December 10, 2019 • 49 mins
Robert is joined again by Sofiya Alexandra for our conclusion on Jerry Falwell.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's emotionally abusing my audience. I'm Robert Evans, the host
of the show where I emotionally abused my audience. Is
that a good intro Stephie, it's the honest one. It's
the honest one. That is what this show is about.
And I love being technically honest. Like last episode, I
promised that I was not going to throw any more bagels,
(00:23):
but then our wonderful sound guy Chris handed me an
English muffin, which also fits in my sling. So I
am going to throw in English muffin at some point
this episode. I'm way less angry about that than I
was about that MOLDI bagel. Yeah, there's no mold. This
is a solid English muffin. I'm gonna have to eat
it after. I'm gonna say, don't you have to eat it?
You have to eat the entire thing. I will after
I throw it. Great, maybe slightly before I throw it,
(00:45):
pieces of it. Give a little bit piece of it
to Anderson, give a little pep and might just come
close enough to him that he's able to get it himself.
And we glarified this Anderson is a woman. How dare you?
I am sorry for miss jin during Anderson. But in
my defen dogs are incapable of caring about gender Anderson,
it's one of their best traits. She just be with
(01:09):
her leg up. So dogs are post gender. All dogs
are both male and female. Like I said, she does
pee with her life. Her name is Anderson. We could
learn a lot from dogs, namely about peeing everywhere. Anderson
doesn't pe everywhere. Classy, broad There's nothing not classy about
(01:32):
peeing wherever you want. In a lot of ways, that's
the classiest thing you can do. We are really off
on a tangent here that is not productive for the show.
Nothing to do with your topic, nothing to do with
my topic. I sent this one out because I'm perfect.
Mm hmmm. That was a smart play, because if I
(01:52):
wasn't canceled before, I'm just just barreling towards cancelation. So
today we're going to talk about Jerry Fallwell Junior and
Liberty University. Now, this is going to run on a
different week than our other Fallwell episodes because we're talking
about a different Fallwell. But we are recording this just
minutes after the last one. So you have had a
full Fallwell dose. How are you feeling might you be
(02:15):
full well, I say we call it a day. That's
probably Then it happens really quick, very quickly, and yet
does not change what we're doing at all, which really
actually does get to the core of what cancel culture
actually is. People declare you canceled, and then nothing happens. Cool.
(02:37):
In our previous two episodes on Jerry Fallwell Senior, I
think I was pretty clear in my opinion that he
was a piece of ship. His life made the world
a worse place, and we'd be better off if his
dad had accidentally shot him when he was pranking one
of his friends. However, I should acknowledge that there are
some things about him you have to grudgingly respect. For
one thing, he built a legitimately impressive and expansive organization
(02:57):
that grew from a small church of seventy into an empire,
spoke for millions, and organized an entirely new political block
that now dominates American politics. That's impressive, even if it's shitty.
You also have to acknowledge that Jerry Fallwell was a
true believer. He was deeply consistent throughout his life, and
everything we know about his personal life suggests that he
lived in a consistent manner with his terrible values, and
(03:19):
that's not good. But you might argue it's better than
pushing all of those same terrible agendas and say, getting
wasted at night clubs in Miami, which is the story
we're about. I was going to say, was that foreshadowing?
It is foreshadowing. That is for shadowing. Jerry Lamon Fallwell
(03:42):
Junior was born on June seventeenth, nineteen sixty two. So
he got another cool middle name. He got the Laman. Yeah, yeah, well,
otherwise he wouldn't be a junior. If you get a
different middle name, than you're not a junior, right, I
don't know. I think that's junior law. His parents sent
to private schools in and around Lynchburg so we could
(04:02):
be raised in a world of God and without black
people around, rather than the world of Satan. In nineteen
seventy one, he watched from the vantage point of a
pew at the Thomas Road Baptist Church while his father
explained to the congregates his plan to start a Christian
university in Lynchburg. Jerry Senior explained that the new college
would produce champions for christ. Jerry Fallwell Jr. Would one
(04:24):
day become the master of that institution, but first he
was a student there. After graduating from Lynchburg Christian Academy,
he attended Liberty University starting in nineteen eighty, the same
year the Moral Majority began. It's massive pushed for the
election of Ronald Reagan. From what I can find, Jerry
Fallwell Jr. Did not have his father and grandfather's appetite
for mean spirited pranks. So that's a plus. I mean,
(04:47):
I wonder how many times as a child you have
to see your dad like wild it out by like
shooting some people or cats, or yeah, pretending to run
people over where you're like, you know what, I'm gonna
decide not to be much of a prankster. Now. He
never got to see his granddad, so he didn't meet
he never saw the cat feeder. It's crazy, Like, when
(05:10):
you're reading a whole book about Jerry Fallwell, you don't
notice some of these things. But in retrospect, the fact
that anyone would call murdering someone's cat and feeding it
to them a prank, frank, that's not a break like
that is a seriously demented, psychologically unsound. Yeah, that's crime.
Evidence that somebody is probably chopping up like people in
(05:35):
their spare time. Yeah, they're They're one one more cataway
from just people fucking wild now. Uh. Jerry Fallwell Junior
got his bachelor's degree in religious studies in history after
acquiring a litter of recommendation from Senator Ted Kennedy. Of
all people, Jerry Jr. Was accepted to the University of
(05:55):
Virginia School of Law. Again, I thought that was for
liberty mercy. I'm like, isn't that his dad's school. Why
did he even need a recommendation he wanted? That makes sense,
I guess. And again, as with Ted Kennedy was with
all these guys, mostly what they care about is that
they're all rich. So even if they have political disagreements,
(06:16):
the dude do a solid for their rich friends kids.
So that's nice. Cool cool. Jerry Junior's brother, Jonathan took
a different path. From the beginning, he was more drawn
to religion than his brother. Jonathan became an ordained reverend.
He took over his father's position leading the Thomas Road
Baptist Church, While Jerry Jr. Has inherited the bulk of
his dad's empire and passion for direct political involvement. Jonathan
(06:39):
has kept strictly to religion. He did not endorse Donald
Trump alongside his brother in two thousand sixteen. That's a
small mercy. That's a small mercy. Prior to his death
in two thousand seven, Jerry Fallwell Senior had laid out
his plans for the inheritance of his empire of faith.
I'm going to quote now from a massive article on
the Fallwells in Politico by Brandon Ambrosino, himself Liberty University grad.
(07:01):
His two sons, Jerry Junior and Jonathan, had each inherited
different aspects of their father's persona. For Jerry Junior, at
the elder of the two by four years, it was
the stomach for partisan politics, ability to throw an elbow,
and savvy to court influential friends. For Jonathan, it was
the calling to ministry his easy way with people in
charisma as a public speaker. Jerry Junior would preside over
Liberty University and Jonathan would lead Thomas Road Baptist Church.
(07:24):
So that's cool, And from a financial perspective, this seems
to have been a great call. When Folwell Junior took
over the college, it had assets of roughly two hundred
and fifty nine million dollars. Ten years later, it hells
assets worth more than two point five billion dollars, and
it's now worth more than three billion dollars. So that's cool. Wow. Yeah,
I mean, you gotta give it to him. He's better
(07:45):
at business than Donald Trump was. Yeah, but it's like,
isn't such a huge part of being a good Christian
as like giving to the poor. How are you going
to get all the way to three billion? Well, there's
really different attitudes on that within the faith. So there's
the people who are in the rich community, the community
of rich Christians, where it's like, no, the more money
you accumulate, that's God's blessings that you're accumulating. And so
(08:09):
Jerry Fallwell is that's how blessings work. You just pile
them all up. At least that's consistent with their attitudes
towards aids. Yea, what a wonderful belief system. So cool. Yeah.
So uh, now I bet you're wondering what did what
did what did what did Jerry Fallwall Jr. Do To
(08:32):
increase the value of his university by so much in
such a short period of time. I was thinking that
you wondering if there was anything gross in shade either. Yeah. Yeah,
I was wondering that much of Liberty University's growth has
been due to growth in online students. Under Fallwell Junior's reign,
there are now nine kids across the country taking Liberty
(08:52):
University courses from their homes. So that's good. Mm hmmm
mm hmm. Now, I mean, if I know one thing,
it's that online universities are never scamming, are never literally
just scams. It's true. Yeah, and we're gonna talk about
that in a second. But before we talk about that,
(09:13):
I want to talk a little bit about Fulwell Junior's wife, Becky.
