, including apartment complexes where many Liberty students live.
Per that release, one of Franklin Graham’s sons who graduated from there in 1997 rolled onto the board: “The Graham family has remained close friends with President Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his family for many years.” It also shares details on a current board member and attorney Steven A. Snyder who “worked with Dr. Jerry Falwell’s Old Time Gospel Hour in the 1980s and was executive director of the Old Time Gospel Hour Radio”. Also, “His parents were among Liberty’s first faculty members; they taught for 18 years.” Another interesting note was that “he was the second Liberty student to attend a top 10 law school, after President Falwell”.
And should we care about his vice?
Bill Palmer of The Palmer Report notes, w/an update:
“Should you care about what goes on in Jerry Falwell’s consensual sex life? Probably not. But there are 2 reasons why this story is relevant:
1. “Falwell has destroyed a whole lot of lives by pushing a warped version of Christianity at Liberty University, and it turns out he didn’t even believe in the crap he was pushing.
2. [politics]
“Update, 9:15pm: Falwell now claims he hasn’t resigned. Awkward.”
The Palmer Report is secular & has nothing to do with the church. However, even in this type of reporting, they get it – the damage to LU & young people.
From Fallwell’s statement: “My commitment to Liberty became and has remained my primary focus — and while I am so grateful and thankful for our collective successes, I also realize in hindsight that there was a toll that this took on me, which extended to my family too.”
We were at an A29 church when Driscoll resigned, and at an HBC plant when McDonald left the Harvest Bible Fellowship. In both cases, it was presented to our local congregations as “he was too devoted to the ministry and it grew beyond what he could handle, he’s leaving for the sake of his family.” Fallwell’s statement seems right out of the same playbook.
I think Michael Scott uses the same playbook. “Why don’t I tell you what my greatest weaknesses are? I work too hard, I care too much, and sometimes I can be too invested in my job.”
dee,
Dee, an off topic thought came to me today. Are MacArthur’s church shenanigans a diversion from his University problems. Is this about trying to establish public persecution and then claim that is why his school is in trouble?
Another of his bold face lies.
PrezBoy&Girl JerBecki were bored with their no-higher-purpose pointless $100M grifted sterile chastity legacy lifestyle, starving for excitement, when poolboy came along with three-way vice. JerBecki were thrilled out of their self-righteous bored minds! Jackpot! Naive, yes. Innocent, no.
Those who choose the higher purpose lifestyle of faith in Jesus out of an enclave of vice, in contrast, don’t find evil so titillating. Evil is an empty thrill with a devastating end.
“In our enclave were drunken dads & promiscuous moms (& vice versa), boys poring over porn, handsy uncles, gossipy Hollywoodite cougars at swimming pools in swim outfits with matching heels & fancy hairdos creating a scene but never taking a dip. There was the college student & her prof hanging out at the campus bar after classes, then leaving together. He was a family man. Vice.”
Remember… In his circles, the One Unpardonable Super-SIN is HOMOSEXUALITY.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
Too big to fail.
The poolboy is gay and the Falwells are Angel Investors for poolboy’s gay hostel.
None of this actually makes sense. But then, vice usually doesn’t, make sense, in the long run. It takes a very limited view. Short-sighted. Evil.
Look upthread at my 9:22 PM comment where I did a quick internet search on the history of that word.
It originated in PORNOGRAPHY and means a White Man who pimps out his White wife to non-White men so he can watch and get turned on. And Pool Boy is Hispanic, i.e. Not White. Cue other archaic words from Junior’s part of the country and coloration, like “Miscegenation” and “Protecting White Womanhood” to further ramp things up.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
Must be a thing. For the ages.
“Sin is not only morally wrong. If you’re able to step back and look at it, it’s also Terminally Dumb.”
— Fr Joseph Justice, the priest in charge of my chatechism class in the mid-Eighties
Isn’t that shtick characteristic of a Sociopath who got caught?
You mean Junior’s handpicked Inner Ring of brown-nosed yes-men?
Remember Perry “Pastor Pee” Noble?
Men of Power like Junior literally cannot git while the gittin’s good.
Their egos won’t let them.
“THIS CAN’T RUIN ME! NOTHING CAN RUIN ME!”
— Congressman Wilbur Mills, when his career-ending sex scandal broke
Didn’t said Michael Cohen have a reputation as a “Fixer” and the meanest lawyer in all New York?
This is another Jim & Tammy Train Wreck.
“INSANITY IS PART OF THESE TIMES! YOU MUST LEARN TO EMBRACE THE MADNESS!”
— Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari, Babylon-5
Nutshell.
From twitter:
Morgan Tomberlin @morgs_tomberlin
“It is generally a really, really positive fact about my life that very few of my friends even know who Falwell is. But it’s moments like this in which I wish I had more people to commiserate with about how unsurprising-yet-important these revelations are.”
1987 – Falwell Sr. goes down Heritage USA ‘Typhoon’ water slide in his suit and tie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHVBYR9RPyM
Well, I did say it would be refreshing if he resigned… Sadly I don’t have the gift of profitsee like DaveAA, and this is somewhat less than refreshing. I’m a parent, and I’m thankful his parents did not live to see this. That is the most positive thing I can say about this. I’m afraid to read the updates. It is possible that his resignation is another case of “He didn’t know he was resigning.” Would he please go now? I don’t care how!
Makes me wonder what kind of “negotiations” are going on behind the scenes and who has dirt on who…
Daisy,
I agree, Daisy.
Maybe Falwell figures if Christians are willing to overlook the personal behavior of the president, they should do the same for him?
First of all and by far the most holy Mr Falwell is worth over 100 million that is gold and it is the only thing that matters. Trust me get in the way and watch what happens. Another reason I am a degenerate Satan worshiper is b/c I feel for JF jr b/c what I personally observe his substance issues ie alcohol. I understand we should loathe anyone dealing with any such issue. I have a hard time wishing eternal torment on any would, if that is not another reason I should burn eternaly I don’t know what should.
I found myself wanting to help him reach out and and I understand this is disgusting and pathetic even pray for him. I get we should hope to literally destroy any potential or actual adversaries. We should pray for their eternal torment. I never was able to do that, another reason I am eternally lost. This is disgusting of me and is vile but I hope for their true restoration, it wont happen, no, it physically cannot happen EVER. But it is what I hope. Again I understand should repent of hoping. If I might offer an opinion from the cheap seats, it is not good news, it never has been. Please stop calling it that, it’s not, it never has been.
For years, churchmen (and I do mean “men” because women are not allowed to proclaim) of Falwell’s ilk have decried the “secular humanism” from which the country needs to be saved. Yet Falwell is the poster boy for why persons who describe themselves as Christians have declined 12% in the last decade (Pew Research Center). Christian leaders have invested in political power over the power of the Spirit and the “faithful” have elected to high office persons whom we would NEVER tolerate in pastoral leadership much less national leadership. (No, I am not getting political; just stating a reality.)
Falwell is merely the symbol of deeper and more problematic issues within Evangelical Christianity and political discourse within our country.
“No man can serve two masters . . . “
Sad, very sad; I take no joy in this news though I think resignation is appropriate. Nepotism is almost always harmful in my experience.
Yeah, I feel a bit the same, I was sure it was going to be something sexual that brought Driscoll down, not plagiarism, of all things. This current situation is a messy nasty one.
It ending up in the Daily Mail means it will be seen by lots of people who think this is just how Christianity is. I know many many non-Christian couples who would never dream of such behaviour. What a mess.
I feel sorry for the students of LU & for the parents who thought they were sending them somewhere reputable & respectable.
I am an alumnus of Liberty and have been against Junior’s leadership since before he was LU President. I have never wished that on him or anyone else, and I find it distasteful for you to accuse people here of that.
Junior’s behavior is of a spoiled rich kid who never grew up. I have no problem with how he chooses to live his life, but he was never the right person to run a university. The main reason he shouldn’t be, and the reason that I wish more people talked about, is that he doesn’t care one bit about the education of students. Liberty and every other educational institution need leaders who care about education, who have studied education, and who want students to succeed and not just make bank.
I am troubled by the same thing at Master’s, and even here at the public university where I live. These institutions have become more about money than students. I don’t want a CEO running a university; I want someone passionate about education.
I don’t want a pastor running LU. I don’t want somebody’s good friend running LU. I don’t want a rich guy leading LU. I want an education professional who has experience in university education to be the next LU President.
ishy,
Ishy,
I 100% agree with you….. the students/alumina are the major losers here…. and it is clear to me that Jr, and the Board of Trustees do not care about the students/education…
There’s a huge power differential between the “pool boy” and the Falwells. That is reason enough for anyone, Christian or not, regardless of the morals they have – e.g., even if they would otherwise have no problem with threesomes – to care about this. I’m beginning to think that behavior such as this, at least by an authority figure, never really stays in the closet. I think perhaps this is why Liberty U. individuals tolerated – even encouraged – such an abuse of power in my situation – and didn’t understand the strength of the power differential when a student reports abuse at an internship site to Liberty University. It is a sad day but hopefully things will begin to improve.
Sarah,
The only way things will improve is that there are more activities, such as the TWW, which are completely independent, and free to state the obvious. There will always be “issues” in any human created organization… that is just a “given”.
The problem comes in when these “issues” are overlooked/covered up, by other “leaders”. The “overlooking of issues” is all around us, and staring us in the face every day…
Without these folks, there would have been no Junior, Hybels, Driscoll, MacDonald, etc. etc. Those who enable bad-boys are badder … a systemic problem in the Christian Industrial Complex.
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE – HE’S OUT
per ABC news
It’s hard to dismiss the pool boy as gay, and also to claim that he had a multi-year affair with Becki Falwell.
JDV,
“Wealthy” does not equate to “spiritual.” IMO, rich donors should not be Trustees at Christian institutions. The more they give, the more is at stake for them … thus, some are willing to turn a deaf ear and blind eye to a leader’s misbehaving to protect their investment.
