The Falwells (et al)
 

This is a thread where we shall praise the Lord for His sometimes slow but often spectacular successes in ensuring that all sowers eventually REAP

It is not gloating! It is not reveling in the downfall of another! Just an appreciation some truly outstanding work.

REUTERS Exclusive: Business partner of Falwells says he had long affair with evangelical power couple

NYPOST: Jerry Falwell Jr. allegedly caught on tape warning pool boy not to make wife jealous

TNR: Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Filthy, Predatory Finances
The son of the late evangelical titan may be embroiled in a scandal made for reality TV, but it's not as tawdry as his Trumpian path to riches.

WTOP: Liberty: Falwell agreed to resign, then reversed course

NPR: Liberty University Doubles Down After Falwell Denies Reports Of His Resignation

FORBES: Jerry Falwell Jr. Leaves Liberty University After Waffling On Resignation Prompted By Sex Scandal

What is frustrating to me is that they keep talking about a blackmail attempt and not really emphasizing that the blackmail was on behalf of the president and may have swung the election?

Don't you think that telling Falwell that he will have redemption and a place in Heaven if he just says he's sorry is asking for trouble?

This mindset in Christians is hilarious to me because Sola Fide does not mean what Evangelicals think it means. We can be saved by "faith alone," not because faith is enough, but because salvation is a bigger gift than a human could earn from God.

Sola Fide is not a get out of Hell free card, it is a reminder that God is too great to do business with us. There is nothing we could offer him that he needs. But people persist in making the relationship transactional and believe thier prosperity means they are getting it right.

I'm not a Christian and this is difficult for me to wrap my head around.
Does the "misunderstanding' begin with Jesus and where does this leave Christians?
Is salvation yours no matter what you do as long as you believe in God, or even if you don't?

I realize "religion" is a very delicate subject and I mean no offence by my question. I really am interested.

Lol I can talk about religion all day!

Jesus is actually very clear on this, the entire Sola Fide doctrine comes from the Epistles, which were written after Jesus was dead.

The doctrine itself teaches that the get out of Hell free card only works if one's Christian faith is sincerely held. And Jesus teaches that most of the people who think they are Christians will not be recognized at the Pearly Gates. Most people's faith will be revealed as insincere and they'll have to get on the down elevator.

ALSO Jesus says that a sincerely held faith will manifest in the fruits of the spirit: charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity (kindness), goodness, longanimity (forbearance), mildness (gentleness), faith, modesty, continency (self-control), and chastity.

So, even though you can't earn salvation by doing virtuous things, your salvation with make you virtuous automatically, and you'll do virtuous things anyway.

Jerry is not manifesting many fruits, so his card probably won't work.

The Catholic church does have some wiggle room for those who don't believe, especially for those who die in uncontacted regions (unlike the Baptists, who like to force contact with primitive tribes and give them germs.)

This is why Catholics have Limbo and Purgatory. Those are for people who did not get a chance to become Christians, through no fault of their own. Jesus cleared out Limbo and Purgatory on His way to Heaven after the Crucifixion. Prophecy says he will clear them out again at the Apocalypse.

My opinion is that people do not actually choose belief. Delusions and denial are permeable, it's actually very difficult to consciously decide you are going to believe something or not believe it.

You can absolutely be someone who has decided to reject church and faith, but never fully extinguished the spark, deep down. Those people are still saved.

You can absolutely be someone who has decided to reject church and faith, but never fully extinguished the spark, deep down. Those people are still saved.[/QUOTE]

Not being smart ass, but what could you do that wont get you saved?

This is all new to me and I thank you . I'm enjoying the learning experience.

Not being smart ass, but what could you do that wont get you saved?

This is all new to me and I thank you . I'm enjoying the learning experience.[/QUOTE]

Hypocrisy, arrogance, WEALTH!

Well, that rules out all organized religions.
Maybe the Sadhus can make it through.

Falwell set to receive 10.5 million as a departing door prize.


Jerry Falwell Jr. is expected to receive a $10.5 million severance package as he leaves his post as president of Liberty University. Falwell told The Washington Post that he will receive $2.5 million over the next two years, during which he will not work for a competing institution. He will then receive about $8 million in retirement as part of a contract he signed in July 2019.

“The board was gracious not to challenge that,” Falwell told the newspaper, maintaining “I haven’t done anything.” Liberty University officially accepted Falwell’s resignation on Tuesday, with the longtime university leader leaving the institution under a cloud of personal scandal.

