Proverbs 6:16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17 A proud look…
There are a ton of churches that I have never heard of and may never hear of! However, in time one of the unheard of churches is made known for various reasons. One of those is Watermark Community Church in Texas. Watermark is what is called a mega-church with multiple campuses and founded by Todd Wagner. ‘Todd Wagner, senior pastor of Watermark Community Church—a multi-site megachurch in the Dallas area with an average attendance of 11,000—announced yesterday that he is taking a break from ministry to address the sin of pride. This comes about a year after a blog called No Eden Elsewhere published several posts alleging spiritual abuse at the church.
Wagner told his congregation that he is not guilty of “disqualifying sin” like sexual immorality, financial misconduct, or “foul language.”
Yet, Wagner admitted that friends had confronted him about behaviors stemming from pride, which initially was hard for him to see because “I know who’s built Watermark. It’s not me. I know who gives gifts. It’s not me.”
But Wagner added, “Pride is not simply being overly impressed with who you think you are in terms of accomplishment looks or position. It has most often to do with the position of your heart. It’s got to do with not listening, not being as hard on yourself as times you’re with others. It’s not humbling yourself to listen to others. It’s not thinking of God first and others first.”
In 2019, No Eden Elsewhere published several articles by anonymous sources alleging that Watermark exercised excessive control and spiritual abuse of its members.
One post relayed the story of “Susan” who alleged that Watermark encouraged her to disclose personal sins and family secrets that were then used by the church to control her. She also alleged that the church pressured her to disclose personal financial information like how much she earned, spent, and saved.
Similarly, a second post reported the story of “Michael” who said that after leaving the church, he feared that he would be surveilled and his reputation or employment harmed.
Yesterday, @noedenelsewhere tweeted the news about Wagner’s announcement. And in the comment thread, Wagner apparently posted and then deleted the comment: “Mission accomplished.”https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1302773737742368769&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fjulieroys.com%2Fwatermark-abuse-break%2F%3Fmc_cid%3Dfbacccd3fe%26mc_eid%3Db13d34ad49&theme=light&widgetsVersion=219d021%3A1598982042171&width=550px
Wagner founded Watermark in 1999 with the expressed purpose of ministering to “the unchurched, dechurched, dead-churched and unmoved.” The church grew rapidly and now has campuses in Dallas, Frisco, and Plano.
The church also produces a popular marriage curriculum called re|engage that is used in more than 370 churches nationwide. Watermark also has developed a popular 12-step recovery program called re:generation, which is used at many other churches, as well.
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. Proverbs 11:2 When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom. Proverbs 13:10 Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom. Proverbs 14:3 In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them. Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 21:24 Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath. Proverbs 29:23 A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:4)
Scripture is full of promises, more than 2,800 in the Old Testament and more than 1,000 in the New. The first of these exceeding great and precious promises was the Protevangel (“first gospel”) of Genesis 3:15. Immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve through the temptation of Satan, God promised the coming Seed of the woman, the Savior: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; [He] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
The first New Testament promise, significantly, is this same primeval promise, now made far more specific: “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
The last promise of the Old Testament speaks of a second coming of “Elijah the prophet,” who will “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:5-6). Then, the final promise of the Bible is the wonderful assurance of Christ concerning His glorious second coming: “Surely I come quickly” (Revelation 22:20).
Sandwiched between these great and precious promises are over 3,800 other promises. Some of these are in the form of promised warnings to the sinner, but promises nonetheless. Most promises, however, are to the obedient follower of God, and we know that “he is faithful that promised” (Hebrews 10:23). “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Corinthians 1:20)’ https://www.icr.org/article/12327/
Job 36:22 “Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?”
While the development of a new science is helping mankind, it says something that many scientists did not intend to say. The science is called biomimetics. As the name suggests, biomimetics is based on the idea that if we copy designs found in nature, we can often improve our own technology.