We see this all across the American church. Even church deacons/elders are often selected because they are popular in the church, prominent in the community, and/or wealthy donors. It doesn’t matter if they don’t meet the Biblical qualifications for that sacred office. If Trustees at Christian universities were held to the same Biblical standards, few would pass the test. Sooooo … the beat goes on.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Jerry Falwell Jr. resigned as president of Liberty University late Monday night, following a tumultuous day during which he tussled with the university’s board of trustees over his future at the school.
In a phone call to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Falwell said he had just sent his resignation letter to the board of the Christian school in Virginia. Mr. Falwell was placed on an indefinite leave of absence two weeks ago, following criticism about a photo he posted on social media showing him with his pants unbuttoned, a cup of dark liquid in one hand and his other arm draped around a woman. The woman, who Mr. Falwell said was his wife’s assistant, also had her pants open.
“The board put me on leave, took away my duties as prez, and that’s not permitted by my contract,” Mr. Falwell said Monday night. “And they put me on leave because of pressure from self-righteous people.”
He said he was still due his full compensation.
In a late Monday statement of their own, Liberty officials said Mr. Falwell had agreed to resign earlier on Monday, and then he reversed course. …
https://www.wsj.com/articles/jerry-falwell-jr-tangles-with-liberty-university-over-resignation-11598319341
In my experience at LU, power differentials were seen as a good thing. Nepotism is an ideal. Being rich is an ideal. Being in charge is an ideal. None of these were seen as bad things.
It’s one of the largest problems I had with LU. They talked so much about Christian “morals”, but I didn’t see any evidence they actually knew what morals were.
What’s amazing to me is that there are so many pastors and evangelists on this list! While business men and women who serve as LU Trustees might have overlooked Junior’s transgressions, these servants of God should have pointed a finger in his face long before now. They should have called him to account and campaigned to have him removed if he didn’t repent/change his wicked ways. “I’m gonna try to be a good boy” statements don’t cut it in any institution called by the name of God … a leader needs to be Christlike. It’s clear that Jerry Falwell Jr. wasn’t.
Amen.
Well, look at it this way–if Cedarville University is ever in the position of needing a new president…they now have a solid shoe-in candidate! (written totally in sarcastic font!)
Although I am staunchly NOT a Calvinist, the concept of “Total Depravity” is something that seems to be borne out more and more in the way in which certain ‘Christians’ behave! What a disturbingly sad and disgusting testimony for the Lord. I just can’t even…
Max,
See it not just in “Christian orgs”!!!
I second that Amen!
You make too much sense, Ishy. When it comes to a Christian University, we should not lose sight of “University” in an attempt to appear “Christian.” Certainly, a Christian atmosphere needs to prevail, but students go to LU, and pay well, for an education. LU needs a seasoned educator at the helm – being a genuine Christian would be a plus. Falwell was neither, it appears. But, boy, he could sure raise money (and hell)!
I truly admire your compassion for Jerry Falwell, Jr. He might have a substance problem that he has yet to face.
Falwell has brought a lot of money and visibility to LU, along with chaos and scandal. Now he is crying victimhood, blaming his wife and some young guy in Florida. Meanwhile, LU students don’t know how Falwell’s own actions might have manipulated decisions about their safety on campus this fall, as the pandemic continues.
My view: Falwell is a Christian if he calls himself one. Yes, there is a bit of mocking triumph in my heart today. That does not mean that I believe he deserves Hell. He just needs to go away and start over. His addiction might not be only to alcohol but to money, fame, a megaphone to condemn all who stand in his way or merely disagree, and obnoxious self-righteousness.
At LU, if a student misses a mandatory assembly, that student is FINED. All faculty (except at the law school) have one-year contracts. Dissent is not tolerated.
Again, I really do appreciate your capacity to see the frail man in the maelstrom. I hope Jerry Fallwell Jr truly sees his own frailty, soon.
Oh yeah, “pay to play” is common in board leadership at various institutions. Power and prestige, only if you pay. It matters not if you have any sense or not.
Whew! Have the New Calvinists ever demonstrated that! Mahaney, Driscoll, MacDonald, etc.
“pray to play”
“pay to pray”
…
He often did so at the expense of students, which is one reason I have never jumped on the “But he made LU so much MONEY!” bandwagon. He removed a lot of scholarships. He didn’t pay his professors well, so the school couldn’t attract good professors. He raised tuition. He focused on making the school “fancy” and raised tuition even more. He sold land to buddies for nothing. Students were never the primary reasons for these decisions and the trustees should have never gone along with all of them.
Perhaps the most energetic advocates of TD are projecting. Or perhaps it helps them to feel better about themselves.
ishy,
Do you think LU will be in trouble for improper use of charitable funds? I think Jerry Falwell Jr is seriously at risk in that area, if access to the Hendrick Motorsports yacht was a gift to him in exchange for the NASCAR sponsorship. Maybe the sponsorship itself is illegal in addition to looking like a wild splurge of tuition and donations.
But I bet the Trustees were sure wined and dined when they visited the campus! This is whole system of “Christian” university oversight stinks to high heaven.
There’s been talk of this for years, along with appeals to the VA attorney general to investigate it. Apparently, the attorney general was considering it, and then covid threw everything into disarray and they had bigger problems. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an investigation and something like that is found.
Yep. In this case I think people got too busy over protecting their jobs, perhaps because the secret meant something was going on and no one knew what it was. So people were on lots of eggshells. Perhaps someone else can explain it better than I can so please chime in if you think you understand what I’m trying to say
They can and they better in a timely fashion. A quick glance:
https://www.liberty.edu/trustees/
One trustee appears to be Jerry Vines, who has been discussed on TWW previously. Note some repeat last names, with brothers and a married couple on the board. Some of the latter’s bio comes from a 2014 press release:
https://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/01/prweb11461746.htm
Jeffrey and Gaye Benson (’83) (’82), Chesapeake, Va.
Jeffrey and Gaye (Overton) Benson met when they were students at Liberty. Jeff was a quarterback on the football team and earned a degree in business administration. Gaye graduated with a degree in political science. Her parents, William and Norma Overton, and grandparents, Alton (“A.W.”) and Lois Overton, were consistent financial supporters of Liberty; the Graduate School of Business was named in her grandparents’ honor. Jeff is a partner in the Overton Family Partnership, which develops and manages commercial real estate, residential development, and home construction in the Tidewater region.
Another pair of brothers were also on the board per that presser:
Glen Thomas, Lynchburg, Va.
Jimmy Thomas, Jr. (’84), Lynchburg, Va.
Brothers Glen Thomas (left) and Jimmy Thomas, Jr. have been faithful supporters of Liberty University. Jimmy Thomas, Jr. is a 1984 Liberty graduate and Glen Thomas also attended Liberty. In 2009, Glen’s generous donation made it possible to open the Thomas Indoor Soccer Center, which is in wide use by Liberty Athletics, intramurals, and large community youth leagues year-round. The brothers also donated the former Lynchburg Inn and Conference Center (now the Residential Annex I) and have donated land on Young Place in Lynchburg for a new transportation center now being planned. The Thomases are the owners of RST Marketing in Forest, Va. They have been involved in real estate developments in the Lynchburg area, including apartment complexes where many Liberty students live.
Per that release, one of Franklin Graham’s sons who graduated from there in 1997 rolled onto the board: “The Graham family has remained close friends with President Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his family for many years.” It also shares details on a current board member and attorney Steven A. Snyder who “worked with Dr. Jerry Falwell’s Old Time Gospel Hour in the 1980s and was executive director of the Old Time Gospel Hour Radio”. Also, “His parents were among Liberty’s first faculty members; they taught for 18 years.” Another interesting note was that “he was the second Liberty student to attend a top 10 law school, after President Falwell”.
Speaking of memory lane, there’s this list of trustees from what looks to be the previous term:
https://www.liberty.edu/media/11090/undergraduatecatalog20132014%5barchivedcatalog%5d/Liberty%20University%20Board%20of%20Trustees.pdf
Note the number of repeat names from the current edition. It’s worthwhile to again consider if people are just moved around or get onto the board because of family connections, donations, or other reasons, are accountability, oversight, and transparency likely to follow?
They can and they better in a timely fashion. A quick glance:
https://www.liberty.edu/trustees/
One trustee appears to be Jerry Vines, who has been discussed on TWW previously. Note some repeat last names, with brothers and a married couple on the board. Some of the latter’s bio comes from a 2014 press release:
https://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/01/prweb11461746.htm
Jeffrey and Gaye Benson (’83) (’82), Chesapeake, Va.
Jeffrey and Gaye (Overton) Benson met when they were students at Liberty. Jeff was a quarterback on the football team and earned a degree in business administration. Gaye graduated with a degree in political science. Her parents, William and Norma Overton, and grandparents, Alton (“A.W.”) and Lois Overton, were consistent financial supporters of Liberty; the Graduate School of Business was named in her grandparents’ honor. Jeff is a partner in the Overton Family Partnership, which develops and manages commercial real estate, residential development, and home construction in the Tidewater region.
Another pair of brothers were also on the board per that presser:
Glen Thomas, Lynchburg, Va.
Jimmy Thomas, Jr. (’84), Lynchburg, Va.
Brothers Glen Thomas (left) and Jimmy Thomas, Jr. have been faithful supporters of Liberty University. Jimmy Thomas, Jr. is a 1984 Liberty graduate and Glen Thomas also attended Liberty. In 2009, Glen’s generous donation made it possible to open the Thomas Indoor Soccer Center, which is in wide use by Liberty Athletics, intramurals, and large community youth leagues year-round. The brothers also donated the former Lynchburg Inn and Conference Center (now the Residential Annex I) and have donated land on Young Place in Lynchburg for a new transportation center now being planned. The Thomases are the owners of RST Marketing in Forest, Va. They have been involved in real estate developments in the Lynchburg area, including apartment complexes where many Liberty students live.
