The Falwell Revelations

[Fundamental Law 2,817]

While this is news, it is not particularly positive news. 

 

Re:  Jerry Falwell, Jr and his family, for example here:

 

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-falwell-relationship/

 

Here are the first two paragraphs of the report:

 

WASHINGTON – In a claim likely to intensify the controversy surrounding one of the most influential figures in the American Christian conservative movement, a business partner of Jerry Falwell Jr has come forward to say he had a years-long sexual relationship involving Falwell’s wife and the evangelical leader.

 

Giancarlo Granda says he was 20 when he met Jerry and Becki Falwell while working as a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel in March 2012. Starting that month and continuing into 2018, Granda told Reuters that the relationship involved him having sex with Becki Falwell while Jerry Falwell looked on.

 

Ignoring the political aspects of the timing of all of this, there are some takeaways.

 

1. Political leanings are irrelevant to biological drives, sexual fantasies, and the behaviors that follow. 

 

2. The problems arise from the evident hypocrisies: preaching 'family values' (however defined) while practicing something beyond a standard of marital monogamous heterosexuality. 

 

3. Institutions and groups that perpetuate such hypocrisies typically respond the same way, namely by denouncement and expulsion of the person(s) who have been "found out" and restatement of the institutional/group value. 

 

4. There is a business dispute including accusations of extortion folded into all of this. 

 

It is absurd to imagine that leaders are somehow immune from fantasies and the intentions to act on those fantasies. What would be more helpful are commonsense boundaries between public and private lives as well as reasonable display of integrity. Even then, humans find ways to accommodate 'sinful behaviors' while embracing integrity:

 

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?

 

Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

 

[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]

Croupier: Your winnings, sir.

 

Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.

 

[aloud]

Captain Renault: Everybody out at once! 

 

Neither the evangelical community nor Mr. Falwell's employers should be "shocked, shocked" to find that (even) their annppointed spokesperson enjoyed variety in sexual expression, apparently with the knowledge and consent and participation of his wife of 34 years. Adopting the usual denouncement-and-expulsion-upon-being-found-out strategy ("Do as we say, not what he did!--He was weak and you must be strong!")  merely reinforces the idealized pretense of purity. The reality is that tensions between sexual suppression and sexual expression are as old as civilization. While individuals and institutions can impose rules on themselves and set expectations for others, a bit of realism would be welcome: the aforementioned tensions cannot be "wished away".  At the same time, business dealings with playmates might be predicted to end badly, as appears to have happened in this case. 

 

The Reuters article concludes:

 

In a statement released Friday, before news of the relationship with Granda became public, Liberty University said its “decision whether or not to retain Falwell as president has not yet been made.” Its board of trustees, the statement read, “requested prayer and patience as they seek the Lord’s will and also seek additional information for assessment.”

[PeterJ 826]

Looks like Granda has the receipts. And one could infer this was what Michael Cohen was referring to when he said he had salacious photos of the Falwells. Two years ago when evidence surfaced of the odd connection of the Falwells to Granda I expected the relationship had a primary sexual component, either hotwife or he was actively with both. 
 

I agree, FL, that this is not good news for those of us whose lives do not conform to widespread societal norms. I don’t begrudge the Falwells their pursuit of their shared sexual interests, assuming no one was coerced. (Granda claims otherwise.) But I am appalled at Falwell’s rank hypocrisy, as I have been in the past when gay legislators voted for harsh anti-gay bills.

 

One last observation. With the recent act of posting an inappropriate photo on social media Falwell seems to have been begging to be outed. If in the end he is permanently ousted from his position as the head of a ultra-conservative evangelical university and is then free to pursue his true inclinations, perhaps that’s a good thing for him. 

[SW_PA_Couple 4,019]

Ah, you guys scooped me on this report. 

 

I agree with Fundamental Law. Nobody in the evangelical so-called community should be shocked. 

[NWAtlSwing 487]

To be fair, I don't care. They had their marriage and their rules like everyone else.

 

We don't advertise our bedroom play. It is private.

 

I find no reason to castigate someone for what I do.

[njbm 2,728]

It doesn’t seem like the media is so shocked with the hot wife scenario. They are shocked that the president of a strict evangelical college was involved. I enjoyed the picture of Falwell with his wife’s assistant with their pants open. Guarantee he did her. More bricks to fall. I find it funny when these endeavors come out about holier than thou people. 

[Fundamental Law 2,817]

Schadenfreude, perhaps, in the saddest sense of that word. 

 

It would be ideal if the couple came clean, stated that their private lives should not have crossed over into their public presence, and went on their way. Best to forgive and move on. 

