Gotta love those good, old-fashioned, conservative, fundamentalist Christian family values as practiced by Jerry and Becki Falwell, eh? First, check out this story:
“A former Liberty University student says Becki Falwell, the wife of the university’s then-President Jerry Falwell Jr., jumped into bed with him and performed oral sex on him while he stayed over at the Falwell home after a band practice with her eldest son in 2008.
The student was 22 at the time of the encounter, near the start of Liberty’s fall semester. He said she initiated the act, and he went along with it. But despite his rejection of further advances, he said, Falwell continued pursuing him, offering him gifts and engaging in banter through Facebook messages.”
Next, check out the interview this morning with Giancarlo Granda, aka “the pool boy,” in which he discusses how Becki Falwell initially hit on him, then how they met at a hotel for sex, with then-now-former Liberty “University” President Jerry Falwell, Jr. watching and urging him on.
EXCLUSIVE: Former pool attendant caught in middle of affair with wife of evangelical powerhouse Jerry Falwell Jr. speaks out to @GStephanopoulos. https://t.co/dzygsti6Gc pic.twitter.com/gZ5MkJsgGs
— Good Morning America (@GMA) August 28, 2020
Of course, what consenting adults want to do in the privacy of their bedrooms is perfectly fine, as long as everyone’s cool with it. But…this article explains the problem here very well.
“Let me say this out of the gate: I don’t care what kind of consensual sex the Falwells have, and neither should anyone else. Jerry Falwell Jr. could be a Tobias Funke never-nude, and it would be nobody’s business but his own. The Falwells and Granda could have been a righteous throupledom for Jesus and none of it should matter because what two or three or more consenting adults do with their bodies is their own damn business.
Or at least it should be, but evangelicals like the Falwells have made being sex scolds into a lucrative and powerful enterprise, and so this isn’t a sex scandal as much as it is a power scandal.”
Also note:
“The Falwells were engaging in behavior that would have gotten them kicked out of Liberty University for violating the school’s ban on ‘sexual relations outside of biblically ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman.’ That they did so for nearly a decade while punishing queer students and students of color simply for existing shows that these kinds of honor codes are only about strictly enforcing social norms. Evangelicals maintain power and control by dictating who can screw—and screw over—whom.”
And then there’s the political/Trump/Republican angle:
“It was Jerry Falwell Jr.’s endorsement of Trump that brought evangelical voters into the fold during the 2016 Republican primary. Becki Falwell herself is a power broker in conservative circles, serving on the advisory board of the group Women for Trump, an organization of conservative women dedicated to reelecting Trump.”
Bottom line:
“Theirs is a power scandal, not a sex scandal, and the surest way to keep them out of public life moving forward is by being very clear about that fact.”
P.S. For more on Jerry Falwell, Jr. over the years, see the following. Also, see below for the full Granda interview on GMA this morning.
- Audio: Jerry Falwell, Jr. Explains the “Viral” Photo – “She’s pregnant, so she couldn’t get her pants up…I couldn’t get mine zipped either”
- Trump BFF Jerry Falwell, Jr. Strikes Again – No “Pool Boy” This Time…Just “Unzipped Drunken Debauchery”
- Letter From Liberty U. Alumni – African-American Evangelical Pastors, Ministry Leaders, etc. – Rips Jerry Falwell’s “Racist Tweet” as “disgrace to Jesus Christ and Liberty University”
- “Trump Uber-fan” Liberty U. President Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s Wildly Reckless Behavior Unsurprisingly Has VERY BAD Consequences
- Video: Liberty U President Jerry Falwell Goes on “Fox & Friends” (Natch), Claims Coronavirus “Their Next Attempt to Get Trump”
- Video: Standing with WV Gov. Jim Justice, Liberty U. President Jerry Falwell Calls for “VEXIT” – Virginia Counties Joining West Virginia
- Tom Perriello: “Presence of Evil” Clearer with Jerry Falwell, Jr. than Even with “Warlords and War Criminals on Multiple Continents”
- Tom Perriello Has Three Questions for Jerry Falwell, Jr.
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