Per that release, one of Franklin Graham’s sons who graduated from there in 1997 rolled onto the board: “The Graham family has remained close friends with President Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his family for many years.” It also shares details on a current board member and attorney Steven A. Snyder who “worked with Dr. Jerry Falwell’s Old Time Gospel Hour in the 1980s and was executive director of the Old Time Gospel Hour Radio”. Also, “His parents were among Liberty’s first faculty members; they taught for 18 years.” Another interesting note was that “he was the second Liberty student to attend a top 10 law school, after President Falwell”.
Speaking of memory lane, there’s this list of trustees from what looks to be the previous term:
https://www.liberty.edu/media/11090/undergraduatecatalog20132014%5barchivedcatalog%5d/Liberty%20University%20Board%20of%20Trustees.pdf
Note the number of repeat names from the current edition. It’s worthwhile to again consider if people get onto the board because of family connections, donations, or other reasons and then are just moved around to one spot after another over time, are accountability, oversight, and transparency likely to follow?
Regrets for cut and paste issues, just meant to post this:
Speaking of memory lane, there’s this list of trustees from what looks to be the previous term:
https://www.liberty.edu/media/11090/undergraduatecatalog20132014%5barchivedcatalog%5d/Liberty%20University%20Board%20of%20Trustees.pdf
Note the number of repeat names from the current edition. It’s worthwhile to again consider if people get onto the board because of family connections, donations, or other reasons and then are just moved around to one spot after another over time, are accountability, oversight, and transparency likely to follow?
You just put your finger on a lot of problems with the whole SBC Trustee setup. They are particularly fond of the reuse/recycle/reappoint paradigm.
Friend,
Amen, Friend. Agreed.
It did seem some professors there were a bit into money. I used to really want to teach there, but not now.
I was over 40, reporting I was being abused at an internship site. I have a LOT of business experience and know how to tell my boss’s boss when I thought we were doing the wrong thing. But somehow, it was no one at Liberty seemed able to care, or perhaps even to read emails. There shouldn’t be such a power differential that it is impossible to report abuse. I found lots of other problems along the way, but if a report had been heeded, most of the other problems would not have occurred. I ended up trying to file with Title IX FOUR times and they would never let me. There was always some reason. I think they are supposed to allow anyone to report, even if, for instance, someone is imagining the whole thing because they are having a schizophrenic episode.
I don’t have to consider this. I know it’s true. In fact, this was something Falwell Sr and other people bragged about when I was a student. The first question people often asked me was who I was related to (answer: Nobody. I’m the only Christian in my family).
I had a suitemate who broke all kinds of rules but was never punished or given reprimands. Other people would get reps just for having a streak on their mirror (me) but she would trash things and they would ignore it. Came in after curfew all the time and it would be ignored. Why? Her dad was a trustee.
I’m really sorry that happened to you. Abuse there is real and does happen and especially to those who don’t have a rich or famous relative. And I’m not surprised they didn’t let you file. As I’ve said, nothing I’ve seen since Junior took over has indicated he has the least bit of concern for students. It’s all about money and fame, and I’m pretty sure there’s been a number of illegal things done to attain those things,
She was Highborn, and you were Lowborn.
“POWER means I get away with doing Anything I Want. ANYTHING.”
Well, how about this? “My future depends on propping up this institution—all the more, because it calls itself Christian, and Christian power is more important than anything else.”
Am I in the ballpark?
Is there a Jerry Falwell III waiting to inherit the Iron Throne of LU?
If so, that’s who’ll you’ll get.
I don’t think Junior has any kids, but Jonathan does.
The nepotism needs to stop here, though.
As well as the Yiddish expression “Shanda fur die Goyim”, which means pretty much the same thing.
Friend,
My heart and mind is with the students. This chaos will wreak havoc on some of them. Either the Board of Trustees knew about Jr’ issues, or they are incredibly naive or stupid.
As we see time and again here on TWW, the pew peons get the big shaft for minor things, while the big boys get away with all sort of #$&. But it is not the pew peons getting “shaft” that bothers most most, it is the intellectual/emotional damage that will be done to some of them.
Conservative evangelical/ fundamentalist are hung up on behavior, especially sexual behavior as a litmus test for genuine piousness. Most/many of the readers of TWW have not had to sit through countless chapels/ classes where “pious” behavior is rammed down on you…. think the purity movement BS when Andy Savage Teaching this just the week before he had a “organic moment”?
Dee recently posted a picture of burning trash bin floating in a flood…. that is exactly what this is, but worse..
From the Wall Street Journal article posted:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/jerry-falwell-jr-tangles-with-liberty-university-over-resignation-11598319341
““The board put me on leave, took away my duties as prez, and that’s not permitted by my contract,” Mr. Falwell said Monday night. “And they put me on leave because of pressure from self-righteous people.” He said he was due his full compensation.”
And there you have it. A school whose on campus life has one code of conduct requirement after another purportedly based on a Christian education experience apparently has its president not factoring his conduct into why the trustees were forced to take action to remove him. No, for him, it’s apparently a matter of what’s in his personal contract — which being the son of the national figure who founded of this iteration of the institution likely gave him quite a bit of latitude in writing up said contract, no?
Also, what’s the big issue and priority being articulated? $$$$, and specifically, money that’s supposedly due him. I’ll allow that the rest of the Monday night phone call could’ve been focused on his concern for student well-being or other altruistic goals as the driving factor behind not wanting to be removed. That notwithstanding, to get on a phone call with a national business and political publication after being voted out of one’s position and choose to verbalize an assertion regarding one’s being due $$$$ is remarkable.
Oh, and then there’s the cognitive dissonance evidently on display where he tells the same national outlet that “they put me on leave because of pressure from self-righteous people.” Again, look at the student life requirements and restrictions reportedly placed on the campus body (I’m interested to hear more about those currently in place, as those I know who’ve taken classes there have mainly done it online). And yet removal based on his conduct (which has been pointed out figures be unacceptable and actionable even in a secular education setting) was because of “self-righteous people” according to him?
This verse from Christ’s rebuke of the Pharisees comes to mind: “And they tie up burdens heavy and hard to bear and lay them on the shoulders of men; but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger” (Matthew 23:4).
What about Jonathan? Will the Trustees tap him for the job? Jerry Falwell Sr.’s other son, Jonathan appears to have walked the more straight and narrow than Junior; he is currently Senior Pastor, Thomas Road Baptist Church, where his father preached, and an LU Trustee (hmmm … I wonder if he had some serious talks with Junior along the way?).
Where were the self-righteous for years when Junior was misbehaving badly?! They are never around until the last minute, when the darkness they already knew about is exposed by the light.
The Bible would call that “filthy lucre” at this point.
Mine too. It seems that LU does a good job of selling itself to applicants. Also, some parents will only allow their children to go to a college that advertises itself as Christian. Really, though, nobody knows what a college is like until they enroll. By then, transferring costs time and money. Transfer students tend not to get scholarships. Not all credits will transfer, or apply to the intended major. Universities are not obliged to track graduation figures for transfer students, as they are for those who enroll as freshmen, so they have less incentive to help them along.
JDV,
The floating, burning trash bin just got allot hotter!!! Jr just keeps pouring gas on it!!!
Max,
I have seen Presidents of big name, high profile Universities “removed” for much less infractions than what “Jr” did…. interesting that he uses the words “self righteous” in describing his critics..
Someone should do a search on the number of times Jr, and others associated with LU have described their own believes and behavior as being morally superior to the rest of us “secular heathens”…. I know I have been personally “ put down” by self righteous people for believing in science.. And LU DOES not fully believe in science… especially in the realm of physics and biology
I know I have been personally “put down” by self righteous people for going to the wrong kind of Christian church.
I think so. In my view, sometimes, to keep one’s integrity you have to resign from the institution and/or do things that may lead to having to leave the organization. I think many people who believe as do have had to leave the organization. I do have one professor, likely more than one, who is still there and seems to have integrity. I am thinking they are low enough in level that they can just keep there head down. They did have some leadership in the department until a few years ago, but now do not. I wonder if they could tell that it wasn’t a good time to be in leadership and thus decided not to be in leadership. Who knows, that is supposition on my part.
Friend,
Friend,
As I said above, the more Jr opens his mouth, the hotter the burning, floating dumpster fire that he and LU has become….
if there were not thousands of students damaged by this, it would be entertaining…
For the Record: I am not interested in being a candidate for Liberty U. President nor a pool boy for the next LU President. Living in Lynch-burg just sounds too risky.
drstevej,
🙂
He is definitely a better person than Junior, but once again, I am totally against nepotism. He will likely be a candidate, though he might very well decline because he is a better person and Thomas Road is enough for anyone. But they shouldn’t go choose a Graham just because they are a Graham or anyone else for their famous name and relations. They should choose the best candidate for the job of leading a university that is educating students.
I think the pool boy knew better than to live in Lynchburg.
ishy,
But, it is quite clear education and scholarship is NOT the top priority of LU! At least not Jr and the BofT
ishy,
The couple has thrее сhіldrеn together including twо ѕоnѕ, Сhаrlеѕ Wеѕlеу (26), Jerry “Trey” Falwell III (30), аnd one daughter, Саrоlіnе Grасе (19).
https://heavy.com/news/2019/05/becki-tilley-jerry-falwell-jr-wife/
Interesting. Their kids are left out of everything. I wonder if they’ve distanced themselves from their parents crazy behavior.
I think Jonathan would be before Trey, but I hope they don’t choose anyone famous for their family.
Trey already works for the University. He is not in the top of the Administration though. I suspect he is not a candidate but I’ve been wrong lots of times.
https://newsadvance.com/news/local/liberty-university/liberty-university-board-accepts-falwells-resignation/article_dfb560be-3b3a-56ea-b8d7-60179a5c5a6b.html
“Falwell submitted his resignation late Monday night after a stunning series of reversals, in which he first agreed to resign, but later backtracked and then finally capitulated to mounting calls — including from individual board members — to permanently step aside.”
