Early this week, Jerry Falwell, Jr tried to get ahead of news about he and his wife’s relationship with Giancarlo Granda. We learned within a day that his account was deceptive, and Falwell was forced to resign. Many believe Falwell’s actions now place him outside the bounds of the standard evangelical redemption arc - see this article from Chrissy Stroop, and the thread below by Bradley Onishi.
I have so many thoughts... I am happy to see Falwell resign, but I just wish his racism was the thing that made him resign, not his sexual exploits. And it is sad to me that many people see his crime as just adultery, without taking into consideration the power dynamics. I highly doubt the LU board or evangelicals care about his predation. (I think it speaks to the priorities of the American public and evangelicals that the power dynamics were not clear in initial reporting - like you, I was not necessarily aware of the power dynamics at first.)
While I sincerely hope Falwell sees this episode as an opportunity to be free from fundamentalism, I think it is more likely he will continue to embrace evangelicalism and (at least publicly) continue to blame his wife, the devil, and "over-sexualization" of the world. I think he may have a redemption arc, but only after quite some time and a lot of public repentance.
I also don't have much faith the future LU president will be any better.
I have so many thoughts... I am happy to see Falwell resign, but I just wish his racism was the thing that made him resign, not his sexual exploits. And it is sad to me that many people see his crime as just adultery, without taking into consideration the power dynamics. I highly doubt the LU board or evangelicals care about his predation. (I think it speaks to the priorities of the American public and evangelicals that the power dynamics were not clear in initial reporting - like you, I was not necessarily aware of the power dynamics at first.)
While I sincerely hope Falwell sees this episode as an opportunity to be free from fundamentalism, I think it is more likely he will continue to embrace evangelicalism and (at least publicly) continue to blame his wife, the devil, and "over-sexualization" of the world. I think he may have a redemption arc, but only after quite some time and a lot of public repentance.
I also don't have much faith the future LU president will be any better.