Oh my god, I literally met married to Becky with
an eye. Yeah, there's a little hard over that I
I can feel it, and I can I will. I
know in my bones that she has had a lot
of issues with a lot of waiters and waitresses, talk
(09:33):
to a lot of managers in her day. Yeah. Now, uh,
part of why I know this is what I'm about
to read next. His wife, Becky is considered by many
close to the family to have taken on a major
role in managing the university since Jerry Senior's death. One
former school official told Ambrosino writing for Politico. Until Big
Jerry that's what they called him, died, you wouldn't have known,
(09:53):
Becky if she walked up and slapped you. Big Jerry
dies and all of a sudden, if you're walking down
the hall and you didn't greet her, write you're fired.
This official shared to two thousand and twelve email from
Becky to four school executives. In the email, she complains
about a school employee who complained on Facebook that the
university didn't have enough parking spaces. Someone needs to talk
to this girl, Becky wrote, I don't think that we
allow employees to post negative remarks about liberty. Wow, real
(10:17):
Nazi kind of flair. Yeah, and apparently the employee uh
ended their employment there not long after she spoke to
the manager and she got them fired. Yeah. Yeah, But
Becky's complaints sparked almost immediate call to the employee at
the employee's home at nine pm because she complained about
not enough parking. Now, wow, what a bit. That's going
(10:38):
to be fairly minor compared to what else we're talking
about today. But it's just so petty that I felt
compelled to point it out now In another article published
by a former student in the News Advance, talked about
sort of how the culture on Liberty University's campus has
changed since Jerry Fallwell Senior's death. Its title Inside Liberty
University's Culture of Fear. It's a good title. The author,
(11:00):
Will Young, was formerly the editor in chief of Liberty
University school newspaper The Champion. He claims he instantly got
in trouble during his first week there. His crime was
noticing that his school's police department didn't publish a daily
crime log online. He called the Virginia Association of Campus
Law Enforcement Administrators to ask if this was against the law.
The university police department found out and complained to his boss,
(11:21):
who yelled at him. He writes, this wasn't exactly a
route awakening. I'd spent the previous three years watching the
university administration, led by President Jerry Folwell Junior, medal in
our coverage, revised controversial op eds and protect its image
by stripping damning facts from our stories. Still I stuck around.
I thought that if I wrote with discretion and kept
my head down, I could one day win enough trust
from the university to protect the integrity of our journalism.
(11:42):
I even dreamed we could eventually persuade the administration to
let the champion go independent from its supervision. I was naive. Instead,
when my team took over that fall in two thousand seventeen,
we encountered an oversight system that required us to send
every story to Folwell's assistant for review. Any administrator or
professor who appeared in an article had editing au thor
over any part of that article, they added and deleted
(12:02):
whatever they wanted. Folwell called our newsroom on multiple occasions
to direct our coverage personally, as he had a year earlier,
when weeks before the two sixteen election, he read a
draft of my column defending mainstream news outlets and ordered
me to say whom I plan to vote for. I
refused on ethical grounds, so Folwell told me to insert
the author refused to reveal which candidate he is supporting
for president at the bottom of my column. That's so stupid.
(12:24):
That's that's cool, right, Yeah, you love the intellectual honesty
and the freedom of speech. I mean it really has
fucking Nazi propagandic qualities. Yeah, I mean, it's it is
consistent with the family line of hating freedom of speech
and not being able to stand anybody saying anything bad
about you. I guess that is passed down in the
genes um, and pranks apparently aren't. So we've learned a
(12:48):
lot about genetics today. Will eventually quit the school paper
and the School of Communication and not replace him with
a new editor in chief. Instead, they changed the Champion
to a faculty run paper, taking control for content direction
and early away from the students. Future journalists at Liberty
University were forced to sign an in d a forbidding
them from talking about editorial or managerial direction, oversight decisions,
(13:09):
or information designed as privileged or confidential. The NDA also
makes student journalists acknowledge that they are privileged to get thoughts, opinions,
and other statements from university administration. We're so lucky that
they'll talk to us. That's cool. So obviously Will is
a student with an extra grind, But his experiences gel
very clearly with the reporting of numerous other journalists, as
(13:30):
well as complaints of students and alumni. He and others
paint a picture of Liberty University is a sort of
evangelical dictatorship of higher learning, which is super neat a
dictatorship of higher learning. Yeah, yeah, sounds dreamy. Yeah, where
the entire university is just an extension of Jerry Fallwell
(13:52):
Junior's personality and pocketbook. Um, that sounds like a good
thing for a school to be. Sounds like a good education.
I'm glad they don't have to pay taxes. Yeah, that
would be crazy. Yeah, if they had to pay taxes. Well,
because they're in a political religious that demands their writers published.
(14:13):
Who they've only flattering things now. A lot of the
uh changes in the culture of Liberty University, I believe
to have something to do with what has made the
school so enormously profitable since Jerry Jr. Took over the
massive growth of their online education program. By two thou fifteen,
Liberty University was the second largest provider of online education
(14:34):
in the United States, second only to the University of Phoenix.
Was going to guess Phoenix was leading, Yeah, it's number one.
Number two is Liberty. You the school can largely thank
the federal government for the money that it's gotten on
As a result of this, By two thousand seventeen, Liberty
students received more than seven hundred and seventy two million
dollars per year from the Department of Education, it ranked
sixth and federal aid nationwide. The vast majority of Liberty
(14:57):
University's wealth comes from taxpayer dollars. Yea, And they don't
have to pay taxes. That's good. You guys feel good
about your where your taxes are going. I feel great
about it. They need a billion dollars a year. It's
not upsetting at all. Flint, Michigan doesn't need clean water,
but Liberty University needs seven and seventy two million dollars
(15:18):
to discriminate against students, yeah, a variety of types. Yeah,
it's it's cool, super cool and consistent. Some people find
it uncomfortable or down at bad that a school which
bands its students from supporting homosexuality, swearing, and even drinking
off campus receives federal money. But as we all know,
Evangelical Christians in America don't have to obey the same
(15:40):
rules as the rest of us. And that's fine. It's fine.
Everybody's happy with us. That's what Jesus was for. That's
what Jesus was for. Massive inequality. He was a big
fan of inequality. I mean, I would say that was
his platform. Trickle down economics he was a big fan
of right. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah yeah. I remember when
(16:02):
us was like, oh, I'll turn one fish. Well, you
know what, I'm just gonna take this one. It's gonna
eventually trickle down to the really hungry. I'm gonna throw
some bones at y'all. Someone of you is going to
get an eye a fish I and you will be
fucking happy with it, and you will be my second
in command. Jesus so. Online courses have become the primary
(16:24):
money generating engine behind Liberty University. They have more than
three phone recruiters working from eight am to eight pm,
calling students from lists they get from sites like Best
Colleges Online. In an article breaking this down, the New
York Times noted there is such a race to get
to customers before the University of Phoenix and other rivals
at the prospective students sometimes marvel at how little time
has elapsed, just a handful of minutes between they're providing
(16:45):
their information on a website and the call coming from Liberty.
Liberties tax filing show that in two thousand and sixteen,
the university paid Google sixteen point eight million for admissions
leads generation, in other words, advertising Liberty to those searching
online for degree options. There are cruiders work under intense pressure.
According to several former l u O employees I spoke with,
they get no more than forty five seconds between calls,
(17:06):
and sometimes managers overriet even that short break. There are
no formal quotas, a federal regulation that went into effect
in two thousand and eleven forbids them. But as one
former employee put it, the highly motivated goal is for
each recruiter to sign up eight new students a day
multiply to class three hundred cubicles. That is twenty per day, um,
forty seconds between calls. I mean, honestly, that's down right leisurely.
That's even complaining about exactly. So it sounds like it's
(17:31):
just like a big MLM kind of situation. Yeah, it's
a kitten to that, certainly. I mean it's a yeah,
it's um not an m l M. But what do
they call it when it's just like a farm? Yeah,
it's a diploma mill. Yeah. Yeah, it's a diploma mill
masquerading as a religious institution so it doesn't have to
(17:53):
pay taxes on the hundreds of millions of dollars it
gets from taxpayers. But the particularly aggressive sales call thing
that's like its own thing, right. Yeah, yeah, it's like telemarketing. Yeah,
that's like crazy that it's so high pressure. Yeah. Well
they're fucking Glen Gary Glenn rossing these people. Yeah, yeah,
to get them into debt, so that like to get
(18:15):
them into taxpayers subsidized debt to the school for a degree,
which spoilers, is not worth a whole lot, but you
know it is worth a whole lot. Sophia our goods
and services, Yes, but cute letters say goods good. I
(18:35):
gave it up. I'm Robert Evans hosted Behind the Bastards,
and you know, as part of my practice for the show,
I have to go through a lot of books to
learn about all these terrible people I teach it about.