“‘It’s a relief,’ Falwell said in a brief telephone interview Tuesday. ‘The quote that keeps going through my mind this morning is Martin Luther King Jr: “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I’m free at last”.'”
“Falwell said he does not know where he will land next but has no intention of returning to the school synonymous with his family name. ‘I’ve done all I can do at Liberty and I’m ready to move onto something else,’ he said. ‘This happened for a reason and the board treated me very, very generously and I am very grateful for that’.”
“In a statement Tuesday afternoon, a university spokesperson said the board had unanimously accepted Falwell’s resignation and offered him a severance package of an undisclosed amount.”
Boy, he sure did!!
Even bad-boy CEOs have golden parachutes.
Max,
But if you were a poor student that was caught with your zipper down, with a co-ed with her zipper down ( or any other combination of he/she/undecided), would the board have treated he/she/undecided so well?
Gram3,
“Would he please go now? I don’t care how!”
++++++++++++++
if i were to write the theme song to all this, this would at the end of the chorus.
Jerry Falwell Jr.cliams that this time he as resigned. From one hour ago
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/08/25/fallwell-resigns-confirmed/
(from NPR article about his resignation):
“I don’t want my family to embarrass Liberty,” Falwell said, “and I have not broken any rules — any rules — that apply to a staff member at Liberty.”
Seriously??
Headless Unicorn Guy,
I think Falwell had sex with dudes of the male sex.
I could be wrong, but my Spidey Sense on that is tingling.
There’s no reason for him to say in public statements (paraphrase),
“But I can assure you ~I~ did not have sexual relations with that man, it was only my wif who did,”
-if he didn’t do something (either with that guy or another one).
SiteSeer,
To quote that 1980s pop song by Frida,
“I know there’s something going on”
More coming out. Questionable financial deal with Jr’s trainer from Reuters.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-falwell-trainer-exclusive/exclusive-falwell-steered-liberty-university-land-deal-benefiting-his-personal-trainer-idUSKCN1VH283
Falwell’s earlier statements are also reminiscent of a certain passage in Genesis:
“That woman, that YOU gave me…”
(i.e. it’s her fault/your fault/school’s fault, anyone but ME!)
readingalong,
Jr just poured more gas on the floating, burning dumpster…. he going to burn LU down before he is done!
Does he need us to explain how his behavior violates LU code of conduct?
Correction. Trey is senior or executive leadership. I don’t know which is higher and/or how they differ
“Falwell has publicly credited Crosswhite with helping him lose 75 pounds. “That’s the kind of guy he is,” Crosswhite told Reuters. He asked Reuters to submit written questions about his dealings with Liberty and Falwell, but did not respond to them.” -From the Reuters article
Isn’t that the 75 pounds that Junior claimed yesterday that he lost due to being a victim of his wife’s infidelity?
That was Reality Then, This is Reality Now.
oceania has always been at peace with eurasis, comrades.
“Telltale” (that ex-JW Atheist YouTube Channel I think I mentioned somewhere) started offering merch — candleholders 3D printed in the shape of a dumpster, sized for those short squat candles so you can have your own tabletop Dumpster Fire.
The important aspect to this story is Michael Cohen. He stated an intention to purchase unspecified pictures from a Florida individual it seems. What details where behind any such transaction?
Next. He claims the individual disposed of the evidence on their own, but somehow, Mr. Cohen had one picture. Why would the holder suddenly be motivated in disposal? Yet Mr. Cohen came into possession of one, and only one? How could he be sure of this disposal?
As an attorney ( presumably sober at the time) Mr. Falwell states he was the target of blackmail. He would understand the importance of a consistant legal construct, and that he was alleging criminal activity.
And the deal in question is a CHRISTIAN Athletic Club:
Cross worked into the corporate logo with a Bible Verse beneath it – better keep one hand on your wallet. The more CHRISTIAN a business presents itself as, the more likely you are to get burned.
JUNIOR HATH SPOKEN.
So many weird things about this sad story.
Considering the level of sleaze we’ve seen since the Trailer Park Yacht Party, anything along those lines sounds plausible. In the years I’ve been reading this blog,we’ve had a LOT of peeks into a ManaGAWD’s sexual kinks. When you’re POWERFUL enough (even if only in your own mind), you let your sexual freak flag fly in everyone’s face. Just Because You Can. Remember Caligula?
“The support Falwell provided to the two young men, Granda and Crosswhite, has some parallels. Both were aided in business ventures and both have flown on the nonprofit university’s corporate jet.”
hmmmmmmm …
It’s becoming a South Park cartoon of itself.
Well, to be fair, there is NOT a rule that says The son of the Liberty University founder, while serving as the University’s president, shall not unzip his pants and put his arm around his wife’s pregnant assistant, who also has her pants unzipped, while holding a glass of black water during a party on board the Wheels yacht owned by Hendrick Motorsports during a year when Liberty is sponsoring a Hendrick driver.
Maybe next time they’ll think ahead.
I doubt that we have heard the last of JF jr.
Perhaps his comeback memoir will be titled “Taking Liberties.”
I’m sure it must have been another 75 pounds. Doesn’t matter – he’ll gain it all back with nothing to do now.
I figure that Junior will eventually emerge as some sort of expert contributor on a conservative media outlet.
Jeffrey Chalmers,
Any other “leader” would have been pushed from the plane with no parachute. There is a line that is crossed where “gracious” treatment should not be extended. Just go away!!
Doesn’t that make three times in the last 24 hours? Perhaps the “black water” is confusing him a bit.
Either way, if that photo of Jr. with his pants undone is any indicator, it looks like whoever helped him lose the weight quit on him about 30 or 40 pounds too soon.
Appearance is everything! Right?
Headless Unicorn Guy,
I need to look that up… maybe get one!
On another note, looks there is more gas being poured…. Jr can not seem to get his story straight about his weight loss, and now the “other” pool boy got a sweet deal…. this just does not end….and, tonight on ABC news, Jr is quited to say that all of this “politically motivated”
drstevej,
Definitely!
Maybe he lost it twice 😉
I wonder how many people Cohen has dirt on?
As to other people that go to yacht parties, is there a strange interplay between their marital relations and their business activities / institutional positions as well? These are people that run the whole world for everybody after all. No doubt they stick within Big Five recommendations.
His perversions were politically motivated?! Junior is not going away easy.
Perhaps he will name more when his book is released next month.
No, I saw him talk about this elsewhere. He claims that liberals are out to get him and that he’s being targeted because of his beliefs. But the faculty and alumni are furious with him, so it’s just a flat out lie. I mean, I dislike him for his beliefs, but mostly his beliefs that he deserves to be LU president because of money and who his dad was. If I saw any indication that he cared about the education of students, maybe it would be different.
Max,
“There is a line that is crossed where “gracious” treatment should not be extended.”
++++++++++++
either accountability means something or it doesn’t. and the individual is above accountability. someone everyone should avoid like the cheese-touch.
(or am i the only one who has watched the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid franchise many times, laughing out loud all the way)
i’m so tired of this silly religion of mine being riddled with double standards in how it applies everything, especially accountability. thin-skinned egocentric rich guys are exempt from accountability. gospel-accountability in action.
yeah, that sure sounds like Jesus.
(bearing in mind that christianity and Jesus of Nazareth are 2 separate things)
Max,
He just keeps pouring gas on the floating dumpster fire that he is, and that he is turning LU into……
We should keep a running tally on his excuses…. it might help some poor student that is getting hammered by the disciple “System” at LU… maybe if the poor student go through the list, one might work!
With reference to Liberty University: As I continue reading the posts by Dee and Todd Wilhem (including from his blog Thou Art The Man), almost all the commenters’ comments (and including many of the links within the commenters’ comments), I am reminded of several things:
Monty Python’s sketch “The Dead Parrot”
The summer fair game called “Whack-a-Mole”
Hydra, the many headed serpent
ishy,
Yup… I bet those “liberals” staged the trailer park boys party, kidnapped Jr, dressed him in the “outfit”, unzipped his pants, and put his arm around the red-head, making sure his figure tips barely touched her breasts..
. yea, totally believable that it was all a set up… Oh, I forgot, they stole his phone so it would look like ke posted it, and then deleted it, and got it back to Jr before he realized it was gone….
. totally believable
To quote Larry Norman
“All men are equal, all men are brothers.
Then why are the rich, more equal than others?”
There is no reason for a board to mention severance packages in an exist statement, unless public disclosure of the package, is the next boot to drop.
The package cleary has issues or the board would not be pre-positioning itself.
“Falwell is due his $1.25 million salary for two years, followed by a lump-sum payment of about $8 million”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/jerry-falwell-jr-may-be-owed-10-5-million-by-liberty-university-11598395393?
“Liberty University owes Jerry Falwell Jr. a total of about $10.5 million over the next two years after he resigned as president of the nation’s largest evangelical college following several scandals, according to a person close to Mr. Falwell with knowledge of his employment contract.”
But professors are underpaid. And I’m sure there are people who work for the school who don’t even make $15 an hour 🙁
I’m here to say that $15/hour would be a princely increase for a lot of workers in Virginia and elsewhere:
Increases the minimum wage from its current federally mandated level of $7.25 per hour to (i) $8.00 per hour effective July 1, 2019; (ii) $9.00 per hour effective July 1, 2020; (iii) $10.10 per hour effective July 1, 2021; and (iv) $11.25 per hour effective July 1, 2022…
But bear in mind that some jobs pay less than minimum wage.
Liberty was not smart enough to put a morals clause in Jerr’s contract?
nmgirl,
Apparently…..this just does not end..
He resigned, so maybe it doesn’t apply in that case.
Frankly, I think that kind of severance package in any situation is ridiculous when it’s being paid by students.
