The latest Jerry Falwell Jr revelation is quite jaw dropping stuff. It is not just a story about normal evangelical Hypocrisy, this is Hypocrisy of steroids. It should of course not be a surprise to discover that one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent evangelical supporters is indeed like this, it means that he fits right in.
What exactly happened?
Falwell released a statement to the Washington Examiner as an attempt to get ahead of the story about to break. In the statement he claimed that he had suffered emotional distress over his wife’s affair with his business partner.
This “business partner” was in fact a pool boy they met on vacation and funded to the tune of millions of dollars. Now we know why.
Reuters published and reported details about his relationship with this Miami “businessman” pool boy. The man, Giancarlo Granda, confirmed that he had been in a sexual relationship with Falwell’s wife, Becki — with her husband’s approval.
“Becki and I developed an intimate relationship, and Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room,” Granda told Reuters.
Now this is where some might think that this is a case where Falwell is the innocent victim here and that Mr Granda is lying about Falwell’s approval and voyeurism. Nope, he has evidence that he presented to Reuters. Not only do we have claims that these encounters took place multiple times a year, from 2012 to 2018, but we also have Texts, recordings, and screenshots obtained by Reuters. They show Granda discussing the relationship with the couple.
Should we care?
Normally no.
What people consent to do together is nobody’s business but their own. This however is not about what they did, but rather is about the screaming hypocrisy of an individual whose entire career has been devoted to dictating to others a very strict set of religious rules.
Schrödinger‘s Resignation
When the news broke, it was reported that Falwell had resigned. He then changed his mind and un-resigned himself on Monday. “I have not resigned,” he told Politico. “I will be on indefinite leave.”. Here is the insight to that …
Falwell “agreed to resign as its President and from its Board of Directors but following media reports about the resignation, withdrew it,” the university said in a statement late Monday evening. The university’s board of trustees was scheduled to meet on Tuesday.
This is not just one incident for Jerry Falwell Jr
The man is a walking disaster.
- There have previously been photos of Becki Falwell. The Miami Herald reported on those, and, according to Politico, at least one showed her in a French-maid costume. Jerry sent the image to Liberty employees by accident and made a habit of discussing his sex life at work.
- A former university official told Politico about one particularly unfortunate car ride, during which … “all he wanted to talk about was how he would nail his wife, how she couldn’t handle [his penis size], and stuff of that sort.”
- Then let’s not forget the recent photos showing Falwell with his pants unzipped, arm around another woman, and a glass of what looks like beer in hand
- We should perhaps also not forget about his blatant racism.
There is much much more. For example targeting reporters who were doing their job, insulting a parent who questioned the school’s reopening, lying about the origin of coronavirus, giving a sweet land deal to his personal trainer, censoring the school’s own journalists, he publicly “liked” photos of younger women in not-so-Christian poses, etc…
Remember, this is the guy who runs the top Evangelical university that would toss students out for doing far less than any of this, and he is the guy in charge.
Raging Hypocrisy
It is very much a strong and long established evangelical tradition to be eventually exposed as a Hypocrite. These days it is not just Falwell, remember that Evangelicals are staunch supporters of the most immoral, corrupt, and incompetent president in US history.
It is not just one guy who has failed a moral test, the majority of them have.
Twitter is having fun
As you might imagine, twitter is indeed having a lot of fun with this latest Jerry Falwell Jr news …
This tweet appears …
… and the responses under it are exactly what you might expect Twitter to deliver …