And you know, I spend time on the road, I
spend time at the gym. I wouldn't be able to
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(18:56):
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(19:17):
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(19:38):
dot com slash behind or text behind to five hundred.
We're back. Why are you waving that? I am waving
threatening lee waving on English. My fin it's attached to
a sling though I'm excited. So if he's excited, crowd
too excited and proud on the episode. Of course, you
(20:01):
don't sign up new students at that kind of rate
without fudging or obscuring a few facts. And this is
which you were getting that a little bit Sophia. Two
recruiters told The Times that they were ordered to quote
the university's cost on a per credit basis instead of
per course. Instructors are also urged to not push students
on how good their grades were in high school. Any
g p A open point five is enough to qualify
(20:22):
you for Liberty University. Point five Do you even have
to be conscious to get that? No? Point point five
is like if you guess on literally everything, including the essay,
you'll you'll get a point five. Yes. The good news
for those d students is that Liberties online courses are
not exactly famous for their rigor. From the New York Times,
(20:43):
people know it's kind of a joke and don't learn
that much from it. Dustin Wall, a senior from South Dakota,
told me use Google when you take your quiz and
you don't have to work as hard. It's pretty obvious.
Liberty says. Using Google during quizzes or exams is cheating. Wow. Yeah.
The Times reporting suggest that recruiters even started obscuring the
school's Christian orientation in order to second more sweet tax dollars,
(21:05):
I mean students. Quote. Two recruiters also said they were
told not to mention liberties Christian orientation until people agree
to apply. When this fact is made clear in the
user agreement they sign online. It also becomes clear at
the moment that the recruiters sign up students for their
first classes, typically an orientation class and three required Bible
studies classes. Students often can't transfer credits for these courses
to other colleges, which a tears many from dropping out. So,
(21:28):
if you're keeping track, the school, which is funded primarily
by taxpayer dollars, trick students into signing up without knowing
that they're joining a Christian university, and then if they
try to leave a devalue, it doesn't transfer anywhere so
that they can't really go. And then there's mandatory Bible
classes that are paid for again with taxpayer dollars. This
is cool. Fuck Now, this all obviously has not made
(21:52):
uh miss Trump University. You know there was a university.
Uh you knew what you were getting with Trump University
a picture with the cardboard cut out of Donald Trump
and nothing else. I missed them. I missed them too.
Now Liberty University's teachers are not all happy with the
state of affairs that has changed because it used to
be a somewhat actual say there's teachers, because it really
(22:17):
doesn't seem like it. That seems to be the administration's
attitude to there's teachers. We thought this scam just ran
itself after we suckered you into getting in. That is, yeah,
well we'll be getting a quote from Jerry Faulwell Jr.
That's basically that. Uh see. Most teachers like to know
that they work for a well respected university rather than
(22:37):
a profit mill with very little to know educational benefit.
But Liberty University is ranked in the lowest one quarter
of national universities by US News and World Report. It
lacks behind Brigham Young University, a religious college that at
least delivers in education. Low quality online courses might be
one reason for this. Another is probably the university's outright
hatred of its teachers. Only the law school at Liberty
(22:58):
University even offers a tenure track. This allows Jerry Fallwell,
Junior to enact an extreme degree of control over his
faculty because he can fire absolutely anyone. However, this also
makes it difficult to draw incompetent teachers. Chris Gaumer, a
former English professor, provides additional explanation for this treatment. When
I was there at faculty meetings, the commentary was that
(23:19):
online was funding the school. While they were trying to
just break even on the residential side, it was understood
that on the online side they were making a killing. Boy, cool,
sounds like a real school to me. In his interview
with The New York Times, Folwell Junior admitted that the
faculty had complained initially about the growing importance of online classes.
He told them the big victory was finding a way
(23:40):
to tame the faculty. We really started making money when
we fucking faculty. Yeah, what are they fucking tigers? What
is going on? Yeah? Yeah, you got to tame the faculty,
otherwise they're going to complain about the fact that you
aren't delivering an education to your students. Those pesky faculty.
Jerry Folwell Junior's decision to an ors Donald Trump in
(24:00):
the two thousand sixteen election was deeply controversial, both for
the students and the teachers. According to Will's rite up,
the school's methods became even more aggressive after Fallwell endorsed
Donald Trump early that year. According to multiple current and
formal faculty members, the closer you get to the president's office,
says a former history professor, Brian Melton, discussing a chilling
effect at the school. The worst it becomes. Fallwell staff
(24:21):
now operates masterfully to squash challenges to his views and
his rise in national political influence. So that's good. That's
scary as all. Yeah. This March, Fallwell Jr. Attended the
signing of an executive order by President Trump on college
free speech. Big advocate of college free speech. The irony
is truly too much. Yeah. The guy who brought the
school's paper under his direct personal control is invited by
(24:44):
President Trump to uh watch the signing of a bill
that I'm sure will protect free speech. Yeah. In a
PBS news our appearance, after he claimed that his college
was inclusive of all ideas, unlike all those evil liberal universities.
As evidence for this, he pointed out that Liberty University
invited President Carter to deliver its two thousand eighteen commencement
address and had Bernie Sanders speaking two thousand fifteen and
(25:07):
a mandatory assembly. These things did happen, but Fallwell neglected
to mention some other things, like the fact that in
two thousand nine, withdrew funding and recognition for the College
Democrats Club. Mark Kind, the s VP of student Affairs,
said this was because the Democratic Party defends abortion and
supports the LGBT agenda. Wow, so that's good after the
(25:27):
bloody two thously reminiscent of his dad. Yeah, the the
apple did not fall far from the tree. That is
also a poop and not apples, And the apples are
also pooped. Yes, the apples were also poop. After the
deadly two thousand seventeen Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,
you know this is going to go good. Like that,
(25:48):
the Liberties Student Government Association attempted to issue a statement
of solidarity with Heather Higher, the murdered anti fascist activist.
In response to this, the s g AS president refused
to release the statement because it would have meant ending
it to Jerry Fallwell Junior one, and they really didn't
think he was going to be on board with sympathizing
with a woman murdered by a Nazi. Oh god, Well,
they're probably not wrong about that. That's why I said,
(26:11):
oh god. When Fallwell Senior died. The idea was that
Jonathan Fallwell would act as the moral compass for Liberty
University while his brother handled the finances. And Jonathan is
still the school's Vice chancellor for spiritual affairs. But the
evidence suggests that he has been largely sidelined at the university.
One Liberty official told Brandon Ambrosino, writing for Politico, quote,
(26:32):
Jerry never removed Jonathan. He just kind of pushed him aside.
He bought all of the Thomas Road Baptist Church properties, Liberty,
Christian Acnomy, Jonathan's building at the airport, and a couple
of others. Jonathan complained, but never stood up to Jerry
because he knew Jerry controlled the purse strings. It seems
like a healthy family. Jonathan seems sad as hell. I
think Jonathan is kind of sad as hell. Yeah, I'd
(26:53):
like to know what he does every day, cry right, yeah, yeah, yeah, family. Yeah,
it seems like a bummer of a family and fallwell.
Junior has done some strange things with his control of
those purse strings. Thinks his father would not have approved of.
One of these things was the four point seven million
dollar purchase of a South Beach hostel in Miami, Florida.
(27:15):
It doesn't sound um, I don't know, Christian and decent, no,
but it actually sounds like a pretty sweet hostele, very
gay friendly, uh. Situated directly above a liquor store with
a bar where you could bring your own alcohol. And
that's what I'm saying. How could they have possibly allowed this? Well,
that's that's that's a fun little story. Um. It listed
its rules as no soliciting, fundraising, politics, salesman or religion
(27:39):
was written inside the hostel That's Fun, owned by Jerry
Fallwell Jr. It was built as a great place for
people around the world to come and get wasted in
pre party before hitting the Miami Strip. So this is
this is so confusing. Yeah, the Fallwells bought the hostel
but mysteriously gave me twenty five steak in its profits
to one John Carl low Granda. Now Mr Granda is
(28:02):
most often described as a pool boy and reporting on
this that you'll find he is a handsome, muscular young
man in his mid twenties. The nature of his relationship
to the Fallwells is unclear, but he seems to have
accompanied them on numerous trips. Some evidence suggests that he
was present with the follow us during the taking of
some racy photos of Jerry Folwell Jr's wife, Becky. So
(28:23):
that's interesting. Yeah, what's the suggestion here. The suggestion is
that Jerry Folwell Jr. His wife, Becky and this pool
boy had a ongoing threesome thing happening, and then they
bought this guy a hostile and gave him a twenty
five percent stake in the profits and let him manage
it a gay friendly hostile. I was hoping that's what
(28:45):
you would That's kind of seems like what's happening. That
is delicious now, But hot pool boy is how he's described.