Remember WHO would have been dictating that contract.
Nah, surely a Falwell would have morals, wouldn’t he?
PERSECUTED by The Deep State, headed by SATAN himself.
“WE ARE ONE. WE ARE Q.”
If ever there were a time to challenge the payout and the cronyism by students, alumni, and other concerned parties, now is the time
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jerry-falwell-jrs-years-of-lgbtq-hypocrisy-end-with-the-splash-of-a-pool-boy?ref=scroll
From the words of an old song:
“God don’t like it and I don’t either,
It’s a scandal and a shame”
Isn’t this just another flavor of Harvest Bible Chapel? J.F. Jr. leaves but the school will be the one taking the hit in the long run?
He reportedly was listed as the manager of the LLC that owned the Miami place. Also, the reports concerning Trey and JF Management LLC as far as management and real estate deals are due to get renewed scrutiny if he remains involved at any level at the school.
And then Jerome follows up next with the amounts:
Yeah, this is a lot of money. Probably not as much as a prominent football coach being released two years into a five year contract for two losing seasons in a row, but pretty darned close. (It’s worth noting that at public universities, football coaches are sometimes more highly paid than the president, but much of a coach’s compensation outside of the publicly disclosed number is raised by the booster club and/or comes from deals with sportswear manufacturers.)
Someone leaked those amounts. I’m wondering if this is going to end up in court before it’s all over. In fact, I’m wondering if the board isn’t a roiling mass of “he violated his morals clause and should get NOTHING” and “if we don’t let him go with this money, all our dirty laundry will come out in court.”
And, if I was Becki Falwell, yeah, I did wrong, I was wrong to do it, but I would surely be *EXTREMELY* unhappy with my husband who threw me under a bus even before the bad news truly came out. (Which makes me wonder if Becki Falwell has a contract with LU? Inquiring minds and all that…)
If the payout was specified in his employment contract, I doubt any challenge would be successful.
For what it’s worth, I received five weeks pay plus five weeks health insurance coverage as my severance when a previous employer laid me off during the Great Recession. I spent more than 20 years with that company. And my base pay would probably be considered pocket change for Jerry Falwell, Jr. or Richard Roberts, another infamous example of nepotism when it comes to Christian university presidents.
Yes, and with this latest article from Reuters, I’m seeing the writing on the wall.
How many other handsome, fit, young men has Jerry Falwell “mentored” like this, I wonder? Is the truth known by all those folks who are muzzled by NDA’s?
And if you’re thinking poor Becki may be an innocent victim in all, re-read this article from last year https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/09/jerry-falwell-liberty-university-loans-227914
Libralz will always stage witch hunts and hoaxes to discredit Godly men (As Aunt Polly would say).
Now I’ve got that song, and Phil Collins’ drumbeat, stuck in my head.
All along the watchtower?
.
IMHO The LU students, past and present, are the real victims.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI_LMdVhxgI
Giancarlo Granda, the man who came forward on Monday with the allegations regarding Jerry Jr., has hit back at Jerry and Becki. You can find his statement on Twitter (it’s a screenshot). The things I got out of it are:
– Becki Falwell, according to him, was the initiator and Jerry Jr. was very much involved. There’s more to it than that, but I feel like quoting it would not be appropriate for this blog.
– Quote: “The reality is Jerry Falwell is a predator.I know this because he sent me an image of a female Liberty University student exposing herself at their farm. This is not appropriate conduct for someone who up until this week, has been charged with overseeing the well-being of thousands of vulnerable and impressionable students.”
Now, now I’m wondering if Jerry/Becki blackmailed students into unwanted actions. I hope to God there was nobody, but if just this one picture exists, then ouch. Of course, this statement was definitely crafted by an attorney but if there’s any truth to this, I think I’m going to be sick.
Becki has/had an assistant at the Univ so had some sort of relationship with the school. Also if I’m remembering correctly Jerry told Sarah Pullman Bailey that was what was owed to him
I believe Trey co-owns the gay youth hostel with Granda.
Falwell keeps claiming that Granda was trying to extort him but he did owe Granda the money. Is wanting to be paid what you are owed extortion?
Muslin, fka Dee Holmes,
I share your physical reaction…
I’ll just leave these links from the Liberty University sub-reddit here:
https://old.reddit.com/r/LibertyUniversity/comments/ifgfd8/and_the_skeletons_begin_to_come_out_of_the_closet/g2nqt0o/
https://old.reddit.com/r/LibertyUniversity/comments/ifv7q5/serious_question/
SiteSeer,
It might be a public service for a deep-pocketed public-spirited person, some of whom do still exist, intending to fully publish what is received, to offer to make Granda whole in exchange for everything he knows.
OTOH, me thinks that Granda has the makings of a block-buster confessional. That might be worth a lot more than what he asserts he is owed by JF Jr.
I’m guessing that what will actually happen is that he will be paid to keep silent.
The 2nd sub-reddit linked by Chris S asks how JF Jr’s behavior cannot have been known to his supervisors. Perhaps the entire board of Trustees needs to be cleared out, but who has authority to do that? Perhaps the Virginia AG needs to step in, as has been suggested in prior comments.
The woman that thou gavest to be with me…
The woman that thou gavest to be with me…
Sarah,
LU was it seems run just like any fundamentalist church or NGO. The family “owns” it, and all sorts of related parties are on the payroll or somehow make bank off it. Trey, for example, was making a hefty salary while still in his young twenties. I’m sure a lot of them are nervous for their own livelihoods now.
Junior is playing the victim (his only route back to some capacity in the Christian Industrial Complex). On the NBC Today show this morning:
“I never broke a single rule that applies to staff members at Liberty. That’s the only reason I resigned: because I don’t want SOMETHING MY WIFE DID to harm the school I’ve spent my whole life building”
https://www.today.com/video/becki-falwell-breaks-her-silence-about-scandal-as-pool-boy-makes-new-allegations-90655813815
Senior built the school. Junior tore it down.
Samuel Conner,
The Board of Trustees are incompetent if the did NOT know about this stuff…. we do, how could they NOT? That is there job, oversight of the Institution.
I’m of two kinds regarding Becki Falwell. In how much of this was she a willing partner, and how much is she part of the “my husband and his ministry/image must come before my own wants/needs/reputation” mindset? I dunno. In either case, certainly an extreme example.
Didn’t break any rules for LU employee conduct?! You be the judge (see pp. 24-25 at following link).
https://www.liberty.edu/human-resources/wp-content/uploads/sites/112/2019/11/Employee_Handbook.pdf
Max,
Well, it does not say that your pants have to be zip up!!
Some of the trustees knew; Junior was just too big to fail. I’m sure they kept thinking he would grow up, come to Jesus, or otherwise act like a Christian leader and it would all go away. Lots of faculty and students knew that Junior was a bad-boy for years … you’ll see them come forward now.
While zipped pants is not specifically covered in the employee handbook, I believe that would be covered in:
“All employees of the University are expected to conduct themselves in matters of language and morality in a manner compatible with the Mission of the University and The Liberty Way.”
“I KNOW NOTHINK! NOTHINK!”
— Sgt Schultz (Johann Banner, I’m getting so much mileage out of your most famous character tag line)
Genesis 3:12 —
“IT’S ALL HER FAULT! NOT MINE!”
Zip your pants, don’t hang out with scantily-clad chicks, don’t drink black water, don’t invest in questionable enterprises, etc. will be included in the next revision of the employee handbook.
“Just like Jared Kushner, Except CHRISTIAN(TM)!”
Gag order with Hush Money, just like Michael Jackson’s accusers.
THAT’s the Plain Reading of Isaiah 55:8-9?????
It is if you’re the one trying to stiff him.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
The gas continues to flow to the floating, burning dumpster….
Given Jr was trumpted as representing Conservative Christianity in the US, I guess this is how Conservative Christianity is to Respond to moral failings?? As HUG showed, it is in the Bible !
Remember Michael Jackson in Neverland?
“Mentoring” all the hot and cold running boys?
BINGO.
Junior makes about as much sense as another big time sociopath and narcissist I could name.
“You shall not muzzle the ox when it treads out the grain.” (1 Timothy 5:18)
Leaders at LU need to tread this grain to the final kernel. There is more to this story.
Sadly, I don’t either ☺️
But it does seem this institution covered a multitude of sins for a multitude of years just because Junior made them prophet-able.
SiteSeer,
Whew!
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/25/jerry-falwell-miami-hostel-liberty-university-trey-falwell-215528
Good Lord! It should be clear by now that some of these Falwells are not members of the Moral Majority!
Is it time to trot out the familiar verse about the whited sepulchre? The blind guides?
They are Moral because THEY SAY SO!
TOUCH NOT MINE ANOINTED, LOWBORN!
There’s a reason “Rags to Riches to Rags in Three Generations” is a folk proverb in both English and Chinese.
Caesar Augustus –> Caesar Tiberias –> Caesar Caligula.
Kim Il-Sung –> Kim Jong-Il –> Kim Jong-Un.
Except House Falwell skipped directly to the third generation.
“Involvement with rumors, gossip, or inappropriate information (including social media) which inhibits the smooth functioning of the University or creates a poor image of the University”
“Conduct which disrupts business activities or actions detrimental to the University”
“These examples are not intended to be all-inclusive and are illustrative only. All employees of the University are expected to conduct themselves in matters of language and morality in a manner compatible with the Mission of the University and The Liberty Way. Unsuitable conduct may be grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including termination.“
Max,
It was never about morality. It was always about accruing power while screaming that the sky is falling.
It still is.
Isn’t flipping into Poor Poor Innocent Victim the most characteristic sign of a Sociopath?
Handsome, Fit Virile…Young…Men… With Abs… and Pecs…?
Mentored or GROOMED?
Remember Michael Jackson.
Senior cut his teeth as a school segregationist. He built the university as an extension of the segregation academy he founded several years earlier.