Falwell first came under scrutiny earlier this month after he posted a photo of himself on a yacht with his arm around a young woman and his pants unzipped. A longtime business partner then claimed Falwell was a willing participant in a years-long affair involving his wife, Becki Falwell.

The couple has acknowledged the affair but has denied that Jerry Falwell was involved, claiming the former business partner was trying to blackmail the couple – allegations the former associate has dismissed.

-------------------------

Dear Liberty parents,

THIS is what your tuition checks goes for little Doug and Deborah. Tuition may go up, Jerry can not possibly live on that small of a pittance. But now he has plenty of time to drink some "black water" and unzip his pants ALL in the name of good old-fashioned Christian values fun fun fun!

~
 

Hypocrisy, arrogance, WEALTH![/QUOTE]

lol you just described TRUMP ~ but you knew that lol ^ 5

AS a recovering Baptist, I have been laughing my butt off over the whole Falwell thing. Oh. the. hypocrisy.

It's like clockwork! With the exception of Billy Graham, there has never been a major televangelist that did not get EGREGIOUSLY busted. You have to wonder how people forget this trend and continue writing checks.

USA TODAY: Fraud, private jets and a Lamborghini: 10 televangelists who have faced controversy

Speaking of Billy Graham, he explained this quote really well and faced a lot of criticism for it:

Graham expressed inclusivist views, suggesting that people without explicit faith in Jesus can be saved. In a 1997 interview with Robert Schuller, Graham said

I think that everybody that loves or knows Christ, whether they are conscious of it or not, they are members of the body of Christ ... [God] is calling people out of the world for his name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ because they have been called by God. They may not know the name of Jesus but they know in their hearts that they need something they do not have, and they turn to the only light they have, and I think that they are saved and they are going to be with us in heaven.

Iain Murray, writing from a conservative Protestant standpoint, argues that "Graham's concessions are sad words from one who once spoke on the basis of biblical certainties." (Wikipedia)

Graham also went against the Rapture theology that calls for conversion of Jewish people.

REUTERS, 9/8: Trump's ex-lawyer Cohen links Falwell’s endorsement in 2016 to suppression of racy photos, By Aram Roston

In his book released today, Michael Cohen, the former fixer for U.S. President Donald Trump, ties for the first time the 2016 presidential endorsement of Trump by American evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr to Cohen’s own role in helping to keep racy “personal” photographs of the Falwells from becoming public.

FOX News. 9/10: Jerry Falwell Jr.'s deals made Liberty University a juggernaut, but now they get a second look, by Barnini Chakraborty

Soon after the Rev. Jerry Falwell's son took the reins of Liberty University from his father, the religious school in the bucolic shadow of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains quickly became a higher education powerhouse, with a surging enrollment and an endowment that grew like a hedge fund.

But with Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife, Becki, embroiled in a series of lurid sex and booze scandals that have already cost him his job, the Midas touch that turned a sleepy Bible college in Lynchburg into a cash cow is getting a second look. And a host of deals that lined the pockets of the Falwells and their friends may not stand up to scrutiny.

"Did Liberty do well while Jerry was in charge? Yes. Was it on the up-and-up? Hell no," a Lynchburg resident who has known the Falwells told Fox News on condition of anonymity since she still works in the area.

*bump, bump*
 

I'm bumping Dark_Crystal's Falwell thread today.

I saw an op-ed over on MSNBC because Hulu just released their documentary on the Falwell's and the entire far-right evangelical movement, which fueled the election of T---p.


I've got the doc, called "God Forbid" sitting in our Hulu account, which we will watch over the weekend (hopefully).

Here is the link to the MSNBC op-ed:

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-...ached-n1300493


I'm late to the proverbial 'party', but just want to thank our member Dark_Crystal for her astute intellect and for her thread about the Falwell's. Thanks D_C :bunchflowers:

Like others who are worried sick over the GOP taking control of our country, I personally hope that every single brain-washed sinner in Red America is convicted of their hypocrisy and how it will forever go down in history as the single biggest "Sin" (cancer) that will be the death knell of American Democracy, unless we see a tremendous turn out among voters to save our country from being ruined beyond recognition.

:vigil::vigil::vigil::vigil::vigil::vigil:

Bumping dark_crystal’s thread again ✅
 

Looks like “birds of the same feather flock together” has struck again:

Famous mega church pastor who was Trumps first choice last time turns out to be a sex predator like him, too.

Link: https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/la...ers-rcna196770