He's usually just described as a pool boy. But you
said he was hot. He's definitely hot. Oh yeah, no,
you look at him up. He's he's scrumptious. I definitely
pictured the guy from Legally Blonde to what I'm talking about.
Oh yeah, like the guys she's into. That's stupid looking.
(29:08):
Look him up, John Carlo Granda. He's a good looking
guy doing it. Yeah, that's so freaky. I love it. Yeah,
it's it's it's pretty fun. I didn't think Becky had
an inner. A lot of people know what Becky had
in her because these pictures have gone pretty racy. Yeah,
pretty racy. Now the fallwells deny that there are any
(29:31):
racy photos. Well, that's not quite what he says. Uh
In an interview with the Todd Sterns Radio show, Jerry
Fallwill Jr. Said there are no compromising or embarrassing photos
of me. Mm hmm yeah. But Becky, But Becky. Yeah.
Three photographs of Becky have been seen by the Miami Harold.
They are images of her in various states of undressed,
(29:52):
and it is not known who took the photos or
when they were taken. And the Herald has not given
the photographs and therefore has not been able to authenticate them,
uh independently. But too of the photos appeared to have
been taken at the Follwells farm in Virginia, and a
third at the Chica Lodge, where they were known to
spend a lot of time with Giancarlo Granda. Oh yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah in the freak all. Now when these photos
(30:14):
leaked out, I mean, who do you get to help
you if you need to, like recover some racy photos
of your wife? Larry Flint No, Michael Cohen, Oh my god. Yeah.
He was a longtime friend of the Folwell family and
they hired him to clean up the evidence of these uh,
these sexy photo sessions. Amazing yeah yeah yeah. From Politico.
(30:38):
Longtime listener, first time caller, would love to clean this
up for you. No, he'd known them a while. Yeah.
Longtime Liberty officials close to Fallwell told me that the
university president has shown or texted his male confidence, including
at least one employee he worked for him at Liberty,
photos of his wife in provocative and sexual poses. At Liberty,
Fallwell is very, very vocal about his sex life, in
(30:59):
the words of one Liberty official, a characterization multiple current
and former university officials and employees interviewed for this story
support in a car write about a decade ago with
the senior university official who has since left Liberty. All
he wanted to talk about is how he would nail
his wife, how she couldn't handle his penis size, and
stuff of that sort. His former official recall, Fulwell did
not respond to questions about this incident more than simply
(31:20):
talking about it with employees about his wife in a
sexual manner. On at least one more occasion, Fallwell shared
a photo of his wife wearing what appeared to be
a fringe made costume. According to a long time Liberty
employee with firsthand knowledge of the image and the fallow
up that followed, this is amazing. This sounds like a
healthy working environment, right. I think it's the kind of
working environment that what Joaquin Phoenix provided, right, super safe.
(31:46):
You get a bit picture of Giancarlo grand To pulled up.
I mean I looked at it. They don't wear are
the pictures of of him and Becky? Where do I
find that? I mean, Michael Cohen cleaned him up. I'm
just gonna say I can't find them. I just want to.
I just want to look at that handsome pool boy.
I mean, laze there is okay, yeah, not bad. It
(32:10):
looks better in that picture were was wearing the purple shirt.
It seems like a fun Miami party now leaning a pool.
Oh my god him great photo shop. So that French
made picture that Jerry Folwell Jr. Accidentally Sent to an
(32:33):
employee had been intended to be sent to Ben cross White,
Becky's personal trainer, as a thank you for helping her
get in the better shape. Another possible thank you to
Ben cross White was the sale of a sizeable fitness
center on the Liberty University campus to Ben for wildly
less than its market value. Liberty University insists that there
was nothing untowards her sketchy about this arrangement. So that's cool. Also,
(32:56):
I love that he bragged about having a big dick,
which is exactly how you know he does not have
a big dick. Yeah, handle it. My wife can't take
my huge dick. It's like, that's okay. Will you sign
these payroll force? Yeah? They're like, can my son have
a scholarship? Once I finished telling you about how my
(33:20):
wife cannot take this monster hog, I'm hold on, hold
on my rail, my railing. My wife's story is not over.
Where are you going? Don't you want to hear about
me fucking my wife? Who's also your boss? Becky, get
in here and hope you tell the story about nailing you.
So I'm fucking my wife, and I mean fucking my wife.
When the pool boy comes in and we buy him
(33:42):
a hostile on the Miami Strip, the only person that
could take my penis that's not my wife is Jean
show Carla at the pool. Have you met gen Carlo Geancarla?
Get over here. That's my impression of of Jerry Fowl Jr.
At work, Jerry follow Jr. During like a business like
(34:04):
a media staff meeting. Yeah, so we got to talk
about how our students are doing on the the how
our bar exam acceptance rate is going. But first let's
talk about my dick. Also, H bet you he would
bring in slides and you know, I don't know how
this got in here. You had a slide made of
(34:24):
your wife and a French meat outfit. I don't know
this got in here. This is crazy. Who's that muscular
guy in the pictures? That the same guy who owns
that hostel that our school bought. You know what's better
than a hostile secretly owned by a Christian extremist cult products.
(34:53):
We're back. We're back, and I think I'm gonna try
and throw this English muffin now before before we get
back into Jerry fall. All right, now, this muffin is
a little bit smaller than the bagel holders, so I
don't know it's gonna work. Yeah, I mean that was
honestly just you flinging it with your hands is basically
(35:13):
just be flinging it with like But I appreciated it,
thank you. I did not. I mostly appreciated that it
didn't hit me or Sophie or Anderson is not in here.
She is, She's that bit shocking me. She's either here
or not here. And I never know which she never
reacts to throwing things. Sometimes I don't know she's here
in here. So it's like shro Schrodinger's Anderson, don't you.
(35:39):
We don't want to be talking about Shreddinger's cats around
the fall Walls because the skin and fig that catch
don't not be cool. If you like through the English
muffin and then it just hit you in the face,
that would be hilarious. Oh it's what I was hoping
and not that good at using my time. Next time
fingers crossed, I'm gonna practice. So yeah. The Fallwells family's
current sketchiness is kind implicated as it is infuriating, and
(36:01):
the recent rash reporting on the family seems to reveal
compelling proof that, whatever their public commitment to evangelical politics,
the family has left their godly roots well behind. On
July nineteen fourteen, Swedish DJ John Dahlback performed at a
Miami Beach nightclub named Wall, which is interesting because you
remember the Wall gang from earlier. Now. Photographs taken that
(36:23):
night show fallwell junior sons Cherry and Tray, both in
attendance with their wives Fucking Tray. Tray pictured drinking. Now,
considering that their father runs and they work for a
school that bands both co ed dancing and alcohol, those
pictures were considered deeply embarrassing the Fallwell clan. Liberty staffords
(36:44):
told the author of that political article that Fallwell Jr.
Went to John Gauger, the head of I T, to
deal with the problem. Quote. Longtime Liberty officials described Gauja
as a sort of fixer for Fallwell, a man promoted
because he would do what Fallwell asked him without complaint.
But Gauja is more than just a university employee since
two thousand sub Since two thousand nine, Gaja is also
(37:06):
run Redfinch Llc, an online business he founded that specializes
in search engine marketing and does lucrative contract work for Liberty.
Tax records show Liberty paid Red Pinch a hundred and
three thousand, nine and fifty dollars during two sixteen for
what sources described as a search engine recruitment for online
students to the university. Redfinches online work for the school
goes beyond typical s CEO marketing, and an email from
(37:27):
August two thirteen obtained for this article, Fallwell asked Gauja
to defend him. In the comments section of a local
news article that Folwell felt reflected to negatively on him.
Fallwell emailed Gaja the exact wording to post, I'm having
my Redfinch guys blow this right up right away. Gaja responded,
I'll tell you how it goes. Now. That's all silly, right,
(37:47):
But here's where it gets really fucking infuriating, because if
you've heard of Redfinch at all outside of the context
of Liberty University, it's because Redfinch LLC is the company
that Michael Cohen hired to rig online polls in Donald
Trump's favor in two thousand, fifteen and sixteen. Gaja wrote
a computer script to vote constantly for Trump in exchange
(38:10):
for fifty dollars cheap. It wasn't a big job. But
this means here's what's infuriating to me. Not this Not
that he could ask for more money for a job
like that. No, no, No, as a freeliancer, I'm in fury.