 

I agree with PeterJ, what's most galling is the (Mrs. FL's words) "Holier-than-thou" positions that will be taken. (see also John 8:7 ). Those who preach strictest adherence to social norms in public seem to be the greatest violators in private. And since those in the most visible roles are under greatest scrutiny, there is some inevitability that the truth will emerge.

 

Let's agree that the vulnerable need and deserve protection from predators. Kids. The disabled. Those who cannot understand and therefore cannot consent. Those who withdraw consent. 

 

Otherwise, among consenting adults whose participation is truly voluntary and not coerced, what happens should be their choice. 

 

We'll see what messages are conveyed through words and through actions. 

 

 

 

[njbm 2,728]

The Falwells are among the most vocal critics of the LBGTQ community. Why is Rev. Falwell’s out of the ordinary sexual preferences acceptable, but the preferences of the gay community are not valid?

 

i accept people’s sexual interests as long as they are consensual with people of age and not hurtful physically or mentally. 

[Numex 2,175]

Two observations: 

- This isn't the end.  People who follow Falwell and those of his ilk love a good redemption story and will forgive transgressors who have been redeemed.  It justifies their hypocrisy when confronted with "you had yours, why can't I have mine?"  Jim Bakker still has his followers. 

 

- The real fallout will be the tax and money laundering aspects of this.  Inappropriate use of tax exempt money, unreported income, hiding sources of funds, wire and mail fraud...

[cplnuswing 4,711]

Thanks for starting this thread, you beat me to it.  Mine was going to be from the angle of "asshole preacher's son gives swinging a black eye in the press" because to me, that's the worst part of this deal, we all will get lumped in with this raging hypocrite.

 

When the first of the "pool boy" story started coming out in the last few years, I called it then, there was a sexual relationship there. I had a straight up MFM type thing in mind then, and sounding now like it was more of a hotwife/voyeur/cuck type thing, but details aside, I knew there was more to the story then and now have been proven to have been absolutely correct.  I agree there are more stories to come too, not just sexual, but financial and legal.

 

I could care less about what the Falwell's (or anyone else's) sex life is like; I only ask the same in return regarding mine.  But, seeing how that is definitely not the case here, and Jerry and his type are very much "do as I say for you and not as I do for me" then I think this is absolutely hilarious...and so totally not shocking...you could write forever on the long list of these hypocritical assholes finding out what karma means.

 

PeterJ makes an excellent observation about that Instagram photo on the yacht.  The guy had to be tired of living this charade, albeit a very lucrative charade as dishonest ones often are. It still doesn't make me feel any pity or sympathy for Falwell, but you've got to think on some level, even if just sub-consciously, there was some mental "You know what, fuck this. I don't care how good the money is, I'm done with this silly little old gray-headed church lady act bullshit." 

 

To be as successful as he has been, he's can't be a total dumbass. He's media savvy and has to know you don't go posting pics to all of your evangelical Instragram followers of you, drink in hand, with a younger not your wife woman, and both of you with undone pants, and not expect to catch flack for that, said flack likely causing more digging into things you don't want dug into.  Seriously, what thinking person would do that knowing this other axe was out there just waiting to drop? Hubris has led to many a downfall for the powerful, but this was playing Russian Roulette with one in each chamber.

[njbm 2,728]

Some people are self-destructive because they do not believe that they deserve their own success. 
 

As I alluded to above, I don’t think that this is a black eye for swinging. I think it is a black eye for supposedly religious people who preach puritanism  and practice hedonism. 

[Fundamental Law 2,817]

As expected, we now have the "resign" plan.

 

CNN reports: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/25/us/jerry-falwell-jr-liberty-university-resignation/index.html

 

The world would be an simpler place if there was widespread agreement that pleasurable and physically harmless contacts among consenting adults are seen as neither moral, nor immoral, nor amoral. They would be seen as simply ordinary parts of life, like eating and travelling. People choose what and with whom to dine, with whom and where to travel etc.  

 

 

[cplnuswing 4,711]

He left it up to the reader to decide what exactly he is free from now, but he just came right out and said it. 

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/08/25/jerry-falwell-jr-says-hes-free-at-last-after-resigning-as-liberty-university-president/#354205eb70a9

 

I also found the following particularly amusing/infuriating.

 

Quote

“If they want to let me go over a picture showing my belly on the internet, that’s not a school I want to be part of,” Falwell told the Wall Street Journal

Pretty sure there are some former students of his university that held much the same opinion after being shown the door too for a violation of one of the many many many silly rules there.  More "rules for thee, not for me" hypocrisy.