He was aligned with a cabal that CLOSED PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN VIRGINIA instead of allowing black and white students to learn in the same building, as required under law.
So yeah, maybe Senior was a more affable fellow, but his whites-only segregation academy was part of a long-standing system that denied public education to the children of taxpayers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Falwell_Sr.
i.e. “I Did NOT Know Pool Boy in the Biblical Sense”?
“SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION FO’EVAH’!”
–George C Wallace, Governor of Alabama, elected President of the Confederate States in 1968
Depends on how Winsome and Sweet and Submissive Becki the Cougar is.
These guys are (unfortunately) SO predictable!
Friend,
Whew!
“There is none good, no not one”
I agree. They ALL should be sued for breach of fiduciary duty. Also, do you think the IRS will approve Hush Money as legitimate business expenses? When the money dries up,we’ll see these rats stampeding each other to get away from this flaming dumpster!
Whew! Appears that LU roots were as dark as the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention by Calvinist slaveholders – the Falwells have been associated with SBC.
If they didn’t, they should be sued for breach of fiduciary duty. TODAY!
Friend,
And, Jr was astudent in the private academy when it opened in the 60’s….
Max,
This article makes me physically sick, again.
If you read the article, you will see how the LU lawyers are all over the “conflict of interest” “ issues”.
I am a faculty member at a “secular humanist” university, and I have a number of patents, involvement in several start-ups, and been a expert witness on numerous, patent lawsuits, including one high profile case.
I smell conflict of interest violations all over Jr, and his LU executive son. You all would not believe all that I have to go through, at my secular humanist university to monitor/prevent conflict of interest. I would be fired for stuff I read about in this article.
Once again, “Christian organizations” are “in the gutter” w/r to ethical standards compared us heathen, secular humanist… as you can tell this makes me VERY mad…
Doesn’t sound like they are listening to you Ishy. A pastor/politician with ties to LU, not an educator, has been approached for the job:
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/513729-rep-mark-walker-says-hes-being-recruited-to-replace-jerry-falwell-jr
I wonder if the LU Board of Trustees know that Rep. Walker has called women “eye candy”?
https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/26/politics/mark-walker-eye-candy-remarks/index.html
Poor Liberty. Here we go again!
“God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles” (and heathen, secular humanists)
IMO, there’s more Moral Majority showing up as TWW commenters than leaders of some Christian institutions!
Until the Body of Christ at large gets mad as hell about such leadership failings in Christian ranks, more Jerry Falwell Juniors will happen.
This is why I left the church. There’s so much self-righteous judgement over non-important things and absolute denial over big problems and terrible leaders. When I went to LU, they were horrified if I wore jeans but not horrified by nepotism. I don’t get it.
Max,
Given that: “Jr” has been held up as a leader of conservative Christianity, leader of the largest “Christian University”, and buddies/supporter of 45, there are many reasons that people that care about “the name of Christ” should be upset.
ishy,
And I am “carnal/compromised/etc” because I believe in physics which shows me the Universe is very old. Note, LU, until recently forced all student to take a “young earth creationist” class..
Yet, while Jr claims he did not violate any “faculty/university” standards of conduct, Stuff I seen and read about Jr would get someone at my institution in BIG “issues”… especially flying select undergrads around in private jet??
Including: where in the heck was the LU Board of Trustees for the last decade?!!
I transferred in and got to skip that, as I took a year of geology at UGA, but I don’t declare myself an expert and kinda avoid the subject altogether with Christians because it doesn’t make sense to me. I guess you can call me a “Creationist”, defined as “God created it somehow”.
I do think that evangelicals are some of the most wasteful, inconsiderate people on the planet and haven’t seen any indicated that their belief in God’s creation has done anything to make them care for the planet they have, so what’s the point of being so adamant about it? Lots of Christian beliefs are like that–they have these strong hills to die on that lead to absolute no change to their lives except wanting to argue about it more.
Meanwhile one would struggle to see any comment from the normally hyperactive conservative evangelical world on this particular story.
LU alumni are furious about all this behind the scenes. I’m in an alumni group and they’ve been calling for Junior’s resignation for several years now. I would say the majority of them are still conservative evangelicals, but they know Junior doesn’t seem to consider himself one them. Conservative, yes, but he doesn’t seem to care about church at all. Alumni donations have gone way down, according to some insiders. And I believe it, because the number of “Donate” letters I’ve gotten in the past year from LU has jumped up quite a bit.
So Junior’s claim that it’s all liberals out to get him is a big lie. The only reason he hadn’t been fired is that he’s buddy buddy with the trustees.
Junior is also no longer useful to people even more powerful than he. Beyond being not useful, he has been seen as a liability for a year or so. The board can therefore safely act.
ishy,
Well put ishy, and I concur.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
The 2-generation downfall is reminiscent of the priest Eli and his sons, or the prophet Samuel and his sons, who were not of his character. One might argue that the Sproul lineage is not ageing well, either.
This is getting way off-topic, but I interpret this to be a consequence, at least in part, of the focus on “post-mortem” in nearly all varieties of christian eschatology. The judgment/wrath warnings of the OT are much more “under the sun” (national or sometimes personal calamity) and I think there’s a strong case to be made that Jesus’ warnings in context are of this character too (read Josephus’ “The Jewish War”, and you will probably not ever after think as you formerly did about Jesus’ prophecies against Jerusalem or the towns of Galilee). The present (and in the Western tradition, at least since the time of Tertullian and Augustine) pre-occupation with post-mortem wrath is so attention-holding that it anesthetizes many people to present forms of wrath that we should be fearing. I have experienced this in recent days in email communication with believers about US problems in addressing the pandemic. “It’s OK; our hope is in heaven.”
When it comes to the firing of the President of a Christian University, are there differences between the contract of a Christian university President and the contract of their secular university counterpart?
I know of a real (not hypothetical) firing from a secular university where the President of the University was fired, and the faculty union (who, like many others) wanted the university President fired, was also required to legally defend the university President because of a clause in the university President’s contract that said he would be a tenured member of the faculty once he was no longer President of the university (but still employed by the university).
FWIW, there was likely error on many sides and the resultant legal battles became nasty.
Big Daddy Jerry will see you right.
Samuel Conner,
I remember the refrain: It is al going to burn anyway..
Junior got Junior, plain and simple.
“The baptism of the Holy Ghost means the extinction of life-fires that are not of God, and everything becomes instinct with the life of God.” – a quote from by Oswald Chambers
We are seeing too many life-fires that are not of God.
The world is in great need. The church is in trouble. Oh Lord Jesus, we beg you to cleanse us all, and purify your church!! Please make the leaders humble so they can truly love you, and turn from their sinful ways.
Cohen has just corrected his statement of contacting Mr. Granda’s counsel. It made no sense why he would contact Granda.
He states it was in fact, counsel for Mssr. Fernandez Jr. and Sr. This makes sense.
He is stressing a personal connection to the Falwells, and explicitly stated no connection to the Trump Campaign.
It would be more helpful if he gave a timeframe of involvement.
My best guess is that Becki Falwell is ok with taking the rap because she perceived it to be in her best interests to do so. She has two options. She can leave the bum and be, at best, an object of pity and, at worst, an object of scorn. Or, she can stand by him and minimize the damage to his reputation by taking the rap, increasing the likelihood that he’ll rise from the ashes, with her at his side as he returns to power somewhere. I’ve seen that dynamic happen before, in a former church.
An interesting aside: Falwell Sr. had some contradictory views on women. No doubt, the guy was a complementarian. But, he was also very supportive of his daughter’s desire from a very young age, to be a doctor. I believe that she is currently chief of surgery at a large hospital and that her father repeatedly expressed pride in her accomplishments.
Marilyn Johnson,
Now, that would be interesting, with respect to daughter.. If I were her, I would be keeping my head down w/r to rpthis floating, burning, dumpster..
Marilyn Johnson,
I’m grateful for all physicians and surgeons. Dr Savas is probably outstanding.
However, this falls into the category of powerful men making special rules and privileges for their own children. Here I’m referring not just to gender complementarianism but to Falwell’s founding of a segregation academy.
There’s truth in what you say.
I think it’s also fair to characterize Falwell Sr. as someone who applied his complementarian views to women’s roles in the church and home, but not to their professional opportunities in business or government.
I have a female relative who is very prominent in her profession. At home she submits to her husband, who is a great guy but less accomplished.
Truly I think her submission undermines his manhood instead of empowering him. He’s top dog because she follows their idea of Biblical rules… not because they have a sound, mature, emotionally secure relationship.
This sort of thing is too complicated for fundamentalist and evangelical churches, so they just try to hold women back instead of freeing everyone to make sound decisions.
I’m not seeing Trey’a salary but Jerry Falwell III was making 190 in latest 990. Jonathan is making 55k. Since I think but am not certain, TRBC is a related entity, I’m thinking that’s a typo. Still want to know why LU invested 43 million in Latin America. Almost every year 40 to 80 mill in South America, Latin America, or something similarly labeled. Why there and only there? I don’t know if it’s the same money each year or new money each year, making the total much higher.
She dropped the Savas several years ago, now its Dr. Rivers.
And all this life-style coaching stuff allegedly from the Bible huh?
I guess the Falwell’s really are “Libertines”
Sarah,
Trey is Jerry Falwell III
Thank you.
From the same article:
“We’re not a school; we’re a real estate hedge fund,” said a senior university official with inside knowledge of Liberty’s finances.
Are L.U credits easily transferable if a student wanted to transfer out?
Brian,
This floating, burning dumpster is a insult to all of us that teach, and the true victims are the students, and parents that are paying for this. A “ Christian Institution of higher learning” DOES NOT exist for the enrichment of a select few leaders and family members. Further, a “Christian Institution of higher learning” is not a dictatorship where the leaders control with threats of firing and NDA’s. Finally, it is not a play ground for leaders to select “attractive young people” for their own amusement. This is so far from the example of Christ life I can not even begin to express it.