You just want a collective bargain to get him more money. No,
(38:30):
it's that the fifty dollars he got came from Follwell money.
Follwell money comes from federal taxpayer money, So the taxpayers
paid for John Gazer to influence polls in Donald Trump's
favor uh into fifteen and sixteen. Yeah, that that's that's
(38:50):
really frustrating and multiple reports from multiple outlets, Fallwell's management
of Liberty University has been described as dictatorial and fundamentally abusive.
One senior university official told journalist from Politico, We're not
a school. We're a real estate hedge fund. We're not educating.
We're buying real estate every year and taking students money
to do it. Another stated it's a dictatorship. Nobody craps
(39:11):
at the university without Jerry's approval. In July of two
thousand twelve, Fallwall told university executives that his son Trey,
would be starting a new company to manage properties at
the school, including the shopping center. This might represent what's
known as a breach of duty of loyalty to the nonprofit,
as it could be seen as Folwell Junior enriching his
son at the expense of giving the school's property a
(39:31):
qualified manager. But it's fine. It's just fine for this
to happen, which is cool. Folwell Junior has also put
his support for President Donald Trump above the health of
his students and his ethical responsibilities as the manager of
a nonprofit religious institution. In two thousand and seventeen, he
invited the President to deliver the school's commencement address. Now
this is fine and happens regularly with a number of schools,
(39:54):
but Jerry Fallwell Jr. Also had Liberty University starts selling
a line of Trump branded shirts hats commemorating the event.
Becky Folwell wrote an email threat, I want to make
sure that we have a lot of options available to purchase.
It's great advertising for Liberty to be on products with
Trump's name. She added in a later message, I spoke
to Michael Cohen and he said to make sure any
shirts we buy are made in America. He loved the designs.
(40:17):
The school ended up printing shirts that looked almost exactly
like official Trump campaign merchandise, including the words making America
great again, one degree at a time. Yeah, it's possible
these shirts are a violation of the school's five oh
one C three status since they might be seen as
political advertising. But there's no inclination that Fallwell Junior gives
a shit about this or that anything will be done
about it. Who's going to prosecute him, Who's going to
(40:39):
prosecute him? Nobody cares when these guys break the rules. Nope.
From Politico, Fallwell has become known as a Trump loyalist
who is willing to put his in his school's reputation
on the line to defend the president from any critic
and Trump. Fallwell said in two thousand seventeen, evangelicals have
found their dream president. When asked by The Washington Post
late intils An eighteen if there were anything President Trump
(41:00):
could do that would endanger the support from you or
other evangelical leaders, Fautwell said no. And in May two
that's a nineteen tweet about their Muller investigation, fault Well
appropriated the language of reparations for descendants of slaves to
argue that Trump's terms should be lengthened. I now support reparations.
Trump should have two years added to his first term.
Is pain back for the time stolen by this corrupt,
failed coup? Yeah? I just think it's neat that both
(41:22):
uh Jerry Folwell and Jerry Folwell Jr. Have appropriated the
language of in Folwell's case, abolitionists, and in Jerry Jr's case,
the reparations movement to support their own political bullshit. That's neat. Yeah,
and also um, kind of a hilarious, uh defeat of
(41:44):
their own ideology. Yeah, you know, yeah, to like be
borrowing by borrowing and being very kind, it's like with
quotation marks, I mean stealing. By stealing something from somebody
that you don't even respect, You're just giving credence to
the fact that they are valuable and have ideas and
and that value and merit, And all you do is
(42:06):
just steal it and appropriated to your own, uh and
and then you still maintain your superiority. It's just kind
of hilarious. Yeah. Yeah, it's unself aware. That is moral
hermit crabbing. Um, except for I like hermit crabs, and
I do not like the Fallwells. Jerry Folwell Jr. Is
considerably more positive in his words to the President than
he has been in emails writing about his own students. Earlier.
(42:29):
In September two, nineteen, Reuter's published an article based on
leaked emails from Fallwell to his faculty. The title Exclusive.
Fallwell blasted liberty student as retarded, police chief as half
wit in emails. Yeah, Reuter's interviewed reviewed several dozen emails
which painted a pattern of intense disrespect for the people
who attend Liberty and work there. Here are some examples.
(42:49):
Ronald Songs, the dean of the engineering school, was a
bag of hot air who couldn't spell the word profit.
Fallwell wrote in two thousand eleven, Richards, he thinks that's
like a sick burn. I think he does. It's not,
It's definitely not. Richard Hinckley, the campus police chief, was
a half wit and easy to manipulate, and shouldn't be
allowed to speak publicly. Hinckley couldn't be reached for comment
(43:11):
on the count, probably of how half he's too much
of a half wit to talk to the press. Of
Kevin Keys, then Liberties Associate athletics director Folwell wrote in
two thousand twelve, only get Kevin involved in something if
you want it to not work. Why would you hire
that guy? Like, why won't you let that guy have
a position at your school? If that's what you're saying
about it. Up until very recently, only an idiot would
(43:35):
hire Kevin only a fucking moral I am his employed,
I am his employer, and I regularly show him pictures
of my wife naked. Get in here, show him your ass.
You don't deserve to be here. Up until very recently,
Folwell Jr. Has been allowed to get away with this
behavior due to the sheer terror everyone else at Liberty
(43:55):
seems to hold for him. One current university employee told Politico,
everybody is scared for their life. Everybody walks around in fear. Uh.
This place to learn a cool place to learn. This
employee only agreed to speak to Politico after buying a
burner phone because they were afraid that Fallwell Junior is
monitoring their communications. Fuck. Yeah, Yeah, it's a real dictatorship
(44:18):
over there. Sounds pretty great. I love that he's an
advocate for free speech at schools. Now, the good news
is that all this bad behavior has finally percolated out
into the wider world. An activist Christian group, Faithful America,
has launched a petition to force the Virginia Attorney General
and the I r S to open criminal investigations into
Jerry Folwell Jr. They have received over fifteen thousand signatures
(44:40):
so far. Earlier this month, The Washington Examiner, a very
right wing news website, published an editorial simply titled Jerry
Folwell Junior needs to go. And on September, after several
of these damning articles dropped, two hundred Liberty students protested
on campus. At least sixty of them demanded an investigation
into the school's president and his administration. So that's good.
(45:02):
Maybe something will happen, they've but so much time has passed. Yeah,
he made billions of dollars stealing taxpayer funds and giving
people worthless degrees uh, in exchange for money it should
have gone to infrastructure. Yeah, it's like doubly terrible because
(45:22):
you both waste all those tax dollars and then all
of these kids wind up in horrible debt for no benefit.
It's pretty cool, and they don't get educated, and they
don't get educated, and then the money goes to rigging
polls online in favor of Donald Trump. Yeah, this is
and buying that hostile a lose lose situation. Except for
Jean Carlos. Jean Carlo didn't crushing it. Can I assume
(45:45):
some like European backpackers had a great like great stay
summer break in Miami. Yeah, yeah, they're also winning so well.
Thanks Sophia, how you feeling? I mean a lot better
than after you invited me to talk about dead babies ours.
I'm not even sure I feel positive like leaving. It's
(46:09):
just a weird feeling. Normally I leave here and I
want to curl up until a ball and die. Well,
I will find another dead baby story to tell you.
I am not afraid of that being untrue. Yeah, it's
is going to happen. I just got to find another
real good baby murderer. Like, that's part of the trouble,
is Yeah, that that is part of the trouble. It's
(46:31):
just hard to find a good baby killer these days. Hey,
that's not a challenge. Listeners, don't be like, you know what,
I'll give Robbert something to talk about. If you know
someone who killed a lot of babies, reach out to
us on Twitter. What he just loves Cansylvania. He loves
it there. It's you know what it is is it's
the mild falls. Well, there's no such thing. It's all
(46:55):
only one temperature and Cansylvania and it's just unbearably hot.
Who's he? Who's your new roommate? Yeah it's you mana
for he didn't even get canceled. I mean, he just
got imprisoned. Then how is he in Cansylvania with you? Well,
I I guess I would say he didn't get canceled
(47:16):
because he actually faced consequences and the people in Cansylvania
really don't. Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah, m hmm.
