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Thursday, September 19, 2019

Jerry Falwell, Jr.



i) False dichotomy: while internal corruption is often more damaging to the church than outsiders, that doesn't mean the conduct of unbelievers can't be equally damaging to people outside the church. No, Jerry Falwell, Jr. isn't a bigger problem than drag queen story hour. Nice diversionary tactic to deflect attention away from the fact that the war on normal boys and girls is enormously destructive to the physical and psychological wellbeing of boys and girls. 

ii) Moreover, we live in the world, not in the church. What happens inside the church isn't hermeneutically sealed off from what happens to Christians, as well as innocent children, in the world. 

iii) Furthermore, regimes hostile to Christianity have decimated the church in many parts of the world. 

iv) Finally Falwell isn't the church. Not remotely. He's just one guy. A creep who inherited a Christian college from his dad. Most Christians have zero leverage where he's concerned. That's up to the board of directors, the donor base, and prospective students. 

He's not the voice of evangelicalism. The evangelical movement has thousands of spokesmen across the globe. It's good to condemn him, but that's all most of us can do. 

5 comments:

  1. I haven't been following this, but the story you link to contains mostly unnamed sources.

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    1. Of course, employees are naturally reluctant to openly accuse the boss.

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    2. Of course, but they couldn't even get former employees to use their names.



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    3. I know former employees (of a seminary with a former president) who won't speak out because the former president has a network of friends and cronies in the denomination, so it's still risky to publicly expose him even though he's out of power and they no longer work for him.

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    4. I don't doubt that, but it's still a factor when analyzing a story.

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