Jerry Falwell Junior's interview with the Washington Post's Joe Heim is chock-full of startling revelations. Though he doesn't discuss giving a 21-year old pool attendant and "friend" a ride in the private jet (wink wink) or millions to fund a business venture because why not, he does have many thoughts about Donald Trump.
The first thing you need to know is that Falwell will never leave nor forsake Donald J. Trump. There is literally NOTHING Trump could do that would cause Falwell to turn his back. When asked, he answered with a flat "no."
"What earns him my support is his business acumen," Falwell explained. "Our country was so deep in debt and so mismanaged by career politicians that we needed someone who was not a career politician, but someone who’d been successful in business to run the country like a business. That’s the reason I supported him."
When Heim pointed out that Trump actually ballooned the deficit, Falwell fell back on the default position: Blame Obama. Never mind the ridiculous tax cut, it's all Obama's fault. Damn facts don't matter when you're an e-VAN-gel-i-cal with your guy in the White House.
His explanation is absurd, of course, as this New York Times op-ed explains.
As Lance Wallnau, an evangelical author and speaker who appears in the film, once said, “I believe the 45th president is meant to be an Isaiah 45 Cyrus,” who will “restore the crumbling walls that separate us from cultural collapse.”
Cyrus, in case you’ve forgotten, was born in the sixth century B.C.E. and became the first emperor of Persia. Isaiah 45 celebrates Cyrus for freeing a population of Jews who were held captive in Babylon. Cyrus is the model for a nonbeliever appointed by God as a vessel for the purposes of the faithful.
Well then. I'm having some real difficulty finding the parts that are "faithful" in this interview. There's a lot of talk about money and business and capitalism and Liberty -- the kind they like to preach for white guys -- but not much about loving each other or any of that. We, are, apparently, supposed to deliver the Gospel with a punch in the gut for the refugee, widow, infirm, and poor.
Falwell Junior admits that he does not think religion should have anything to do with government. (I agree)
So, the government you want is one free of religious association?
Yes. The government should be led by somebody who is going to do what’s in the best interest of the government and its people. And I believe that’s what Jesus thought, too.
Well, damn. So much for that whole "Christian nation" thing, right? And can we also finally admit that the anti-abortion zealots are really just misogynists and male supremacists who want to oppress women, that it has nothing to do with Jesus or morals, or anything like that?
"I almost laugh out loud when I hear Democrats saying things like, 'Jesus said suffer the little children to come unto me' and try to use that as the reason we should open up our borders," he sneered.
"It’s such a distortion of the teachings of Jesus to say that what he taught us to do personally — to love our neighbors as ourselves, help the poor — can somehow be imputed on a nation," he prattled on. "Jesus never told Caesar how to run Rome."
Well, that's true. So what do we do about the Falwells and the Grahams and the Wallnaus and others who actually do tell Caesar how to run Rome -- errrr -- the United States? That's the problem here. They stand up, oh so holy, and tell their followers what Jesus wants is an aging, adulterous, overweight pussy-grabbing blowhard lying liar who is likely compromised and certainly sold out to his banker overlords, if not Russia. Jesus wants that guy because of his business acumen, Falwell says. Forget the bankruptcies, forget that we're supposed to be a Christian nation (in name only), forget all of that because really this is only about white male supremacy and little else.
About the poor, he has some harsh words. "A poor person never gave anyone a job. A poor person never gave anybody charity, not of any real volume." Well, then. So much for the whole "grace of God" thing, because God doesn't want us to care for the poor, he wants more rich businessmen because liberty. I wonder what the terms of the multi-million dollar Liberty Stake™ he gave the 21-year old pool guy were, don't you? Liberty. It's not for everyone, especially not poor people.
Jerry Falwell, Junior is no more a Christian than Donald Trump. The only difference is that he holds himself out as one, and then gives ridiculous interviews like this to national newspapers. But let's hold him to what he said. No more abortion wedges, no more "Christian nation" nonsense, none of that. He has admitted we are not that thing everyone pretends we are, so let's just ditch the whole "one nation under God" thing and admit that we're two nations: white men and everyone else.
Meanwhile, we'll wait for someone to ask him why he gave Liberty Millions™ to a 21-year old pool attendant he and Mrs. Falwell "befriended."