I don't know. Maybe that little observation moved you up
to a higher level of Cansylvania. Now I'm I'm bunking
with We already did a Louis c k joke. I
can't think of anyone else who's been canceled. Yeah, I
(47:38):
think that's a there's a lesson in there somewhere. Well, Sophia,
you want to plug your plug doubles. Sure you guys
can find me on Twitter and Instagram at the Sophia
s O f I y A, and on my podcast
Private Parts Unknown and Courtney Kosak it's a podcast about
(47:59):
love and sexual lality around the world, and Fance my
podcast about ninety with Miles Gray. And you can find
me in Cansylvania performing at the Comedy Cellar. I opened
from Michael Richards. I thought of another one. Thank you
for You's website Behind the Bastards dot Com, Twitter at
(48:22):
bastard's pod Instagram, the same as the Twitter and T
shirts at T Public. Uh what it will SOPI? Oh yeah,
if you buy T shirts at T Public, I will
use them to purchase a hostel in Miami Beach. Uh
(48:42):
my pool boy. But I won't keep it a secret.
I will, I will will be proud of Jean Carlow.
I am. I am very proud. Giancarlo is the only
one in the story I actually am proud of. It's true.
He really knows how to ratchet up just being the
third guy in a threesome. It just seems a person
in the threesome into some actual real estate and to
(49:02):
owning a hot co, owning a hospital in Miami Beach.
That's a weird flex, but I'm I'm in it. I mean,
I feel like your choices are one of two things.
Either Liberty University taxpayer dollars go to fund like fraudulent
polls that support Donald Trump's candidacy, or they go to Giancarlo.
And I know that I would rather Giancarlo. Gean Carlo
(49:23):
buy a mile, So buy some T shirts support Giancarlo.
Listen to the worst year ever, where we'll try to
get Gian Carlo On as a guest. Uh, actually really fun. Yeah.
If you know someone who's had a threesome with the Fallwelves,
tell them to hit us up. Episodes done,
What's emotionally abusing my audience. I'm Robert Evans, the host
of the show where I emotionally abused my audience. Is
that a good intro Stephie, it's the honest one. It's
the honest one. That is what this show is about.
And I love being technically honest. Like last episode, I
promised that I was not going to throw any more bagels,
(00:23):
but then our wonderful sound guy Chris handed me an
English muffin, which also fits in my sling. So I
am going to throw in English muffin at some point
this episode. I'm way less angry about that than I
was about that MOLDI bagel. Yeah, there's no mold. This
is a solid English muffin. I'm gonna have to eat
it after. I'm gonna say, don't you have to eat it?
You have to eat the entire thing. I will after
I throw it. Great, maybe slightly before I throw it,
(00:45):
pieces of it. Give a little bit piece of it
to Anderson, give a little pep and might just come
close enough to him that he's able to get it himself.
And we glarified this Anderson is a woman. How dare you?
I am sorry for miss jin during Anderson. But in
my defen dogs are incapable of caring about gender Anderson,
it's one of their best traits. She just be with
(01:09):
her leg up. So dogs are post gender. All dogs
are both male and female. Like I said, she does
pee with her life. Her name is Anderson. We could
learn a lot from dogs, namely about peeing everywhere. Anderson
doesn't pe everywhere. Classy, broad There's nothing not classy about
(01:32):
peeing wherever you want. In a lot of ways, that's
the classiest thing you can do. We are really off
on a tangent here that is not productive for the show.
Nothing to do with your topic, nothing to do with
my topic. I sent this one out because I'm perfect.
Mm hmmm. That was a smart play, because if I
(01:52):
wasn't canceled before, I'm just just barreling towards cancelation. So
today we're going to talk about Jerry Fallwell Junior and
Liberty University. Now, this is going to run on a
different week than our other Fallwell episodes because we're talking
about a different Fallwell. But we are recording this just
minutes after the last one. So you have had a
full Fallwell dose. How are you feeling might you be
(02:15):
full well, I say we call it a day. That's
probably Then it happens really quick, very quickly, and yet
does not change what we're doing at all, which really
actually does get to the core of what cancel culture
actually is. People declare you canceled, and then nothing happens. Cool.
(02:37):
In our previous two episodes on Jerry Fallwell Senior, I
think I was pretty clear in my opinion that he
was a piece of ship. His life made the world
a worse place, and we'd be better off if his
dad had accidentally shot him when he was pranking one
of his friends. However, I should acknowledge that there are
some things about him you have to grudgingly respect. For
one thing, he built a legitimately impressive and expansive organization
(02:57):
that grew from a small church of seventy into an empire,
spoke for millions, and organized an entirely new political block
that now dominates American politics. That's impressive, even if it's shitty.
You also have to acknowledge that Jerry Fallwell was a
true believer. He was deeply consistent throughout his life, and
everything we know about his personal life suggests that he
lived in a consistent manner with his terrible values, and
(03:19):
that's not good. But you might argue it's better than
pushing all of those same terrible agendas and say, getting
wasted at night clubs in Miami, which is the story
we're about. I was going to say, was that foreshadowing?
It is foreshadowing. That is for shadowing. Jerry Lamon Fallwell
(03:42):
Junior was born on June seventeenth, nineteen sixty two. So
he got another cool middle name. He got the Laman. Yeah, yeah, well,
otherwise he wouldn't be a junior. If you get a
different middle name, than you're not a junior, right, I
don't know. I think that's junior law. His parents sent
to private schools in and around Lynchburg so we could
(04:02):
be raised in a world of God and without black
people around, rather than the world of Satan. In nineteen
seventy one, he watched from the vantage point of a
pew at the Thomas Road Baptist Church while his father
explained to the congregates his plan to start a Christian
university in Lynchburg. Jerry Senior explained that the new college
would produce champions for christ. Jerry Fallwell Jr. Would one
(04:24):
day become the master of that institution, but first he
was a student there. After graduating from Lynchburg Christian Academy,
he attended Liberty University starting in nineteen eighty, the same
year the Moral Majority began. It's massive pushed for the
election of Ronald Reagan. From what I can find, Jerry
Fallwell Jr. Did not have his father and grandfather's appetite
for mean spirited pranks. So that's a plus. I mean,
(04:47):
I wonder how many times as a child you have
to see your dad like wild it out by like
shooting some people or cats, or yeah, pretending to run
people over where you're like, you know what, I'm gonna
decide not to be much of a prankster. Now. He
never got to see his granddad, so he didn't meet
he never saw the cat feeder. It's crazy, Like, when
(05:10):
you're reading a whole book about Jerry Fallwell, you don't
notice some of these things. But in retrospect, the fact
that anyone would call murdering someone's cat and feeding it
to them a prank, frank, that's not a break like
that is a seriously demented, psychologically unsound. Yeah, that's crime.
Evidence that somebody is probably chopping up like people in
(05:35):
their spare time. Yeah, they're They're one one more cataway
from just people fucking wild now. Uh. Jerry Fallwell Junior
got his bachelor's degree in religious studies in history after
acquiring a litter of recommendation from Senator Ted Kennedy. Of
all people, Jerry Jr. Was accepted to the University of
(05:55):
Virginia School of Law. Again, I thought that was for
liberty mercy. I'm like, isn't that his dad's school. Why
did he even need a recommendation he wanted? That makes sense,
I guess. And again, as with Ted Kennedy was with
all these guys, mostly what they care about is that
they're all rich. So even if they have political disagreements,
(06:16):
the dude do a solid for their rich friends kids.
So that's nice. Cool cool. Jerry Junior's brother, Jonathan took
a different path. From the beginning, he was more drawn
to religion than his brother. Jonathan became an ordained reverend.
He took over his father's position leading the Thomas Road
Baptist Church, While Jerry Jr. Has inherited the bulk of
his dad's empire and passion for direct political involvement. Jonathan
(06:39):
has kept strictly to religion. He did not endorse Donald
Trump alongside his brother in two thousand sixteen. That's a
small mercy. That's a small mercy. Prior to his death
in two thousand seven, Jerry Fallwell Senior had laid out
his plans for the inheritance of his empire of faith.
I'm going to quote now from a massive article on
the Fallwells in Politico by Brandon Ambrosino, himself Liberty University grad.
(07:01):
His two sons, Jerry Junior and Jonathan, had each inherited
different aspects of their father's persona. For Jerry Junior, at
the elder of the two by four years, it was
the stomach for partisan politics, ability to throw an elbow,
and savvy to court influential friends. For Jonathan, it was
the calling to ministry his easy way with people in
charisma as a public speaker. Jerry Junior would preside over
Liberty University and Jonathan would lead Thomas Road Baptist Church.
