Just another phony evangelical

Jerry, Becki, and the poolboy. (And Trump and Michael Cohen.)

You knew this was coming

Jerry Falwell Jr., a prominent evangelical ally of President Trump's, is taking "an indefinite leave of absence" from his positions as the president and chancellor of Liberty University in Virginia.

The move comes days after Falwell received criticism for posting a photo to social media that showed him with his pants unzipped alongside a woman who is not his wife.

  NPR

So, it would have been okay if she had been his wife? Anyway, it may not be a non-noteworthy detail that the woman's pants are also unzipped.

In a brief statement, Liberty University said members of its board of trustees had met Friday and asked Falwell to step down from his positions "effective immediately," and that Falwell had agreed.

[...]

Falwell told the Lynchburg, Va., radio station WLNI on Wednesday that the photo, which was later removed, was taken in "just in good fun" during a costume party on vacation. He said the woman in the photo was his wife's assistant.

"It was weird," Falwell told the interviewer. "She's pregnant, so she couldn't get her pants zipped. I had on a pair of jeans I hadn't worn in a long time, so I couldn't get mine zipped either. So I just put my belly out like hers."

Maybe you could both wear maternity pants.

Falwell Jr. was among the first prominent evangelicals to endorse Donald Trump during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

Birds of a feather.

Tell us, Jerry...How do you make black water?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE  8/24:

UPDATE 8/25:

Make up your mind, Jerry.

[I]t was claimed that the anti-LGBT preacher had encouraged the pool boy to have sex with his wife while he watched from the corner of the room.

  The Daily Beast

Jerry, Becki, and the poolboy.

Jerry Falwell Jr - Christian icon

When I first saw this, I didn't post it because I was skeptical that it wasn't photoshopped.  I mean, Jerry Fucking Falwell, Jr.

Charlie Sykes discussed it on his podcast, so, apparently, it's real.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Falwell/Liberty U update

Falwell — a staunch ally of President Trump and an influential voice in the evangelical world — reopened the university last week, igniting a firestorm. As of Friday, Dr. Eppes said, nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggested Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Three were referred to local hospital centers for testing. Another eight were told to self-isolate.

[...]

For critical weeks in January and February, the nation’s far right dismissed the seriousness of the pandemic. Mr. Falwell derided it as an “overreaction” driven by liberal desires to damage Mr. Trump.

[...]

“We’re conservative, we’re Christian, and therefore we’re being attacked,” he said.

[...]

After initial publication of this article, the university said it had asked four students who returned from the New York area and two of their roommates to self-quarantine, but none of them were referred for testing and none had symptoms. One student who returned from a county with a high number of cases was running a fever and had a cough. He was tested and elected to go home pending the results rather than self-isolate, the university said.

Of the 1,900 students who initially returned last week to campus, Mr. Falwell said more than 800 had left. But he said he had “no idea” how many students had returned to off-campus housing.

[...]

“I’m not allowed to talk to you because I’m an employee here,” one student on campus wrote in an email. But, he pleaded, “we need help to go home.”

  NYT

Jesus, is Falwall another Jim Jones?

Falwell has played down the dangers of his decision in interviews with the news media, where he has even suggested that the coronavirus is a North Korean bioweapon. On Fox News, he blithely asserted that the cure rate for Covid-19 “is 99.7 percent for people under 50,” adding, “We have talked to medical professionals, numerous medical professionals, before we made this decision.”

An archived version of Liberty’s website said those medical professionals included the school’s own public health faculty and campus health providers, as well as “Dr. Jeffrey Hyman of Northwell Health, New York’s largest health care provider.”

When contacted by The New York Times, Northwell Health denied that Dr. Hyman provided any formal guidance to Liberty, adding that he is not an infectious disease specialist. In a statement, the hospital system said that Dr. Hyman was a personal friend of the Falwell family, who told them in private conversation “that reconvening classes would be a ‘bad idea.’”

[...]

Falwell and his administration have worked to tamp down dissent. After a Liberty undergraduate, Calum Best, wrote on his personal Facebook page that students should receive refunds, he said Liberty’s spokesman, Scott Lamb, called his cellphone to berate him. Asked about the call, Mr. Lamb said he was simply objecting to an error in the post, and Mr. Best was “spinning.”

After Marybeth Davis Baggett, a professor, wrote an open letter asking the university’s board of trustees to close the campus, Mr. Falwell mocked her on Twitter as “the ‘Baggett’ lady.”