For example, a Japanese company developed special swimsuit material for the Beijing Olympics that provides less resistance in the water. Taking a cue from the swift marlin, the company developed material with imbedded polymers so that it mimics the marlin’s skin’s absorption of water. Schools of fish swim in a beautiful unison ballet without ever running into each other. Nissan Motor Company is studying fish schools to discover what it might do to build cars with better anti-collision equipment. Solar cells and light-emitting diodes certainly could be more efficient. Engineers learned that moths see so well in the dark because their eyes have special convex-concave design. That design means that the moth’s eye surface reflects two to three-tenths of a percent of the light that hits it. Standard plastic film reflects four to five percent of the light hitting it, making the moth’s eye much less reflective.
Even if Donald Trump gets reelected things will not get any better in the USA. Why? Because, the God of the Bible and His Word have not only been banned in government schools and universities but supposedly many calling themselves ‘evangelicals’ don’t even believe God’s Word. The reality of this disbelief is seen in the recent disgusting devilish deceitful lifestyle of ‘evangelical’ Jerry Falwell Jr. Nevertheless, ‘Every four years, there is a tremendous amount of discussion about “evangelical voters” and the influence that they will have on the outcome of the presidential election. Most of the pundits on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News speak of evangelicals as if they were this monolithic group that all generally vote the same way and generally believe the same basic things. Perhaps that was somewhat true at one time, but now things have dramatically changed. As you will see below, surveys have found that large numbers of evangelicals are abandoning core evangelical beliefs at a rate that is staggering. In fact, it has gotten to a point where I am not even sure what an “evangelical Christian” is anymore. I figured that a good place to look for a definition of “evangelical Christian” in 2020 would be on the official website of the organization that is supposed to be representing us on a national level. According to the National Association Of Evangelicals, there are certain distinct beliefs that set evangelical Christians apart from the rest of the population… Evangelicals take the Bible seriously and believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The term “evangelical” comes from the Greek word euangelion, meaning “the good news” or the “gospel.” Thus, the evangelical faith focuses on the “good news” of salvation brought to sinners by Jesus Christ. That definition seems quite soft to me, but let’s run with it. Evangelicals are supposed to believe that Jesus is Lord, but it appears that nearly a third of them do not really understand what that means. According to one recent survey, a whopping 30 percent of all evangelicals believe that “Jesus isn’t God”… More than half of American adults, including 30% of evangelicals, say Jesus isn’t God but most agree He was a great teacher, according to results from the 2020 State of Theology survey. Even though the Bible and traditional teachings of the Christian Church hold that Jesus truly existed as both man and God, among the key findings of the biennial State of Theology survey from Ligonier Ministries conducted with LifeWay Research, is that 52% of American adults believe that Jesus was a great teacher and nothing more. I don’t understand how this could possibly be happening. Either evangelical churches are doing an exceedingly poor job of teaching basic theology, or evangelicals are rejecting that teaching in staggering numbers. Let’s take a look at another issue. According to a survey that was conducted last year, 61 percent of evangelical Christians want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade… In a 2019 survey, most Americans (70%) said they oppose overturning Roe v. Wade. But several states have enacted laws designed to challenge the ruling in recent years, including bills passed in seven states (among them Louisiana) that seek to ban almost all abortions. White evangelical Protestants (61%) are much more likely to say they want the high court to completely overturn Roe v. Wade than are Catholics (28%), white Protestants who are not evangelical (26%) and religious “nones” (10%). It is great that evangelicals are more likely than any other group to want Roe v. Wade overturned, but why isn’t the number for evangelicals 100 percent? According to the survey, 35 percent of evangelicals actually want the Supreme Court to keep Roe v. Wade in place. But those two things should be mutually exclusive. If you are an evangelical Christian, it should be impossible for you to support Roe v. Wade. How in the world could more than a third of all evangelicals want to keep abortion legal? And when it comes to gay marriage, we see numbers that are even more alarming. The following comes from an article that was authored by Jim Denison… Two reports caught my eye this week. One: In 2007, 90 percent of evangelicals said their church forbid (63 percent) or strongly discouraged (27 percent) “homosexual behaviors.” In 2020, that figure has dropped to 65 percent (33.7 percent forbid, while 31.4 percent strongly discourage). Two: In 2008, 34.4 percent of evangelicals between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five