Where is the outrage from the Evangelical/fundamentalist establishment?
LU is accredited, but its reputation is in tatters.
Students who transfer will lose credits, scholarships, and positions they might have had on teams or in other extracurricular activities (which might have been the main reason the student chose that college). Fair to guess that transferring would add a year of time and tuition—at full cost.
Also, many colleges require that a certain percentage of credits come from that institution. This makes it harder for students to transfer, especially as juniors and seniors.
My suggestion would be that students take summer courses at another institution, to show that they can thrive academically elsewhere.
Tuition to attend LU is $25,000 per year … at nearby University of Virginia it is $15,000 (instate). Graduation rate at LU is 34%; at UVA is 94%. Attending a private “Christian” school is more expensive … LU students are certainly getting an “education” these days!
Max,
The average high school GPA for freshmen at UVA is 4.32.
UVA goes a little easier on the transfer students. Their average GPA at another college is only 3.8.
In case anybody is unaware, straight A’s yield a 4.0 GPA.
Getting basic core requirements done first that have good transfer value should be a strategy for anyone starting school, especially those unsure of their major. One would hope guidance counselors are passing that a,omg at the high school level. This touches on the need for an eyes wide open approach, which sadly isn’t a priority in so many of the cases documented here, including on the parental level.
Great advice, but that depends on the major. Some have a lot of required courses.
If a required course is only offered once every year (or two), graduation could be delayed a semester or a year. This costs money in the obvious way, and also potentially delays the student’s entry into the workforce.
JDV,
Unfortunately, it has been my experience among many fundamentalist/evangelicals is that as long as you state the “party line” all is good. Reading the web page for Liberty U, they plaster the party line all over it.
As ishy stated before, heaven forbid she wear jeans, but nepotism, and as we are seeing corrupt nepotism is fine.. He k, Jr spews the party, so all must be good!
It’s 3.37 at Liberty. I guess you have to pay more to go there since the admission requirement is not as rigorous 🙂
Friend,
My understanding is tuition is gratis for certain types of family vocations.
Nathan Priddis,
I’m sure that’s because the humble family parson is wasting away in his windowless hovel, while his wife patches the children’s clothing by the light of dying embers.
More gas on the fire:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/27/becki-falwell-affair-liberty-university-student-band-jerry-402559
The door is open … more will come.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
Giancarlo Granda is an Italian name, not an Hispanic one. That hardly makes him “non-white”.
Whew! Granda’s interview this morning on ABC News paints a picture of total depravity.
https://abc13.com/giancarlo-granda-falwell-jerry-becki/6393237/
I think HUG was talking about the very narrow definition of “white” used by a certain strain of bigot. Where the Falwells live, Latinos are viewed as non-white. The question would be whether the Falwells viewed this young man, then 20, as being “exotic.” And the question makes me cringe, but here we are. Granda’s job at the time was to wear a white uniform and serve drinks and position umbrellas for guests at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami. Luminaries ranging from Sinatra to JFK to Lady Gaga have spent time there. “Goldfinger” was filmed there.
Giancarlo is, of course, an Italian name, but Granda is of Spanish origin, according to the Ancestry website… for what that’s worth: “Asturian-Leonese and Galician: habitational name from any of various places in Asturies and Galicia named with granda ‘rocky plain’, ‘scrub-covered upland with poor soil’ (from pre-Roman gándara).”
OK, off to bleach my brain… blecchhhh…
JDV,
Don’t accreditation bodies look poorly on boards like this? Or is Liberty University unaccredited?
Friend,
I have been to he Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami many times for professional meetings… the description of the “culture” of the place is correct
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUnJyOklpuY
Perhaps they need a new clause in the next revision of the LU Employee Handbook:
“We strongly encourage all LU executives, administrators, board members, professors and staff to utilize the highest sense of discernment in visiting places that pose potential moral compromise, such as the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami.”
Max,
Yup! Another rule he didn’t break! 🙂
As someone whose mother’s family immigrated from Northern Italy, let me clue you in:
100 years ago, Italians were NOT White.
Besides “wop” and “dago”, they were also called “white n*gg*rs”.
It was the tail end of the Scientific Racism of the 19th Century, and “White” was defined Much More Narrowly than today. Italians were Not White. Spanish were Not White. Jews were Not White. Slavs were Not White. 150 years ago, IRISH were Not White. In the Anglosphere, only “The Anglo-Saxon Race” — tall, blond, blue-eyed, descended from Piltdown Man — were truly White. (The dividing line seemed to be from the Reformation Wars; Protestant Land = White, Catholic Land = Not White.) And the One Drop Rule still applied.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
P.S. My father’s side was Pennsylvania Dutch (which was itself German, most likely from the Palatinate or Hesse). So I’m a one-man Axis Power.
Today, on the Cuck and Cougar Show…
And exactly WHY would a nonprofit university NEED a corporate jet, which costs millions of dollars just to maintain, let alone to actually fly around?
Google tells me “The average cost to own a Private Jet is $7,183,522.00 in the marketplace today.” So lots and lots of money involved here, and these jets won’t hold the football team, either!
Not to mention salaries for pilot and co-pilot, maintenance expense, and fuel … and perhaps liquor cabinet.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
I’m a surprising mixture (I no longer mention what). We were a religious minority within a religious minority (and not respected by anyone for it either before or after I dropped out of it / them). Three of my grandparents changed religion twice (from at least two different routes between them). I am adamant in favour of religious freedom.
The US definition of white is now much broader than one might think. It includes people from North Africa and the Middle East. It has been this way for the last several censuses.
Unless the cost of airplane insurance is included in the large dollar amount quoted by J R in WV, don’t forget airplane insurance.
Airplane insurance is expensive with what are usually referred to as “light aircraft”, and I imagine airplane insurance increases a great deal with more advanced and / or larger aircraft.
Noted, nod to Teilhard!
Ken F (aka Tweed),
What about the “calculating Italian” that got pulled off that flight (was it Canada to US, or v.v?)
I couldn’t have gotten into UTAustin with my high school grades. I was a middling student who pretty much hated high school (and junior high, and elementary school). And I wasn’t especially interested in college, either. So I went to community college, because that was the requirement to live in my parents’ house, racked up straight As and transferred to UTAustin after my parents decided that, no, I was not going to live in their house and just mosey my way through school.
Community college is an underrated resource, and even today is a lifeline for people who didn’t pay that much attention in high school. Plus it’s usually cheaper than the Big State Us. That said, you are unlikely to get scholarships. In my time, I couldn’t have qualified for scholarships anyway, so… But seriously, don’t count out community college.
LU has the gold standard of accreditation, which is regional accreditation. Its accreditor is Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Muslin, fka Dee Holmes,
“Community college is an underrated resource”
+++++++++++++
indeed! very educated instructors who put their all into it & care so much about their subject and their students.
Becki’s NC Dad Sentenced in tax scheme
https://newsadvance.com/nc-man-with-lu-ties-sentenced-in-tax-case/article_95fc518b-7e12-5c99-ba1e-7cad7680169c.html
They’re an excellent resource! And in some states, a good GPA for 2 years in a community college will guarantee admission to top state universities.
https://julieroys.com/video-raunchy-falwell/
Yes….very underrated. Our local one is excellent. Friend,
Me, too!
I have ancestors on both sides of the Salem witch trials of 1692.
Somehow I don’t think that will surprise anybody here. 🙂
Friend,
I take your point that granda is in fact a Galician dialect word (Google translates it as “great”), so GG may be of Spanish descent, but Latino refers to Latin-Americans, not European Spaniards who have immigrated to North Americans.
Unless you can show that GG’s ancestors came here by way of Central or South America or the Spanish-speaking Carribean, such as Cuban, he’s really not Latino. That’s possible, as many Cubans came to Miami where GG met the Falwells, but I can’t find any evidence of that. And it would be very unusual for a Cuban immigrant to have an Italian first name.
I don’t like HUG’s throwing around terms like Latino and non-white when he doesn’t seem to have any evidence or detailed understanding of these racially-charged terms.
Don Ho,
I meant to include Mexican in the definition of Latino, since Mexico is North America, of course, not Central America.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
YOU referred to Granda as “non-white”. Is this 1920 ? Are you a time traveler?
I’m already “clued-in” to the historic racism of WASP culture in America, my friend. My ancestors include the Cocke family who were given a 3000 acre estate in Virginia by King Charles in 1630, slave owners, the estate still owned by my cousins.
My patrician WASPy, Episcopal priest/physician grandfather, born in 1886, was anti Semitic, anti Italian, anti everyone, as you describe, until his death in 1948.
And he was a good man, a doctor and missionary who ran the Red Cross relief effort to the White Russian refugees from the Bolsheviks in Vladiovostok around 1920. I don’t need early 20th century WASP prejudices mansplained to me.
Especially when it’s you throwing around these racially charged terms in 2020, not my dear Grandfather who was simply a man of his time.
Brenda B Davis,
More gas on the floating, burning, dumpster…..I completely agree, this video, and the whole concept is just the tip of the iceberg…. when you put all of the facts that have come out so far, my head spins….. “truth is much stranger than fiction”
When is pew peons in Evangelicalism/Fundamentalism going to wake up and realize they are being “played the fool” by so many of these “Christian Leaders” ???
Don Ho,
I think a Jonathon Falwell lookalike in his 20s with a name to match, at that resort, just needing a livelihood, would have met with the same treatment as Granda did. However, I expect an element in the minds of Scofieldists (who are very different from your grandfather) operates a great deal at the informal level.
(Would the maths professor on the plane have been “mistaken for” a supremacist if blond? Maybe – but not by the same woman.)
I myself have spent half my life as a functional Scofieldist, though I finagled “prejudices” about Continentals and Colonials specifically.
The Falwells are not only people of their and of this time, they are winning!