(07:24):
So that's cool, And from a financial perspective, this seems
to have been a great call. When Folwell Junior took
over the college, it had assets of roughly two hundred
and fifty nine million dollars. Ten years later, it hells
assets worth more than two point five billion dollars, and
it's now worth more than three billion dollars. So that's cool. Wow. Yeah,
I mean, you gotta give it to him. He's better
(07:45):
at business than Donald Trump was. Yeah, but it's like,
isn't such a huge part of being a good Christian
as like giving to the poor. How are you going
to get all the way to three billion? Well, there's
really different attitudes on that within the faith. So there's
the people who are in the rich community, the community
of rich Christians, where it's like, no, the more money
you accumulate, that's God's blessings that you're accumulating. And so
(08:09):
Jerry Fallwell is that's how blessings work. You just pile
them all up. At least that's consistent with their attitudes
towards aids. Yea, what a wonderful belief system. So cool. Yeah.
So uh, now I bet you're wondering what did what
did what did what did Jerry Fallwall Jr. Do To
(08:32):
increase the value of his university by so much in
such a short period of time. I was thinking that
you wondering if there was anything gross in shade either. Yeah. Yeah,
I was wondering that much of Liberty University's growth has
been due to growth in online students. Under Fallwell Junior's reign,
there are now nine kids across the country taking Liberty
(08:52):
University courses from their homes. So that's good. Mm hmmm
mm hmm. Now, I mean, if I know one thing,
it's that online universities are never scamming, are never literally
just scams. It's true. Yeah, and we're gonna talk about
that in a second. But before we talk about that,
(09:13):
I want to talk a little bit about Fulwell Junior's wife, Becky.
Oh my god, I literally met married to Becky with
an eye. Yeah, there's a little hard over that I
I can feel it, and I can I will. I
know in my bones that she has had a lot
of issues with a lot of waiters and waitresses, talk
(09:33):
to a lot of managers in her day. Yeah. Now, uh,
part of why I know this is what I'm about
to read next. His wife, Becky is considered by many
close to the family to have taken on a major
role in managing the university since Jerry Senior's death. One
former school official told Ambrosino writing for Politico. Until Big
Jerry that's what they called him, died, you wouldn't have known,
(09:53):
Becky if she walked up and slapped you. Big Jerry
dies and all of a sudden, if you're walking down
the hall and you didn't greet her, write you're fired.
This official shared to two thousand and twelve email from
Becky to four school executives. In the email, she complains
about a school employee who complained on Facebook that the
university didn't have enough parking spaces. Someone needs to talk
to this girl, Becky wrote, I don't think that we
allow employees to post negative remarks about liberty. Wow, real
(10:17):
Nazi kind of flair. Yeah, and apparently the employee uh
ended their employment there not long after she spoke to
the manager and she got them fired. Yeah. Yeah, But
Becky's complaints sparked almost immediate call to the employee at
the employee's home at nine pm because she complained about
not enough parking. Now, wow, what a bit. That's going
(10:38):
to be fairly minor compared to what else we're talking
about today. But it's just so petty that I felt
compelled to point it out now In another article published
by a former student in the News Advance, talked about
sort of how the culture on Liberty University's campus has
changed since Jerry Fallwell Senior's death. Its title Inside Liberty
University's Culture of Fear. It's a good title. The author,
(11:00):
Will Young, was formerly the editor in chief of Liberty
University school newspaper The Champion. He claims he instantly got
in trouble during his first week there. His crime was
noticing that his school's police department didn't publish a daily
crime log online. He called the Virginia Association of Campus
Law Enforcement Administrators to ask if this was against the law.
The university police department found out and complained to his boss,
(11:21):
who yelled at him. He writes, this wasn't exactly a
route awakening. I'd spent the previous three years watching the
university administration, led by President Jerry Folwell Junior, medal in
our coverage, revised controversial op eds and protect its image
by stripping damning facts from our stories. Still I stuck around.
I thought that if I wrote with discretion and kept
my head down, I could one day win enough trust
from the university to protect the integrity of our journalism.
(11:42):
I even dreamed we could eventually persuade the administration to
let the champion go independent from its supervision. I was naive. Instead,
when my team took over that fall in two thousand seventeen,
we encountered an oversight system that required us to send
every story to Folwell's assistant for review. Any administrator or
professor who appeared in an article had editing au thor
over any part of that article, they added and deleted
(12:02):
whatever they wanted. Folwell called our newsroom on multiple occasions
to direct our coverage personally, as he had a year earlier,
when weeks before the two sixteen election, he read a
draft of my column defending mainstream news outlets and ordered
me to say whom I plan to vote for. I
refused on ethical grounds, so Folwell told me to insert
the author refused to reveal which candidate he is supporting
for president at the bottom of my column. That's so stupid.
(12:24):
That's that's cool, right, Yeah, you love the intellectual honesty
and the freedom of speech. I mean it really has
fucking Nazi propagandic qualities. Yeah, I mean, it's it is
consistent with the family line of hating freedom of speech
and not being able to stand anybody saying anything bad
about you. I guess that is passed down in the
genes um, and pranks apparently aren't. So we've learned a
(12:48):
lot about genetics today. Will eventually quit the school paper
and the School of Communication and not replace him with
a new editor in chief. Instead, they changed the Champion
to a faculty run paper, taking control for content direction
and early away from the students. Future journalists at Liberty
University were forced to sign an in d a forbidding
them from talking about editorial or managerial direction, oversight decisions,
(13:09):
or information designed as privileged or confidential. The NDA also
makes student journalists acknowledge that they are privileged to get thoughts, opinions,
and other statements from university administration. We're so lucky that
they'll talk to us. That's cool. So obviously Will is
a student with an extra grind, But his experiences gel
very clearly with the reporting of numerous other journalists, as
(13:30):
well as complaints of students and alumni. He and others
paint a picture of Liberty University is a sort of
evangelical dictatorship of higher learning, which is super neat a
dictatorship of higher learning. Yeah, yeah, sounds dreamy. Yeah, where
the entire university is just an extension of Jerry Fallwell
(13:52):
Junior's personality and pocketbook. Um, that sounds like a good
thing for a school to be. Sounds like a good education.
I'm glad they don't have to pay taxes. Yeah, that
would be crazy. Yeah, if they had to pay taxes. Well,
because they're in a political religious that demands their writers published.
(14:13):
Who they've only flattering things now. A lot of the
uh changes in the culture of Liberty University, I believe
to have something to do with what has made the
school so enormously profitable since Jerry Jr. Took over the
massive growth of their online education program. By two thou fifteen,
Liberty University was the second largest provider of online education
(14:34):
in the United States, second only to the University of Phoenix.
Was going to guess Phoenix was leading, Yeah, it's number one.
Number two is Liberty. You the school can largely thank
the federal government for the money that it's gotten on
As a result of this, By two thousand seventeen, Liberty
students received more than seven hundred and seventy two million
dollars per year from the Department of Education, it ranked
sixth and federal aid nationwide. The vast majority of Liberty
(14:57):
University's wealth comes from taxpayer dollars. Yea, And they don't
have to pay taxes. That's good. You guys feel good
about your where your taxes are going. I feel great
about it. They need a billion dollars a year. It's
not upsetting at all. Flint, Michigan doesn't need clean water,
but Liberty University needs seven and seventy two million dollars
(15:18):
to discriminate against students, yeah, a variety of types. Yeah,
it's it's cool, super cool and consistent. Some people find
it uncomfortable or down at bad that a school which
bands its students from supporting homosexuality, swearing, and even drinking
off campus receives federal money. But as we all know,
Evangelical Christians in America don't have to obey the same
(15:40):
rules as the rest of us. And that's fine. It's fine.
Everybody's happy with us. That's what Jesus was for. That's
what Jesus was for. Massive inequality. He was a big
fan of inequality. I mean, I would say that was
his platform. Trickle down economics he was a big fan
of right. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah yeah. I remember when
(16:02):
us was like, oh, I'll turn one fish. Well, you
know what, I'm just gonna take this one. It's gonna
eventually trickle down to the really hungry. I'm gonna throw
some bones at y'all. Someone of you is going to
get an eye a fish I and you will be
fucking happy with it, and you will be my second
in command. Jesus so. Online courses have become the primary
(16:24):
money generating engine behind Liberty University. They have more than
three phone recruiters working from eight am to eight pm,
calling students from lists they get from sites like Best
Colleges Online. In an article breaking this down, the New
York Times noted there is such a race to get
to customers before the University of Phoenix and other rivals
at the prospective students sometimes marvel at how little time
has elapsed, just a handful of minutes between they're providing
(16:45):
their information on a website and the call coming from Liberty.
Liberties tax filing show that in two thousand and sixteen,
the university paid Google sixteen point eight million for admissions
leads generation, in other words, advertising Liberty to those searching
online for degree options. There are cruiders work under intense pressure.