supported same-sex marriage. In 2018, that figure had risen to 56.1 percent. How are these numbers possible? In the old days, it was well understood that “evangelical Christians” were against abortion and gay marriage. But now a new generation of “evangelical Christians” has come along that is changing all of the old definitions. Like I said, I am not sure that I can even define what an “evangelical Christian” is anymore. At this point, a lot of “evangelical Christian” young people don’t even like using words that directly relate to evangelism… For example, 35% of young adults and 38% of teens said the word “convert” tops the list of objectionable mission-related words for them. And 31% of young adults and 30% of teens also rejected the term “winning souls.” If you don’t believe in “converting” people or “winning souls”, how in the world can you even call yourself an “evangelical”? I simply don’t understand. Sadly, this is yet more evidence of the rapid decline of the Christian faith in much of the industrialized world. According to researcher Ronald F. Inglehart, this decline has really picked up speed since 2007… But since 2007, things have changed with surprising speed. From about 2007 to 2019, the overwhelming majority of the countries we studied–43 out of 49–became less religious. The decline in belief was not confined to high-income countries and appeared across most of the world. Growing numbers of people no longer find religion a necessary source of support and meaning in their lives. Even the United States–long cited as proof that an economically advanced society can be strongly religious–has now joined other wealthy countries in moving away from religion. And the decline in the United States has been particularly noticeable. According to Inglehart, since 2007 the U.S. has moved away from religion faster than any other country… From 1981 to 2007, the United States ranked as one of the world’s more religious countries, with religiosity levels changing very little. Since then, the United States has shown the largest move away from religion of any country for which we have data. Near the end of the initial period studied, Americans’ mean rating of the importance of God in their lives was 8.2 on a ten-point scale. In the most recent U.S. survey, from 2017, the figure had dropped to 4.6, an astonishingly sharp decline. In a recent interview with Dr. Steve Greene, I discussed the fact that God has been trying to call this nation back to himself for a very long time, but we have been racing the other direction. The numbers that I have just shared with you are evidence that we desperately need revival, and that is what we should be praying for. Because the only hope for America is a return to God, and right now that is definitely not happening.’https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4264
Politicians will have a LOT to answer for in ten years time when it comes to daily energy via the electric grid. Of course by then they will be in retirement and still living off the tax dollar. However, I digress, here in Australia the two major political parties MUST be in bed with someone who has shares in wind turbines and solar panels. The Federal and state governments are pouring billions into these holes. In Queensland there is one brave journalist who has forced the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) ‘…to face truth about curtailment capers with the grid Catallaxy Files Cardimona 26 August 2020
If you’re a wage slave at a left-wing newspaper (BIRM) you probably, literally, can’t afford to rock the boat, so I dips me lid to Tony Raggatt at the Townsville Bulletin. Well done, that man.
From today’s print edition…
POWER CUT SYSTEM FAULT TONY RAGGATT Ergon denies load shedding
A SYSTEM fault led to a lowcost electricity tariff supplying power throughout regional Queensland being inadvertently switched off, distributor and retailer Ergon Energy says.
Ergon was commenting after consumers raised concern about the outage, which lasted for about eight hours on Sunday.
The residential Tariff 33 is an interruptible supply used by consumers to cut the cost of their electricity bills but which is normally available for a minimum of 18 hours each day.
It is commonly used for pool pumps, hot water systems and air conditioners.
On Sunday, consumers complained in Facebook posts about not being able to use their air conditioners at a time when the air was thick with smoke from fires.
Some also questioned whether authorities were load shedding – cutting power to protect system security or mitigate damage to infrastructure.
But a spokeswoman for Ergon said the cutting of Tariff 33 was a system fault and not load shedding.
“For customers connected to Tariff 33 in regional Queensland, a system fault led to the tariff being inadvertently switched off for a number of hours,” an Ergon spokeswoman said.
“Tariff 33 channels were progressively restored throughout the day, with all channels returned to normal by 3.30pm.”
The spokeswoman said technical experts were investigating the cause of the fault, which had not occurred before.
Consumers on Facebook said the failure seemed odd at a time when demand on the system was low.
An independent candidate for the state seat of Hill, Tolga resident Peter Campion, said generation records showed the outputs of the Mount Emerald wind farm and the Sun Metals solar farm in North Queensland had been curtailed this month well below capacity.