The US government disagrees.
https://2020census.gov/en/about-questions/2020-census-questions-race.html
It appears that Granda is the one who chooses whether or not to identify as Hispanic or Latino, not any of us.
Thanks for adding a thoughtful comment, as charges of racism are just under the surface elsewhere in the thread.
I have no earthly idea what this man’s background is. He might even be adopted. But here are some general ways in which identity is defined.
-DNA
-Family heritage and migration
-Cultural upbringing
-How the person is identified on forms, by established definitions
-How the person identifies themselves
-How other perceive the person and therefore treat and include them
-How the Falwells perceived this 20-year-old working in a famous hotel
The last one might say something about the Falwells’ prurient interests.
I live in an area with a huge Latino population, and an awful lot of those surnames originated in Spain. But last names don’t prove geographical origin of a person. First names don’t prove ethnicity. And nobody here knows where Mr Granda’s family came from.
What we do know is how our family members were treated in the past, and how people are treated today. That’s the main reason this came up: Did the Falwells view Mr Granda as being vulnerable because he was different from them?
How was it mansplaining? It looked like a discussion that had nothing to do with a man speaking down to a woman.
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180727-mansplaining-explained-in-one-chart
Every major news outlet covered the scandal this week, painting that exact picture. Junior is done … it matters not if he disappears for a season to be restored and reinvented … his tenure in the Christian Industrial Complex is over.
Brenda Davis,
Reckon how many scoundrels have their names affixed to buildings on Christian campuses?
Friend,
I like the suggestions on your list, and though my tangent might seem off topic for the subject of the post and the comments the post generated, perhaps there is a similarity.
In reading your list, I was reminded of listening to a person’s voice on the radio and unconsciously developing an idea of what the person looked like….seeing the actual picture or photograph (or whatever) of the person….thinking “They don’t look like I THOUGHT they would look!!” (without even realizing the idea of what the person looked like had even happened).
cnn interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXUgE4sEAXI
The following does not refer to your late grandfather.
Bigotry ends precisely because people decide not to be people of their times. They see suffering and work to end it.
Thank you for the article link. 🙂
I bookmarked the page part way through reading, as it will take more thought to work my way through the flowchart.
Something I particularly liked from the article: “but how we communicate tells other people how much or little they are valued. And in my experience, humans feel better, work more effectively, and behave better when we feel valued ourselves.”
Hypocrisy isn’t new at Liberty . It is not new in any Christianity sphere. I think the more rules there are, the worse it is. People will hide and lie all the more.
I heard a testimony by someone who attended in the 90s and graduated from Liberty. This person, like many of us who grew up fundamentalist, later in life had a faith crisis due to hypocrisy, difference making, and general vileness in the Christian realm. The following impacted this person greatly.
Sometime in the early 90s, there allegedly was a male staff member at Liberty allegedly targeting male students for encounters. The students, some of whom were resistant to participate , were allegedly expelled because of what they knew or because they responded to these advances . The staff member was allegedly protected . Did I get in all my allegedlys?
This happens more than we know. I learned just recently that my married with children childhood pastor (who was a prominent person of his time) was arrested decades ago for activity with men in bathrooms. There was a JCPenney restroom at a certain mall where this was a thing . The elders covered it up because they didn’t want turmoil in the church.
As you can imagine, he preached vigorously about depravity of gays.
Falwell’s affirmative statement about not being involved in the sexual activities between wife and pool boy is oddly worded . Hmmmm. Not exactly typical language from a husband hurt over a wife’s affair.
The “heathens” are more honest and more just.
Falwell Jr. claims he lost 80 pounds over this sex scandal? Really? In the past he also credited their personal trainer for helping him lose 75 pounds. 80+75=155 lost pounds. He must have been one heavy dude, or is a yo-yo workout fiend. BTW, their personal trainer, Ben Crosswhite, had a multi-million dollar (Board-approved with LU assets) sweet business deal also in 2013-2016:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-falwell-trainer-exclusive/exclusive-falwell-steered-liberty-university-land-deal-benefiting-his-personal-trainer-idUSKCN1VH283
“Falwell has publicly credited Crosswhite with helping him lose 75 pounds. “That’s the kind of guy he is,” Crosswhite told Reuters.”
His behaviour was so outrageous the board had to have known. If they didn’t, they should be fired for being so clueless.
Hopefully this situation will be a lesson about succession planning to to other large Christian organizations – who want the organizations to thrive long-term. Even if a founder has adult children who are fairly good administrators, there are endemic problems with children succeeding their parents at nonprofits.
Liberty University, August 26th,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDMqbj3Hpa8
.
Where sin doth abound, grace much more…
Who is this King of Glory…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVM1qVMcyMk
Oh, he’s a backslapper (choose random absurdities). Well, he must be all right then.
MrsF,
Yup…. no place for nepotism…
I like the way the Phillips translation expresses that verse:
“Now we find that the Law keeps slipping into the picture to point the vast extent of sin. Yet, though sin is shown to be wide and deep, thank God his grace is wider and deeper still! The whole outlook changes — sin used to be the master of men and in the end handed them over to death: now grace is the ruling factor, with righteousness as its purpose and its end the bringing of men to the eternal life of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21)
They knew. JF Jr. was too big to fail; too crucial to bringing in donor support; too important to LU to rebuke and correct. He only failed when others exposed his sin and, in so doing, the failings of the trustees.
LU was Senior’s vision … Junior had his eyes on other things. Few organizations benefit when the mantle is passed to family members … it’s not ‘their’ vision and passion.
It’s finger-pointing time.
“The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”
And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
(Genesis 3:12-13)
Max,
Which demonstrates a major/fundamental flaw in fundamentalism/evangelicalism theology….. when “push comes to shove”, “ends justifies the means”.
I have stated this a number of times, my experiences attending 7-12 grade fundamentalist private schools, while they do teach G$d’s grace, they equally teach you are a marginal Christian if you do not uphold their extreme, and in many cases bizarre behavioral standards, as well as simplistic, and in many ways contradictory reading of scripture. This leads to, as HUG is so quick to point out, these “Christians” sounding just like the “communist” they so frequently denounce. As long as the “leader” preaches the “extreme party line”, we will ignore, and if we have to, “sin level” fearless leaders behavior , because it is all about the “party line”, not that you practice the golden rule.
So what if our preacher misbehaves a bit, he sure can preach!
So what if the university president strays from the straight and narrow, he brings in lots of money for the school!
So what if our churches are places of entertainment, we are supposed to have joy!
So what if I sin, “grace” will cover it!
etc., etc. … in the meantime, the Christian Industrial Complex does its thing without God.
I think my actual snark was “The only difference between Christians and Communists is which Party Line gets recited.”
With my upbringing, becoming fluent in Snark was a survival reflex.
Three words:
AUGUSTUS, TIBERIAS, CALIGULA.
NEVER.
All they need to do is quote Isaiah 55:8-9 to themselves over and over.
Oh, I expect further revelations will show that they were equal partners in predation.
To elaborate further, I don’t think people at the Falwell’s level actually believe or live their lives by the worldview they supposedly represent. They are living the lifestyle of the rich and famous. All of those rules and roles are for the little people.
Both of them were arrogant and predatory. Becki had a reputation for being ruthless and vindictive in her dealings with people at the school.
Junior and Becki “owned” LU for a season … no more. Rebels like that in Christian institutions eventually run their course and become the tail not the head. They had a good run at being bad, but it’s over at LU, at least. They took their golden parachute of $10 million and sailed into the sunset.
Mohler is blatantly two-faced here. He says A) it was hypocrisy for the Falwells to act thus when students knew all along, then he says B) it was not hypocrisy for the board to not require him to accede to his reward on earth. But morally, if A) was hypocrisy then B) was hypocrisy. The trustees, who include the Graham family and / or firm, DID know all along. Don’t forget this has been the Cohens’ and Bannons’ scheme, and is altogether Scofieldist – the “BLM” / TPUSA creators. Defending home and livelihood has got nothing to do with TPUSA.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jerry-falwell-jr-liberty-university-investigation-scandal/
“… we had been willing to extend grace and understanding to Jerry Falwell, Jr. before … certainly fair to say that there were questionable comments made, worrying behavior, and inappropriate social media posts …” (Liberty University Executive Committee)
LU Trustees gave Junior way too much rope. “Grace” doesn’t allow bad boys to run wild that long, without correction and rebuke. Somebody … somebody … should have pointed their finger in his face long before now and shouted “You are the man!” (not in a cool way of course)
“Liberty also announced it was considering establishing a position for a spiritual coach to help its leaders fulfill their “spiritual responsibility to live out the Christian walk.””
Spiritual coach?! These leaders should have already been walking the walk before they were tapped to lead a Christian university. The Holy Spirit is the only “coach” they need, if indeed they have Him in their lives. For Lord’s sake, don’t appoint trustees and administrators who need a spiritual coach!
Hmmm … maybe they should appoint that guy as LU President!
Agree – they act like they don’t believe in the God whom they say they believe in!
Notice that Junior HAD to state on-record that he did NOT join in doing Pool Boy, only watch. (Because that would be HOMOSEXUALITY(TM), the Ultimate Taboo. All else can go Under the Blood(TM), but NOT that.)
And with that $10 million plus what they already got, they won’t need to start hawking Prayer Coins, COVID cures, or Armageddon Survival Buckets on TBN.
Or maybe they will.
What’s the Burn Rate of the Lifestyle To Which They Are Accustomed?
So do I. You don’t get as depraved as Cuck & Cougar without it splashing everywhere.
Just like Douggie ESQUIRE, I have only heard about details like this in the context of PORNOGRAPHY.
(And I ain’t talkin’ Victoria’s Secret or Playboy.)
Though it is still stuff that (in the words of that Rabbi from Tarsus) “is named among the Goyim”. (1 Cor 5:1) But give it time and we’ll see how low Junior can go.