Jerry Falwell, Jr., and the Jesus Biz

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The political world is still crafting post-convention analyses and taking a deep breath before we plunge into the last two months of the campaigns. This seems like a good time to take a moment to make fun of Jerry Falwell, Jr.

I had forgotten this, but I wrote a post about Jerry Jr. about a year ago. See The Jesus Scam. At the time, among other things, Falwell was being accused of turning Liberty University into a real estate hedge fund, using student tuition money to buy real estate.

In that post I quoted a bit from a TPM article on Junior:

Jerry and his wife Becki seem to have a pattern of striking up intimate relationships with younger, extremely fit men; nude or provocative pics of Becki get into the mix somehow and then suddenly the younger guy is set up with his own business courtesy of a few million from the Falwells or Liberty University. …

…Provocative or nude photos of Becki Falwell also seem to be an open secret among top Liberty executives and even present in many inboxes.

The “pool boy” in the recent news stories is Giancarlo Granda, and I believe that’s Giancarlo in the photo below, which I pulled from Talking Points Memo. Giancarlo has been very upfront about the nature of his relationship with the Fallwells. But there have been other Falwell boy toys, including a personal trainer whom the Falwells set up with his own gym.

The best part is that it appears Falwell’s 2016 endorsement of Donald Trump came after Michael Cohen arranged a “cyber fixer” to make certain photos of Becki Falwell disappear from the Internet. Falwell also used a Liberty University social media account to promote Trump, which was a violation of tax regulations.

I wrote last year,

What is more American than big-name evangelicals getting caught in sex-and-money scandals? Certainly Falwell is part of the rich tradition of Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggart, and Jim Bakker. However, it should be said that Fallwell is not ordained; he’s a lawyer. Jesus is just the family business.

The support for Trump among white evangelicals shouldn’t make sense, except it does. I don’t think there is any one reason why a supposedly devout Christian person would get swept up in the cult of Trump. I believe there are a lot of reasons. But two big ones are money and power.  And also not being all that devout.

6 thoughts on “Jerry Falwell, Jr., and the Jesus Biz”

  1. "But two big ones are money and power."

    I will buy into that as reasons for the televangelists but I ascribe a different reason for tRump support for the local white evangelical preachers and the followers of all of them.  

    For the masses of the white evangelicals (and many Catholics) there is the belief that The Donald will deliver a federal court system that will allow them to impose their religion's dogma on all Americans.  It starts with forced-birth (aka 'pro-life') but is followed by reversing Griswold v Connecticut thus permitting them prohibit birth control in rePublican owned states. 

    After that it gets interesting when the interests of white evangelicals diverges from that of Catholics and the white evangelicals can stop pretending they have common interests with Catholics who they regard as idol worshiping agents of Satan and not real Christians.

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  2. Anybody here ever see THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES on HBO last year?  I have had occasion to drive past the Falwell school (Liberty U) regularly over the last 10 years.  It is a sprawling and growing enterprise. I don't know how much of Lynchburg, VA they own, but it must be a considerable chunk.  That much money is going to invite considerable looking around while the rest have their eyes closed in prayer.

     

  3. The support for Trump among white evangelicals shouldn’t make sense, except it does. I don’t think there is any one reason why a supposedly devout Christian person would get swept up in the cult of Trump. I believe there are a lot of reasons. But two big ones are money and power. And also not being all that devout.

    There’s a distinction between evangelical leaders and their followers. The leaders are sometimes genuinely spiritual people, OR in Jerry Jr’s case, they just happened to be born into that position, they didn’t earn it by themselves.

    Whatever – people in any spiritual leadership position are subject to particular ego temptations, including the desire to be there in the first place. The most authentic spiritual figures I’ve personally known have had no desire to be thrust into such a position, they’re reluctant leaders, and are only there because God made it plain that this is what they need to do. I believe Moses was also in this category. Then there’s the other kind, those who crave this kind of position. The phonies, in other words. There are lots and lots of the latter, and very few of the former.

    As for the evangelical followers – they’re mostly encouraged – by their particular reading of the bible – to be submissive sheep. A perfect match between 1) ego-driven leader and 2) submissive followers. It happens over and over.

    I recently wrote to an evangelical friend: “Jesus admonished his followers to be wise like serpents. I’m sorry but conservative church-goers are anything but wise, as evidenced by the destructive clowns they elect to rule over them.” My recipient was someone who is embarrassed about her vote for Trump in 2016.

  4. Yale psychiatrist: Trump’s convention lies and fear-mongering may “provoke a lot of violence”

    Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine who taught at Yale Law School, told Salon that the stoking of fear was so coordinated that pushing back could provoke a violent response….

    ….It has not been surprising, but impressive in how well-orchestrated and coordinated the convention was, starting with holding the event on the White House lawn. No breach of rules or actual harm matters, as long as there is impression management, which is the key to psychological conditioning, manipulation and control. Republicans understand this power of the mind and use it perversely. Democrats do not even inform themselves of it to achieve their political goals, let alone protect the population, as we learned from our attempts to obtain consultation. This election will be more difficult than 2016, since Donald Trump has infected his followers with his symptoms, by sheer duration in office. He will also no doubt use the full powers of the presidency now to choreograph his remaining in office, regardless of the means — and I believe people realize by now that there is no limit to what he will do to “win.”

  5. They will align themselves with Trump for the sake of power, but just think of the good things that they can accomplish by doing that. 
     

    In other news, Frodo Baggins said today, “The Ring has great power. Just think of all the good things we can achieve if we use it well.”

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  6. It's not objectively taught in school – I received a Catholic education with the typical amount of historical censorship. To understand Evangelicals and their goals, you have to go back to European history in the century before the US Revolution. ALL governments in Europe were monarchies and ALL of them had an alliance with the dominant religion of that country. Spain and Italy had a partnership with the Catholic church. England had the Church of England (not a lot of subtlety there.) Germany (and I'm guessing) was aligned with the Lutheran Church by whatever name it went in the 1700s. The US broke with that tradition imposing a wall of separation between church and state – one the churches fought tooth and nail to breach.

    Boring. Not if you look at the political and religious dynamic the partnership brought. The king had the authority of God behind his decisions and proclamations. Opposing the king was opposing God. (Read the Declaration of Independence again – it's a clever and contrived argument to justify rebellion against King George as being OK with God. Many colonists were loyal to England only because they feared eternal damnation. Jefferson was pitching to them – that's lost in a modern reading of the D of I where the Spanish Inquisition is nearly forgotten.) 

    The scam was bigly successful in Europe by the only two standards that count – money and power. The state was untouchable because the decisions by the King were endorsed by God. The people knew that because the Church (the one in partnership with the King) told them that God selected the King. If you questioned the legitimacy of the government, the church also went after you. If you questioned the authority of the church, the government threw you in prison. Both organizations shared the spoils. Much of the Inca gold went into the Vatican treasury. The Church of England participated in the slave trade. 

    This is what they want to bring back – a government that can not be questioned because the leaders are inspired and chosen by God. And the government gives protection to the church racket as they invade the civil space, imposing the policies of their religion in the political world. And the joint aristocracies of both the government and religion become immune from penalties when they break the civic or religious laws they imposed on the plebes. 

    The Evangelical philosophy is built on institutional inequality. It's not what you do – it's who you know. (Roger Stone) A dual caste system which grants immunity on a scale according to your rank in either organization. Adherence to the code of either organization is optional if you have rank and power.

    It's the antithesis of equality.

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