Mr Campion said the reason for this was that one of the units of Rockhampton’s Stanwell coal-fired power station was offline and the level of intermittent power needed to be cut to maintain system stability.
A spokeswoman for regulator the Australian Energy Market Operator confirmed the reliance on coal-fired power but not Stanwell’s role.
“In order for inverter-based generation to be able to generate at full capacity in central and North Queensland – wind and solar farms including Sun Metals solar farm – a minimum amount synchronous generation – typically coal, hydro and gas power stations – must be online,” the spokeswoman said. [well that is something, they got to mention to the c word].
“The limits for inverter based generation depend on the specific combination of synchronous generators online at the time.”
According to the article below a former children’s minister at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas had a charge for ‘sexual’ assault dropped. However, according to pastor Matt Chandler, Tonne was fired in 2019 for being ‘repeatedly drunk in violation of church rules.’ What in the world is going on in evangelicalism?! It’s about time for professing Christians to STOP and ‘Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? 2Corithians 13:5.
‘Criminal charges have been dropped against a former associate children’s minister at The Village Church, a Dallas-area evangelical megachurch.
Matt Tonne was indicted for indecency with a child involving sexual contact in January 2019 and has denied the charges against him.
The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office moved to dismiss the charges against Tonne last week, according to court documents. The motion — signed by Sherre Thomas, an assistant district attorney of Dallas County — states that, despite an investigation, “the complainant cannot and has not positively identified defendant as the person who committed this offense.”’
A young woman who attended The Village Church while growing up has accused Tonne of sexually assaulting her at a 2012 church camp she attended when she was 11. Now an adult, she sued the Village Church for gross negligence and emotional distress last year, seeking $1 million in damages.
J. Mitchell Stone of Scheef & Stone, who is one of the woman’s lawyers, said that the district attorney did not speak to his client before dismissing the charges.
Stone said that his client “stands ready” to identify Tonne.
“Our client and her family are shocked and disgusted at the Dallas County District Attorney’s sudden decision to dismiss this case without so much as consulting her or even picking up the telephone to talk with her before they decided to dismiss it,” he said.
Stone said the lawsuit against The Village Church is moving forward. He told Religion News Service that he expects a jury trial in 2021.
Tonne’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
In an email Monday (Aug. 31) to its members, The Village Church shared the news that the charges had been dismissed. The church also shared resources like crisis lines, contact information for its care department and local counseling referrals for those who might need them.
“We continue to pray for all involved,” the email said.
The Village Church has been posting updates about the case to its website since news of an alleged incident at the church camp broke in 2018.
In January 2019, The Village Church said it had removed Tonne from church staff the year before but did not reveal the reasons for his dismissal.
Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church, later said that Tonne, who was a family friend, was fired from the church because he had been repeatedly drunk in violation of church rules.
Do men like Jerry Falwell Jr. and others who have built large ‘Christian’ organizations and churches have too much pride, time and money? Now, ‘Megachurch pastor John Gray announced that he has “submitted to a process of restoration” that will sometimes take him away from his church in the wake of new allegations of infidelity, some of which he admits are true.
“I’m sorry for the areas of my life that I left unattended, that I was apathetic about, the areas where I have treated the calling of God, the grace of God and the hand of God casually in my life. For every area of behavior that has dishonored the holiness of God, I want to tell you that I’m sorry. There have been a number of things, blogs, some of them accurate, some of it not. But all of it, my responsibility,” the embattled leader of Relentless Church in Greenville, South Carolina, said in an address to his church and family Sunday.
“I apologize for putting the name of God in harm’s way and I and I alone take the responsibility for the actions that harmed and injured God’s sheep. No matter how many pseudo-excuses one can hurl in a moment like this, for the purposes of self-preservation, all of them ring hollow when all that is truly needed is the truth,” he said.
Gray’s address comes after his lawyers said a week ago that he was being blackmailed and extorted after he was accused of engaging in another inappropriate relationship.
The latest allegation against Gray came from a 48-year-old Houston woman who identified herself as “Mary” during an interview with online personality Tasha K, which was broadcast on YouTube. The Houston woman said during her interactions with Gray, she sent him partially nude photos at his request and he video-chatted with her while revealing his underwear. She claimed that he also met with her in Houston and invited her to visit his home and she declined because she felt he may have wanted to sleep with her.
