Social Media
Did Jerry Jr. really believe he would get a free pass when it came to business and pleasure? ‘A key reason for Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s departure from Liberty University was an Instagram photo showing Falwell with his pants unbuttoned, on a luxury yacht.
According to Politico, the yacht is owned by billionaire NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick. Falwell’s family has been using the yacht for family vacations since Liberty University committed to a lucrative sponsorship deal with Hendrick Motorsports.
Though coverage of Falwell’s suspension and ultimate resignation from Liberty focused on his personal behavior, the board of trustees said it will launch an independent audit of Falwell’s tenure that will include financial dealings, including the NASCAR sponsorship.
Liberty has sponsored a car with Hendrick Motorsports since 2018. Neither Liberty University nor Hendrick Motorsports has announced the size of the sponsorship, but an annual sponsorship typically costs millions of dollars. Occasionally the public gets a peek at the cost of these sponsorships. For example, court filings about the contract later obtained by ESPN indicate Farmers Insurance paid Hendrick Motorsports $8 million for a similar NASCAR team sponsorship. According to Politico, “a Liberty employee familiar with the university’s contract with Hendrick Motorsports said the sponsorship payment varies slightly by year but amounts to roughly $6 million annually.”
If Falwell and his family made personal use of Hendrick’s yacht as a result of or as a condition for the sponsorship, the relationship raises a number of ethical and potentially legal problems, including the possibility of what the tax code calls “private inurement,” which occurs when an officer of a non-profit receives an excessive, undue, or disproportionate share of benefits from a transaction. Such transactions could be illegal outright if they can be proven to be bribes, or they could – at a minimum – be subject to taxation by the recipient as income.
Rick Hendrick has a net worth estimated to be about $1-billion. He made most of his money as the owner of car dealerships. He also has had a long relationship with Liberty University. He has spoken at the school’s commencement, and his company helpedstart an auto dealership management program at its business school.
Hendrick has also had previous run-ins with the law regarding under-the-table deals. When Honda cars were in demand, in the 1980s and 90s, Hendrick gave hundreds of thousands of dollars, automobiles, and houses to American Honda Motor Company executives in exchange for preferred treatment, including increased automobile allocations for his dealerships. Hendrick pled guilty to mail fraud charges and was sentenced in December 1997 to a $250,000 fine and 12 months’ home confinement. He avoided prison time because at the time he had leukemia. During his trial, he told the court he “may only have a couple of years to live.”
Soon after his home confinement period ended, he announced that his leukemia was in full remission, and has remained so ever since. Despite the fact that the district attorney prosecuting Hendrick called his wrong-doing a “serious crime,” Hendrick was granted a pardon by Bill Clinton in 2000, weeks before Clinton left office.
Hendrick’s yacht is known for its opulence. Called “Wheels,” it is 164 feet long and has a list price of $35-million. It also has, according to a promotional video for the vessel, six bedrooms for guests, marble bathrooms, three wet bars and three separate sun decks.” According to Politico, “It carries jet skis, 15 drop-down televisions, and a 19th century dining table made out of North Carolina walnut in its formal dining room, according to a promotional video and brochure for chartering the yacht.” It rents for $200,000 per week.
A Hendrick Motorsports spokesperson told POLITICO that use of the yacht is not part of Hendrick Motorsports’ agreement with Liberty University. According to Politico, “A Liberty spokesperson declined to answer questions about whether use of the yacht was in any way related to the sponsorship agreement.”’https://ministrywatch.com/falwells-use-of-nascar-owners-yacht-comes-under-scrutiny/
I came into this world in 1945 as a male and have been a male now for seventy five years. Now, you may think I have lost a few marbles in those years for even saying such but that is the state of things in todays society. Some are ‘demanding’ that a sex or gender not be assigned to a baby when born but the choice be made when the child is old enough to choose for themselves. What idiocy. Anyway, the article today discusses the America of 1950 to the America of 2020. Personally, in my own opinion, in so many ways it was better in the 1950s BUT that’s me.
‘If you could go back to 1950, would you do it? There would be no Internet, no cellphones and you would only be able to watch television in black and white. But even though they lacked many of our modern conveniences, people genuinely seemed to be much happier back then.
Families actually ate dinner together, neighbors knew and cared about one another, and being an “American” truly meant something.