Jeff Brittain, a Liberty parent, wrote on Twitter: “I’m as right wing as they get, bud. But as a parent of three of your students, I think this is crazy, irresponsible and seems like a money grab.” Mr. Falwell replied, calling him a “dummy.”

I hope he gets sued so bad he has to shut down Liberty.

So responsible

YOUR people are irresponsible idiots, and YOU are a "Senior".

Anybody heard from Dr. Fauci lately?

This whole thing has made me agree with Liz Cheney, ffs.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

I hope Falwell gets sued so bad he has to shut down Liberty.

Fox News should be taken off the air until the coronavirus crisis is over

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Laying it on thick

Trump’s campaign manager says the president was sent by God to save the country. The White House press secretary thinks God wanted Trump to be president. And the secretary of State believes it’s possible that Trump is on a holy mission to protect the Jewish people from the threat of Iran.

[...]

[T]he White House is preparing to host religious leaders on Wednesday and Thursday for the National Day of Prayer, an annual event in which people of all faiths are encouraged to pray for the nation.

[...]

“There has never been and probably never will be a movement like this again,” Brad Parscale, the president’s campaign manager, wrote Tuesday morning on Twitter. “Only God could deliver such a savior to our nation, and only God could allow me to help. God bless America!”

[...]

The president, who doesn’t regularly attend church services, has emerged as an unlikely ally of the evangelical right, building close relationships with influential conservative religious figures. The White House screened an anti-abortion movie earlier this month, part of a broader strategy to energize evangelical voters ahead of the 2020 elections by amplifying false claims about late-term abortions.

  Politico

"The president, who doesn’t regularly attend church services." Let's fix that, shall we? The president, who never attends church services

“If you give God credit for a good president, than you’ve got to blame God when you have a bad one. So I don’t think that’s the way to look at it,” Jerry Falwell Jr. told POLITICO, adding later: “I don’t think you can say that God gives us good leaders. What do you do when you get a bad one, say, 'God messed up'? That’s silly.”

Be careful, Jerry. You'll end up on the sharp end of a nasty tweet.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Desperate Times for Dolt 45

He has to not only respond to, but copy onto his own Twitter page, people - or bot - praise.

Who's out of control, Little Guy?

Presumably he means Jerry Falwell Jr., and I missed the fact that the Dolt put Falwell on an education task force. Of course, I can't argue with the fact that educated people are a danger to Dolt 45's presidency.

Len Stevens, [Liberty University]'s spokesman, said Falwell -- the son of Jerry Falwell Sr., the late televangelist -- will push to stop regulations coming out of the Education Department, especially those that apply to colleges and universities.

[...]

Falwell has been particularly interested in curbing rules that require schools to investigate campus sexual assault under Title IX, a federal law that bans discrimination in education.

[...]

Falwell also introduced Trump before he spoke at Liberty University last year, telling the thousands of students assembled that he [sees] similarities between Trump and his televangelist father.

  CNN

No lie there. Jerry Falwell Sr - the man of whom Christopher Hitchens said if he [Falwell] had been given an enema, he could have been buried in a matchbox.

Correction:  I didn't miss that fact.  I just forgot it.  There's been so very, very much coming and going since February.

....but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Say What?

Jerry L. Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, has been asked by President Trump to head up a new task force that will identify changes that should be made to the U.S. Department of Education’s policies and procedures, Mr. Falwell told The Chronicle on Tuesday.

   Chronicle

You read that right. Jerry Falwell Jr.

Since not for a moment do I believe Donald Trump has a religious bone in his large body, I'm assuming these Christian-based policies and appointments are paybacks for some kind of contribution to his campaign. Another reason we desperately need campaign finance reform.

Mr. Falwell said Mr. Trump had first asked him to head up the task force in November, when the two met at Trump Tower in New York. At the time, Mr. Falwell said he had declined Mr. Trump’s offer to become U.S. education secretary because “I wanted a role that would allow me to stay at Liberty.”

Mr. Falwell praised President Trump's nominee for education secretary, Betsy DeVos, whom he met for the first time recently, at a service at the Washington National Cathedral. "The task force will be a big help to her. It will do some of the work for her."

He kept the task-force offer private until Tuesday, when Steve Bannon, President Trump's chief strategist, gave him the green light to discuss it, according to Mr. Falwell.

Falwell and DeVos at education and Bannon in the Oval Office. Making America as great as any Sharia law country. Greater, even.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.