Gray did not specifically address any of the allegations against him but explained that he had been in therapy for himself as well as in marriage therapy with his wife for a while but those efforts were insufficient in helping him to become the pastor, father and husband he aspires to be.
He said after being confronted by godly friends and leaders, he will now submit to a process that he has never endured before for an indefinite period.
“[I] submitted to a process of restoration that will require me to continue to do the deep work, not only of therapy but of emotional health professionals; physical restoration because my body and my soul have been deeply wounded and impacted by a life that was rooted in shame,” he said. “I don’t know how long that process is going to be.”
He said he has the help of pastors who will help him get “whole” and urged members of his church to continue giving to his ministry as he seeks the help he “deserves” in the broken areas of his life.
He argued that one of the reasons he didn’t seek radical help before now was because he incorrectly assumed that his church could not survive financially without him always at the helm.
“I never submitted to anybody in those other areas, whether through shame fear or an inflated sense of worth. Well, the church needs me to keep preaching so that everybody can be able to take care of their families,” he reasoned before noting, “If God needed someone who was stuck in sin to help Him then I ain’t read the Bible.
“God’s Church is His business and it is my prayer that a mature Relentless Church will continue to sow into this great work while I continue to seek the help, the health, the healing and wholeness that I deserve. My kids deserve a whole father, not a fragmented puzzle piece of a man,” he said. “Some weeks you’ll see me. Others you won’t.”
In the latest allegations against Gray, online personality Tasha K also recently shared a video on Instagram highlighting the Greenville preacher complaining to Mary that his wife, Aventer Gray, did not cook for his family and offered to fly her to Cabo, Mexico, for a rendezvous during the pandemic.
In early 2019, Gray publicly revealed he had wanted to end his life and received prayer from Bishop T.D. Jakes as allegations of infidelity clouded his marriage. Weeks before that, Gray had drawn flak for gifting his wife a more than $200,000 Lamborghini Urus to celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary.
The South Carolina pastor had previously told his congregation that his wife, Aventer, discovered that he had started “listening to the wrong voices and let some people get too close … she set it off just like a good wife should.”
Aventer Gray then revealed to their congregation that one of those wrong voices belonged to a “strange woman,” whom she fought off with prayer and Scripture. During that revelation, Gray’s wife stood stoically by his side.
On Sunday, Gray faced his church alone and publicly apologized to his wife and his church, declaring that this time, his repentance would be true.
“As I’ve said to my wife, I say to her now in this moment, Aventer, I am sorry for the pain that I have caused you and my prayer is that the life I live from this moment is one worthy of the love that you have extended and that our family receives from,” he said.
“I am grateful for you [and] our children and I pray that God would restore the joy that we had in the days when we would drive around the city dreaming. You know more than everyone else, the areas of pain that I have carried for years.
“I believe that this moment had to come so God can make me the man I need to be. I’m sorry for the pain that I’ve caused. You don’t deserve it. You are an amazing woman of God and I love you and I will face me so that the man that comes out of this moment will be able to honor you in a way that I never have before.”
He explained to his church that God still required holiness of pastors and the standard had not changed.
“To my church, I am sorry. You have gone through enough. From cars to meetings with leaders that have caused great pain and deep division amongst political ideologies to one thing after another. I want to tell you I’m sorry. The standard has not changed. Holiness is still right. And I want you to know that it is my prayer from this moment of true repentance that you will see emerge from this moment a pastor that you can be proud of,” he said.
He also had words for the bloggers who helped to expose his sin and argued that he is “God’s man” and they would not have the last word.
“People have better things to do than to stay on blogs rejoicing in the demise of who they have incorrectly ascribed a charlatan. No, I didn’t make me. God made me. And He’s going to get the glory out of my life,” Gray said.
Isn’t it sad when a professing Christian’s life arrives to the place where rumor and fact become indistinguishable. So it is with Jerry Falwell Jr. Here are THREE ARTICLES from secular sources on Falwell Jr. The first article is from a little over two years ago, the second from almost three years ago and the third is a very recent article. Falwell Jr. and Liberty University have a lot to answer for. This is the Good Ole Boys Club at work and Me thinks, most of it is fact.