Today, we like to think that we are so much more “advanced” than they were back then, but the truth is that our society is in the process of falling apart all around us. Could it be possible that we could learn some important lessons by looking back at how Americans lived 70 years ago?
Of course there has never been any era in our history when everything has been perfect. But without a doubt, things are vastly different today than they were back in 1950…
In 1950, Texaco Star Theatre, The Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy were some of the most popular shows that Americans watched on television.
In 2020, a Netflix film entitled “Cuties” is so trashy and so disgusting that four states have sent a letter to Netflix asking for it to be removed because it is “fodder for those with criminal imaginations, serving to normalize the view that children are sexual beings.”
In 1950, television networks would not even show husbands and wives in bed together.
In 2020, “adult websites” get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.
In 1950, people would greet one another as they walked down the street.
In 2020, Americans are too enamored with their cellphones to be bothered with actual human contact.
In 1950, gum chewing and talking in class were some of the major disciplinary problems in our schools.
In 2020, kids are literally gunning down police officers in the streets.
In 1950, people would make an effort to dress up and look nice when they would go out in public.
In 2020, most of the population has become utter slobs and “People of Walmart” has become one of our most popular memes.
In 1950, the typical woman got married for the first time at age 20 and the typical man got married for the first time at age 22.
In 2020, the typical woman gets married for the first time at age 27 and the typical man gets married for the first time at age 29.
In 1950, a lot of people would leave their homes and their vehicles unlocked because crime rates were so low.
In 2020, many that live in urban areas are deathly afraid of all the civil unrest that has erupted, and gun sales have soared to all-time record highs.
In 1950, Americans actually attempted to parent their children.
In 2020, we pump our kids full of mind-altering drugs and we let our televisions and our video games raise our children.
In 1950, Baltimore was one of the most beautiful and most prosperous cities on the entire planet.
In 2020, Baltimore regularly makes headlines because of all the murders that are constantly occurring. Of course the exact same thing could be said about many of our other major cities.
In 1950, 78 percent of all households in America contained a married couple.
In 2020, that figure has fallen below 50 percent.
In 1950, about 5 percent of all babies in the United States were born to unmarried parents.
In 2020, about 40 percent of all babies in the United States will be born to unmarried parents.
In 1950, new churches were regularly being opened all over the United States.
In 2020, it is being projected that 1 out of every 5 churches in the U.S. “could be forced to shut their doors in the next 18 months”, and the mayor of Lubbock, Texas just said that opening a new Planned Parenthood clinic is like starting a church.
In 1950, we actually had high standards for our elected officials, and people actually did research on the candidates before they cast their votes.
In 2020, more than 4,000 people in one county in New Hampshire voted for a “transsexual Satanic anarchist” in the Republican primary, and she is now the Republican nominee for sheriff in Cheshire County.
In 1950, children would go outside and play when they got home from school.
In 2020, our parks and our playgrounds are virtually empty and we have the highest childhood obesity rate in the industrialized world.
In 1950, front porches were community gathering areas, and people would regularly have their neighbors over for dinner.
In 2020, many of us don’t know our neighbors at all, and the average American watches more than five hours of television a day.
In 1950, Americans used words such as “knucklehead”, “moxie” and “jalopy”.
In 2020, new terms such as “nomophobia”, “peoplekind” and “social distancing” have been introduced into the English language.
In 1950, the very first credit card was issued in the United States.
In 2020, Americans owe more than 930 billion dollars on their credit cards.
In 1950, one income could support an entire middle class household.
In 2020, tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment, and more than half of all households in some of our largest cities are currently facing “serious financial problems”.
In 1950, the American people believed that the free market should govern the economy.
In 2020, most Americans seem to believe that the government in Washington and the Federal Reserve must endlessly “manage” the economy.
In 1950, “socialists” and “communists” were considered to be our greatest national enemies.
In 2020, most of our politicians in Washington have eagerly embraced socialist and communist policy goals.
In 1950, the U.S. Constitution was deeply loved and highly revered.
In 2020, anyone that actually admits to being a “constitutionalist” is considered to be a potential domestic terrorist.
In 1950, the United States loaned more money to the rest of the world than anybody else.
In 2020, the United States owes more money to the rest of the world than anybody else.
In 1950, the total U.S. national debt reached the 257 billion dollar mark for the first time in our history.
