French Friday: Falwell & the Fruit of Evangelical Leadership

The Holy Post

Phil Vischer

Skyejethani, Society & Culture, Philvischer, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, 226012, Christiantaylor, Atheism, Veggietales

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2022

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

He was the president of the largest Christian university and an influential political voice for millions of evangelicals. In a lengthy new Vanity Fair profile, however, Jerry Falwell Jr. now says he has contempt for “organized religion” and “religious elites.” David French and Skye Jethani discuss the shocking claims Falwell makes about Liberty University, how he lived a double life, and what his downfall says about American evangelicalism. Do Falwell and other disgraced leaders represent a bug or a feature of evangelicalism, and are ministries protecting bad or abusive leaders because they’re focused on the wrong fruit? Then, what’s the Electoral Count Act of 1887, and why is reforming it essential to protect American democracy?

0:00 - Start
0:21 - STORY 1: Vanity Fair profile of Jerry Falwell Jr.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/01/inside-jerry-falwell-jr-unlikely-rise-and-precipitous-fall

4:17 - Falwell in context
8:16 - Victim or villain?
13:16 - Broader institutional implications
21:05 - Bug or feature?
27:14 - Measuring the wrong fruit
47:19 - An antidote: Being known
53:22 - STORY 2: Electoral Count Act reform
https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/stop-screwing-around-and-reform-the
1:06:33 - End

Transcript

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0:00.0	David French welcome back to the Holy Post.
0:02.9	Thanks for having me.
0:04.2	I okay, we have another dilemma this month as I seem to have every month with you.
0:08.9	Is there so much happening and you've written so many thoughtful pieces about what's happening that we can't possibly
0:15.2	cover at all.
0:16.2	And I don't know what to do about that.
0:18.5	Well, I mean, you know, and especially since just yesterday,
0:22.7	it would yesterday from when we record this, there's this huge vanity fair profile of Jerry Falwell,
0:28.6	Jr. and that thing is like peeling an onion.
0:33.2	I mean, just that one piece, it's unbelievable.
0:36.5	Well, that's what we're going to do.
0:37.4	I mean, we may touch some other things, but we're going to go after that onion.
0:40.8	I read it yesterday and started tweeting about it.
0:43.5	You read it yesterday or today and had a whole Twitter thread about it.
0:46.6	And everyone's talking about this piece.
0:48.8	So let's do that.
0:51.4	Yes, what day it is.
0:54.3	It's French Friday.
0:55.4	It's French Friday.
0:56.4	So grab your prize and say, array, data, print is here to play on French Friday.
1:02.8	It's French Friday.
1:05.2	Okay, Jerry Falwell, Jr.
	...

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