From Rolling Stone we read ‘Falwell, 57, is the president of Lynchburg, Virginia’s Liberty University, one of the nation’s most prominent Christian colleges. More importantly, he’s President Trump’s principal liaison to evangelicals, the political involvement of which was fashioned largely by Falwell’s televangelist father, Reverend Jerry Falwell, Sr., who co-founded the Moral Majority movement in the ’80s. Falwell is not a pastor himself, but he’s taken on an overlarge role in the evangelical community after building Liberty University into a national powerhouse of Christian education.
Falwell’s profile has grown since he cozied up to Trump, who, according to Falwell, offered to install Falwell in his Cabinet as secretary of education, an offer he says he turned down. He has defended Trump unconditionally since publicly registering his support in the form an endorsement in January 2016, just before the Iowa caucuses. The endorsement was surprising not only because Trump embodied everything evangelicals detest, but because Falwell allegedly had already agreed to endorse Ted Cruz, to the point that Cruz’s campaign had written up a press release to announce the news, according to the Times. When Cruz’s campaign asked Falwell to make his support official, Falwell said he was not permitted to endorse primary candidates. Shortly thereafter, he endorsed Trump. “Clearly, something changed that led him to endorse Trump, and I would like to know what that was,’’ then-Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told the Herald.
So what’s this about a “pool boy”?
In 2012, Falwell and his wife Becki visited the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. While there, they befriended a 21-year-old pool attendant named Giancarlo Granda. Granda soon began traveling with the Falwells, both to their home of Virginia to hike and water ski, according to the Times, and to the Cheeca Lodge in the Florida Keys, according to the Herald. The latter paper published photos of the trip to the Keys, with Granda smiling next to Falwell, the two looking like father and son. Just months after the friendship commenced, the Falwells offered to help Granda, who had practically no business experience, set up a venture in Miami. After consulting with his friend Jesus Fernandez Jr. and Fernandez’s father, they agreed to open a hostel. Falwell ponied up $1.8 million.
Why did Falwell (who was nearly 50 at the time) and his wife invite a 21-year-old hotel pool boy to travel with them on multiple occasions, and then put up seven figures for him to open up a hostel in Miami Beach that Politico described as a “cesspool of vice”?
Uhhhhh…
What about the salacious photos?
The relationship between the Fernandez family and the Falwells and Granda eventually went sour, and the Fernandezes sued, claiming they were being muscled out of a deal in which they were promised a controlling stake. The lawsuit, and many of the details of the Falwells’ relationship with Granda, were not know until Buzzfeed News reported on it in May 2018. Though it was not included in the lawsuit or Buzzfeed’s report, multiple compromising photos of the Falwells became a central element of the legal battle, according to the Times, which spoke to several people involved in the case.
Falwell has denied the existence of the photos — or at least that they’re of him — but the Herald reviewed three of them, which show Falwell’s “wife in various stages of undress.” When they were taken or by whom is not known, but, according to the Herald, two of them appear to have been taken at the Falwells’ farm in Virginia, and one at the Cheeca Lodge.
THEN THERE IS THIS ARTICLE by a graduate of Liberty who is also a homosexual. ‘”It’s actually that one,” our Uber driver said, pointing with one hand and shifting into reverse with the other. “Right here?” I asked, thinking he must have gotten the address wrong. All I saw was a liquor store.
“That’s it,” he said, crawling to a stop. Miami Hostel, 810 Alton Road, a dilapidated boarding house quietly hidden behind non-descript storefronts.
The trunk opened, and as my partner, Andy, pulled out our luggage, I took a deep breath and surveyed my temporary home away from home. This building in front of me, nestled quietly in a relatively rundownstretch of South Beach, contained three different businesses: an Italianrestaurant, a liquor store and a hostel.
As the Uber pulled away, Andy stood, slowly shaking his head. What had I gotten him into? “It’s probably not as terrible as it looks,” I told him. “Let’s go.”
The first thing I noticed was the almost eye-level gray gate with an odd, oval sign declaring that the hostel was—for lack of a better term—a safe space.
