Good ol' Christian hypocrisy is alive and well and living in Liberty University.
The fallout from Jerry Falwell Jnr and his wife Becki's 'arrangement' with the Miami pool boy, Giancarlo Granda, in which Becki had sex with Granda while Jerry watched, is continuing unabated.
Jerry Falwell Jnr inherited his position as Liberty University's president from his father, Jerry Snr, who founded the Christian fundamentalist 'University', but was forced to resign when news of his and Becki's sexual adventures leaked out. The 'University' is now suing him for $10 million claiming breach of contract and alleging that he conspired to mislead the board of directors by concealing details of the affair from them. The University is also alleging that Falwell “fashioned a deceitful scheme to manipulate the Executive Committee of Liberty” while negotiating his last contract.
The couple also bought a Miami beach youth hostel in 2013 and installed Granda as manager. While Becki admits her affair with Granda, who has the photographs to prove it, she denies the specific allegations and Jerry Jnr, again, despite the photographic evidence showing otherwise, continues to deny his part in the arrangement.
In May 2020, the Falwell's suddenly realised how strongly they supported Donald Trump shortly after engaging the services of Trumps' fixer, Michael Cohen, in attempting to keep the photographs in Granda's possession from finding their way into the world's news media. Cohen was later convicted of lying to Congress and for political campaign violations, having paid a large sum of money to a prostitute to buy her silence and avoid embarrassing Trump during his 2016 election campaign, and not declaring it as an campaign spending.
It later emerged that a friend of the Falwell's son, Trey, and fellow band member, a student at Liberty, claimed Becki Falwell had performed oral sex on him and had told a friend that Jerry's only concern would be that he hadn't watched.
Sexual relations outside of a biblically ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman are not permissible at Liberty University.is suing on the grounds that Jerry Falwell Jnr had a fiduciary responsibility to refrain from acts “harmful to the university” but did not do so. They are demanding the return of the $10 million payoff he received as severance, because he deliberately sought to mislead them. They claim that:
Had Liberty’s Executive Committee known in 2018 or 2019 that Granda was attempting to extort Falwell Jr., and thus planning to harm Liberty, and had it known the full circumstances of Granda’s extortion of Falwell Jr., then the Executive Committee would have refrained from entering into the 2019 Employment Agreement.Jerry Jnr, despite video and photographic evidence to the contrary, continues to deny any wrong-doing or complicity in his wife's sexual dalliances, claiming:
The Executive Committee of the Liberty University Board of Trustees has made yet another attempt to defame me and discredit my record, following a series of harsh and unnecessary actions against my children, Becki, and me. Throughout all my years at the University, where we built a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that reaches Christian’s worldwide, I always abided by the requirements that applied to everyone on the University staff. This lawsuit is full of lies and half truths, and I assure you that I will defend myself against it with conviction.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
The lawsuit, which Falwell is contesting, also demands the return of computers, phones, laptops and other devices, which the board claim Jerry Jnr misappropriated when he left. They claim these will contain confidential information which Falwell Jnr could destroy.Matthew 5:40
Meanwhile, the founder of a group calling itself Save71, which campaigns for reform at Liberty University, Dustin Wahl, has complained:
To this day, the board of trustees has not apologized to Liberty students for allowing Falwell to abuse his power as president,” he told Religion News Service. “They ignored warnings about Falwell’s behavior for years, but chose to ignore them. That they are now making these claims and admissions in a lawsuit and not in a heartfelt apology to Liberty’s student body reveals their misplaced priorities.Clearly, the stinking hypocrisy and sleaze, which so often accompanies the leadership of Christian fundamentalism, is no less prevalent at Liberty University than elsewhere in the evangelical Christian world. As I said at the time the 'pool boy' scandal broke:
Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife Becki epitomise modern Trump-supporting evangelical Christians, where casual sexual promiscuity, arrogant abuse of power and privilege, and a casual disregard for the 'family values' they try to impose on others, are routine. These self-licencing pious, privileged frauds feel entitled to exemptions from the morality they try to make others live by.It seems that, so long as the hypocrisy was kept under wraps and didn't harm their income stream, the Executive Board at Liberty were happy to go along with the hypocrisy.
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