In 2020, we added 864 billion dollars to the national debt in the month of June alone. In other words, we added over three times more to the national debt in that one month than the total amount of debt that had been accumulated from the founding of our nation all the way to 1950.
In 1950, most Americans were generally happy with their lives.
In 2020, the suicide rate is at an all-time record high, and it has been rising every single year since 2007.’https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4290
Things have changed and most are not for the good. One answer to the problem may be 2Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
We usually don’t appreciate or miss something until it is taken away. So it is with speech. ‘The anti-discrimination system in Tasmania is a wrecking-ball to free speech, as a farcical situation surrounding Tasmanian Senator Claire Chandler has demonstrated. The Senator’s opinion piece for the Hobart Mercury, advocating that women and girls’ sport should only be for the female sex, now sees her effectively gagged and dragged before an anti-discrimination tribunal.
“The Anti-Discrimination Commission is acting beyond power, and in a way that threatens the functioning of our democracy,” ACL Tasmanian Director Christopher Brohier said today. “The Commission’s action against the Senator effectively silences all Tasmanians who wish to speak the truth on these issues.
“The Australian Constitution contains an implied freedom for all Australians to engage in political communication. This is essential for the functioning of our democracy. That freedom bars all governments from gagging Australians speaking truthfully in public.
“The ACL has consistently called for the repeal or restriction of such gag laws in Tasmania and Australia. Senator Claire Chandler’s case shows why. Laws should be repealed or ruled unconstitutional if they attack an MP for discussing an issue of great concern to her constituents. As Senator Chandler has said, this case is an attack not only on the freedom of speech but an attack on truth.”
ACL called on the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner to reject the complaint and for the Tasmanian Parliament to repeal these gag laws.’https://www.acl.org.au/mr_tas_chandler?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=enews%20200908&utm_content=enews%20200908+CID_65c57b33f2340893859d91d77cbd5876&utm_source=CreateSend&utm_term=Gag%20laws%20are%20bad%20laws
The West is moving faster and faster towards being governed like the CCP.
The Marxist Muslim Leftist Loony Lovies crowd cannot even enjoy a good cartoon. ‘A Johannes Leak cartoon published in The Australian today, in which US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is depicted calling his vice-presidential running mate Kamala Harris a “little brown girl”, has drawn widespread condemnation.’
Here is the cartoon that is SOOOOO offensive to the Leftist Loony mob.
I love the cartoon. Johannes is simply saying what Biden and Democrat PC machine is doing! Nevertheless, the Leftist, Loony, Lovies don’t and are not shy in telling us why.
This Leftist Loony journalism lecturer said he was ‘…firmly in the camp that thinks this is a racist and sexist cartoon. As a journalism lecturer with an ongoing interest in the diversity of Australian media, I think today’s outrage shows there is still much work ahead in making newsrooms less overwhelmingly white.
Context matters
My own view is this cartoon should never have been published, and it has no place in Australian media. I’m glad to see Australian politicians and public figures coming forward and saying it’s unacceptable.’ https://theconversation.com/the-australians-racist-kamala-harris-cartoon-shows-why-diversity-in-newsrooms-matters-144503?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%201703916447&utm_content=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%201703916447+CID_60380ccc47a642ec7f3dce6527ee31e4&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=The%20Australians%20racist%20Kamala%20Harris%20cartoon%20shows%20why%20diversity%20in%20newsrooms%20matters
Society is moving ever closer to limiting what one can say, draw or even think! Good on Johannes Leak for not capitulating to the Loony Left!
One would have to be a blind Freddy not to see that ‘America is being destroyed from within, with far too little resistance.
“Fox Valley Technical College announces spokesman has resigned, days after his social media comments on Islam, Black Lives Matter surfaced,” by Samantha West, Appleton Post-Crescent, August 11, 2020:
GRAND CHUTE – Fox Valley Technical College’s longtime spokesman has resigned, days after social media posts critical of Black Lives Matter and warning of Islam infiltrating every nation came to light.
In a statement provided to The Post-Crescent on Tuesday, FVTC President Susan May said Chris Jossart, manager of media relations, resigned effective Monday and was “relieved of his duties immediately.”
“Our institution remains committed to a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion that offers opportunity for all students, employees, and our communities,” May wrote.
May declined an interview with The Post-Crescent on Tuesday, calling the incident a “personnel matter.”
Jossart, who had served as the college’s spokesman for nearly 15 years, declined to comment when contacted by a reporter Tuesday morning. He said his lawyer would release a statement later in the day.