NO
SOLICITING
FUNDRAISING
POLITICS
SALESMEN
RELIGION
The “no religion” sign on the hostel’s front gate. | Brandon Ambrosino
“That’s weird, right?” Andy chuckled and opened the door. By then, he and I already knew, thanks to a tipster that the owner of the Miami Hostel was none other than Jerry Falwell III, better known as Trey, who purchased the property with financial help from his father, Jerry Falwell Jr., a man who pretty much embodies everything on that sign: the fusion of religion with politics, aggressive fundraising and a slick, salesman-like approach to public faith. It was Falwell Jr. whose early endorsement of Donald Trump in the 2016 primaries—he hailed him for living “a life of loving and helping others as Jesus taught in the great commandment”—was seen as pivotal in helping Trump secure the evangelical vote.
At Liberty University, the Christian private school at which Falwell Jr. is the president and Trey is the vice president for university operations—and from which I graduated in 2011—all manner of vice is prohibited. Students, whether on campus or off, and whether school is in session or not—cannot consume alcohol or tobacco. Co-ed sleeping arrangements are verboten. And, in the words of “The Liberty Way,” the school’s student handbook, “homosexual conduct or the encouragement or advocacy of any form of sexual behavior that would undermine the Christian identity or faith mission of the University” are strictly prohibited. Any one of these transgressions could get you saddled with reprimands, financial repercussions, and even expulsion. And yet, here we were, in perhaps the gayest 6 square miles in the United States—South Beach, Miami—staying in Falwell’s gay-friendly flophouse with an on-site liquor store.
At least that’s the story I thought I was there to report. The more I dug into it, the larger and more byzantine the story became—and the more questions it raised. Though Liberty University officials declined to comment on the record for this story, senior-level sources at the university agreed to answer many of my questions. But rather than settling the matter, the answers they provided begat new and more serious inquiries that go beyond mere charges of hypocrisy over owning a hostel, and point to dubious behavior by Liberty University—actions which, according to several tax-law experts I consulted, could violate IRS rules.’https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/25/jerry-falwell-miami-hostel-liberty-university-trey-falwell-215528
THIS THIRD ARTICLE centers in on Falwell Jr’s wife. ‘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.
How did all this continue for so long? I have spoken of the Good Ole Boys Club in several articles and this is exactly how it works. Whether it is Falwell Jr. and Liberty University or the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) and missionary Dr. Donn Ketcham https://sadsaga.wordpress.com/ it is all a part of the way the Good Ole Boys Club works.
In my own opinion (which doesn’t carry much weight with some) Liberty University has never been what you might call a Biblically separated Baptist school of higher education. However, as far as I know Jerry Falwell Sr. never had a stain on his public reputation BUT that cannot be said for his son Jerry Falwell Jr. The following is from https://save71.org/ which is comprised of Liberty alumni which have been for some time advocating for reform at Liberty. They say ‘In the wake of Falwell’s resignation, the focus of Save71 is not on the salacious details of the most recent reporting on the Falwell family. Our focus is on improving our university, and for improvement to be possible, we must look beyond Falwell’s personal behavior and confront the failure of the university’s derelict Board of Trustees. Dramatic changes are necessary.
For years, Liberty’s Board of Trustees allowed Falwell to frequently, publicly harm Liberty’s reputation. The Board permitted Falwell and his family to run the school like a personal business at the expense of its faculty and students. Board members sat by while Falwell’s words and deeds disgraced the name of the Lord again and again.
The Board of Trustees is not a legitimate governing body. For years, Board meetings have been infrequent, brief, and filled with propaganda from Falwell and his staff. While some of its members, like Acting Chair Allen McFarland, take an active role at the university, many others do not. The Board is not qualified to determine who is best fit to lead Liberty, and its members should humbly recognize that.
After accepting Falwell’s permanent resignation, four things need to happen for Liberty to move in a positive direction. First, the Board of Trustees must permanently remove all the beneficiaries of Falwell’s inappropriate nepotism. Second, the Board should hire independent legal counsel to investigate the claims of financial corruption documented in previous reporting. Third, SACS, Liberty’s accreditor, should open an investigation into Liberty to determine whether its Board and executive leadership meet SACS’s principles of accreditation.’https://save71.org/
whatyareckon 