The comments that led to Jossart’s resignation were posted on his public LinkedIn page over the last month. LinkedIn is a social media platform primarily used for employment connections and professional networking.
While FVTC “respects the free speech rights of its employees,” the college’s social media policy states they’re expected to exercise “good judgement and discretion” on social media, and warns that “conduct that would not be considered acceptable in the workplace is not acceptable online.”…
On Friday, Jossart called the Black Lives Matter movement “a disgrace” in response to an article about two Black, pro-life activists being arrested outside an abortion clinic. The same day, he commented, “Yes, get rid of the anti-American filth causing cancer to our nation,” on a post about Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is a Muslim.
Responding to a LinkedIn post of an opinion article from The Jerusalem Post, Jossart on Thursday commented, “Islam is all over the world infiltrating every nation, and (Joe) Biden wants their beliefs in our already tainted public school curriculum.”…
Jossart’s posts caught the attention of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. On Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations welcomed Jossart’s resignation after it raised concerns about his “Islamophobic, anti-Black Lives Matter and other offensive comments online.”
“We welcome Mr. Jossart’s acknowledgement of the seriousness of his offensive comments, and we once again encourage him to engage with the Muslim community so that this troubling incident can be turned into an opportunity for growth and learning,” CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a Tuesday statement….’https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/08/wisconsin-colleges-longtime-spokesman-resigns-over-comments-about-islam-black-lives-matter-ilhan-omar?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_2020_08_14_jihad_watch_daily_digest&utm_term=2020-08-14
Taking a stand against Islamic fanaticism, BLM and other Marxist PC cultural destroying thinking is NOT to be permitted!
In the Australian state of Victoria nothing should come as a surprise. The state Premier Daniel Andrews, according to reports, has signed the state up to China CCP’s belt and road initiative supposedly without the knowledge of the opposition. Now, with the China virus hitting the socialist republic of Victoria, the hardest of all the Australian states, Andrews is using Communist police methods on Victorian citizens. Rather than calling in for owner information on an automobile Victorian police will smash your window and forcibly drag you out and force that information out of you! If that isn’t communist Marxist tactics what is? Therefore we are not surprised to read that the Victorian ‘Police have been forced into the extraordinary measure of smashing car windows to get Victorians to comply with second wave COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria. “On at least three or four occasions in the past week we’ve had to smash the windows of people in cars and pull them out of there so they could provide us their details because they weren’t telling us where they were going, they weren’t adhering to the chief health officer guidelines, they weren’t providing their name and their address,” Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said. Mr Patton said the discretion period for COVID-19 rules in Victoria had “virtually closed” and more than 1500 patrolling officers and PSOs would enforce the restrictions every day. “It will only be in an exceptional circumstance – in an exceptional circumstance – that Victoria Police will be using discretion because we just have to stop this movement,” he said. “In the last week we’ve seen a trend, an emergence if you like, of groups of people, small groups, but nonetheless concerning groups who classify themselves as sovereign citizens – whatever that might mean – people who don’t think the law applies to them. “We’ve seen them at checkpoints baiting police, not providing their name and address. “There are consequences for your actions, and if you’re not doing the right thing we will not hesitate to issue infringements, to arrest you, to detail you where it’s appropriate.”’https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6177862528001
“A house divided against itself, cannot stand.” No state, city or nation can survive when the following incident occurs along with whole cities being torched and destroyed! Pity the poor National Guardsman, cop or civilian that tries to bring some law and order to the situation.
Kent Brandenburg is an independent fundamental Bible-believing Baptist whose writings are (in my opinion) well worth reading. He recently wrote ‘Wikipedia lists what social media is, and I looked, because getting that accurate might be important to someone with a strong support for social media, so I don’t mind representing it with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. I know it’s more, but those suit the discussion.
Anymore, I don’t look at Facebook at all. In the top five of anything I’ve ever written is my post on February 13, 2009, Why to Delete a Facebook Account. I had an account a long time ago to test drive it before I could decide about what my children might do, and it didn’t turn out well for me, but I gave it a definite go. I’ve never done Twitter, but I look at one Twitter feed about every day, because I like to check the articles it links to.
I have a few Instagram accounts. One is an anti-Instagram account with about 9 posts and never changes. That is my main account. I have two other accounts that serve as locations for photos. One I used only for the Europe trip. I answered zero comments and have not added anything since the trip. It is a memorial to the trip, always there to look at. Now I have what I call my day trip account, which is where I put pictures I take when I travel here in the United States, mainly in California. I’ve opened another account that I might put church photos, but I’m not sure, because I need to talk to the church about that. People may not want to show up online. I’d like to have a place where people can go back to events and look at the pictures, but I haven’t decided yet.
I watch on YouTube. We have channels on YouTube, but we don’t use it for social media. I know it’s social media too. This occurred to me in recent days when I posted a comment on a video posting and the owner deleted my comment. Other comments appeared, but mine was deleted. I’ve noticed hundreds of comments on certain channels, and I think the owners encourage it. It means more traffic, more clicks, and probably more money. Even the controversy will bring in more audience. They don’t mind if there is a fight in the comment section, as long as it receives moderation.
From my use of Instagram, I like it for the usage I am giving it. I don’t like Facebook, but it might be able to be used just for our church to make announcements and account for events. Since I look at Twitter, I like it for looking at what other men do, such as they do. I like it for that, but I write a blog, which is a long form Twitter anyway. I can link to posts on my blog, just like these men do with their Twitter accounts.
What I don’t like about having any social media accounts is encouraging social media. Like many people have said and written, I think it is very dangerous. If I were to put that in shorthand, social media seems like a modern Tower of Babel with similar or worse results. God didn’t like the Tower of Babel. With that in mind, I want to return here for a moment to express what might be the worst thing about social media. I know I hate this the most.
Conventional thinking on social media, what is appropriate, perhaps even why people use social media, is what I think is the worst about it. I know people express themselves with negative comments. It happens. I read those. Celebrities get thousands of comments and many of those are mean. They can be crude and harsh. I’m not at Facebook, so I don’t know how much of that is there, but it is on Instagram and Twitter. People use foul language and ridicule other people in their comments, especially celebrities. This is called bullying today.
People have become experts at ridicule, using a new instrument, the meme. A particular successful form of mockery could go viral if it puts somebody down in harsh enough fashion. The meme could become famous almost on par with the celebrity, at least for a moment. I’m not going to give analysis to the psychology of the meme, either the maker or the origin of its popularity. Overall, I think it isn’t good. It is rampant though on a level of a cultural phenomenon.
Related to bullying and including the meme, but not the same, is what I don’t like. Here it is. Actual biblical correction and reproof of false doctrine and sin is not allowed on social media. I remember one in particular saying that he was doing his social media for the purpose of dialogue. When I heard dialogue proceed from his lips, I thought it meant, well, “dialogue.” Actual dialogue. But he didn’t mean dialogue. He meant only praise. No negative criticism at all. Maybe dialogue is all positive on the internet, unless it is mockery and ridicule, which are not helpful. Anyway, I offered one moderate note of admonition under an expression of sinfulness and it was deleted and I was blocked.
My experience hearkened back to my short Facebook days over a decade ago. There I knew I would not be at home, because the requirement of acceptance and toleration. People joined a social media to receive “likes” and “hearts” and “thumbs up.” There is no room for dislike, unless, again, it is in the form of extreme ridicule and personal attack. Actual edification through biblical exposition is unacceptable. Nothing is hated more than exposing something with the Bible even in a sensitive manner. What the Apostle Paul calls “warning the unruly” is absolutely not tolerated on social media.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22:
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Social media is off limits to the obedience of that command. No one is either allowed to obey Paul’s command in Ephesians 5:11:
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Over and over again in Proverbs, Solomon says that the fool despises reproof. Based on that, almost everyone on Facebook and Instagram would be a fool.
Social media can’t be a “safe space,” because the worst kind of ridicule and mockery occurs there, especially of the truth. Actual biblical exposition of the truth is subject to the worst treatment. I find this on my blog here most often from anonymous sources. On social media, it comes very often from people who use a fake identity. They don’t want anyone to know who is the source of the ridicule. However, I’ve found that people on social media expect to be safe from actual reasonable challenges from scripture. They don’t want it. They are not there to get it. That is what is maybe the worst thing about social media.
When a place becomes designated for protection against the confrontation of doctrinal and practical error, that is a hotbed of apostasy. That is not light. That is not love. It is not of God.’ http://kentbrandenburg.blogspot.com/
whatyareckon 