According to several former l u O employees I spoke with,
they get no more than forty five seconds between calls,
(17:06):
and sometimes managers overriet even that short break. There are
no formal quotas, a federal regulation that went into effect
in two thousand and eleven forbids them. But as one
former employee put it, the highly motivated goal is for
each recruiter to sign up eight new students a day
multiply to class three hundred cubicles. That is twenty per day, um,
forty seconds between calls. I mean, honestly, that's down right leisurely.
That's even complaining about exactly. So it sounds like it's
(17:31):
just like a big MLM kind of situation. Yeah, it's
a kitten to that, certainly. I mean it's a yeah,
it's um not an m l M. But what do
they call it when it's just like a farm? Yeah,
it's a diploma mill. Yeah. Yeah, it's a diploma mill
masquerading as a religious institution so it doesn't have to
(17:53):
pay taxes on the hundreds of millions of dollars it
gets from taxpayers. But the particularly aggressive sales call thing
that's like its own thing, right. Yeah, yeah, it's like telemarketing. Yeah,
that's like crazy that it's so high pressure. Yeah. Well
they're fucking Glen Gary Glenn rossing these people. Yeah, yeah,
to get them into debt, so that like to get
(18:15):
them into taxpayers subsidized debt to the school for a degree,
which spoilers, is not worth a whole lot, but you
know it is worth a whole lot. Sophia our goods
and services, Yes, but cute letters say goods good. I
(18:35):
gave it up. I'm Robert Evans hosted Behind the Bastards,
and you know, as part of my practice for the show,
I have to go through a lot of books to
learn about all these terrible people I teach it about.
And you know, I spend time on the road, I
spend time at the gym. I wouldn't be able to
do all of the research I do if it weren't
for audio books and Audible. They make it easy to
(18:56):
get informed and learn while you're listening, so you can
do it where wherever you happen to be. And right now,
for a limited time, you can get three months of
Audible for just six a month. That's more than half
off the regular price. And you're gonna get too Audible
originals and one audio book absolutely free when you sign up.
If you want a recommendation for me, try The Court
of the Red CSAR, which is one of the very
(19:17):
best books written about Joseph Stalin. The audio book is
engaging and fun, and you know, twenty seven and a
half hour, so you'll have a lot of time to
do bent reps or whatever while you listen. So if
you want to try out Audible for a month that
you can go to audible dot com slash behind or
just text behind to five D five hundred. That's audible
(19:38):
dot com slash behind or text behind to five hundred.
We're back. Why are you waving that? I am waving
threatening lee waving on English. My fin it's attached to
a sling though I'm excited. So if he's excited, crowd
too excited and proud on the episode. Of course, you
(20:01):
don't sign up new students at that kind of rate
without fudging or obscuring a few facts. And this is
which you were getting that a little bit Sophia. Two
recruiters told The Times that they were ordered to quote
the university's cost on a per credit basis instead of
per course. Instructors are also urged to not push students
on how good their grades were in high school. Any
g p A open point five is enough to qualify
(20:22):
you for Liberty University. Point five Do you even have
to be conscious to get that? No? Point point five
is like if you guess on literally everything, including the essay,
you'll you'll get a point five. Yes. The good news
for those d students is that Liberties online courses are
not exactly famous for their rigor. From the New York Times,
(20:43):
people know it's kind of a joke and don't learn
that much from it. Dustin Wall, a senior from South Dakota,
told me use Google when you take your quiz and
you don't have to work as hard. It's pretty obvious.
Liberty says. Using Google during quizzes or exams is cheating. Wow. Yeah.
The Times reporting suggest that recruiters even started obscuring the
school's Christian orientation in order to second more sweet tax dollars,
(21:05):
I mean students. Quote. Two recruiters also said they were
told not to mention liberties Christian orientation until people agree
to apply. When this fact is made clear in the
user agreement they sign online. It also becomes clear at
the moment that the recruiters sign up students for their
first classes, typically an orientation class and three required Bible
studies classes. Students often can't transfer credits for these courses
to other colleges, which a tears many from dropping out. So,
(21:28):
if you're keeping track, the school, which is funded primarily
by taxpayer dollars, trick students into signing up without knowing
that they're joining a Christian university, and then if they
try to leave a devalue, it doesn't transfer anywhere so
that they can't really go. And then there's mandatory Bible
classes that are paid for again with taxpayer dollars. This
is cool. Fuck Now, this all obviously has not made
(21:52):
uh miss Trump University. You know there was a university.
Uh you knew what you were getting with Trump University
a picture with the cardboard cut out of Donald Trump
and nothing else. I missed them. I missed them too.
Now Liberty University's teachers are not all happy with the
state of affairs that has changed because it used to
be a somewhat actual say there's teachers, because it really
(22:17):
doesn't seem like it. That seems to be the administration's
attitude to there's teachers. We thought this scam just ran
itself after we suckered you into getting in. That is, yeah,
well we'll be getting a quote from Jerry Faulwell Jr.
That's basically that. Uh see. Most teachers like to know
that they work for a well respected university rather than
(22:37):
a profit mill with very little to know educational benefit.
But Liberty University is ranked in the lowest one quarter
of national universities by US News and World Report. It
lacks behind Brigham Young University, a religious college that at
least delivers in education. Low quality online courses might be
one reason for this. Another is probably the university's outright
hatred of its teachers. Only the law school at Liberty
(22:58):
University even offers a tenure track. This allows Jerry Fallwell,
Junior to enact an extreme degree of control over his
faculty because he can fire absolutely anyone. However, this also
makes it difficult to draw incompetent teachers. Chris Gaumer, a
former English professor, provides additional explanation for this treatment. When
I was there at faculty meetings, the commentary was that
(23:19):
online was funding the school. While they were trying to
just break even on the residential side, it was understood
that on the online side they were making a killing. Boy, cool,
sounds like a real school to me. In his interview
with The New York Times, Folwell Junior admitted that the
faculty had complained initially about the growing importance of online classes.
He told them the big victory was finding a way
(23:40):
to tame the faculty. We really started making money when
we fucking faculty. Yeah, what are they fucking tigers? What
is going on? Yeah? Yeah, you got to tame the faculty,
otherwise they're going to complain about the fact that you
aren't delivering an education to your students. Those pesky faculty.
Jerry Folwell Junior's decision to an ors Donald Trump in
(24:00):
the two thousand sixteen election was deeply controversial, both for
the students and the teachers. According to Will's rite up,
the school's methods became even more aggressive after Fallwell endorsed
Donald Trump early that year. According to multiple current and
formal faculty members, the closer you get to the president's office,
says a former history professor, Brian Melton, discussing a chilling
effect at the school. The worst it becomes. Fallwell staff
(24:21):
now operates masterfully to squash challenges to his views and
his rise in national political influence. So that's good. That's
scary as all. Yeah. This March, Fallwell Jr. Attended the
signing of an executive order by President Trump on college
free speech. Big advocate of college free speech. The irony
is truly too much. Yeah. The guy who brought the
school's paper under his direct personal control is invited by
(24:44):
President Trump to uh watch the signing of a bill
that I'm sure will protect free speech. Yeah. In a
PBS news our appearance, after he claimed that his college
was inclusive of all ideas, unlike all those evil liberal universities.
As evidence for this, he pointed out that Liberty University
invited President Carter to deliver its two thousand eighteen commencement
address and had Bernie Sanders speaking two thousand fifteen and
(25:07):
a mandatory assembly. These things did happen, but Fallwell neglected
to mention some other things, like the fact that in
two thousand nine, withdrew funding and recognition for the College
Democrats Club. Mark Kind, the s VP of student Affairs,
said this was because the Democratic Party defends abortion and
supports the LGBT agenda. Wow, so that's good after the
(25:27):
bloody two thously reminiscent of his dad. Yeah, the the
apple did not fall far from the tree. That is
also a poop and not apples, And the apples are
also pooped. Yes, the apples were also poop. After the
deadly two thousand seventeen Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,
you know this is going to go good. Like that,
(25:48):
the Liberties Student Government Association attempted to issue a statement
of solidarity with Heather Higher, the murdered anti fascist activist.
In response to this, the s g AS president refused
to release the statement because it would have meant ending
it to Jerry Fallwell Junior one, and they really didn't
think he was going to be on board with sympathizing
with a woman murdered by a Nazi. Oh god, Well,
they're probably not wrong about that. That's why I said,
(26:11):
oh god. When Fallwell Senior died. The idea was that
Jonathan Fallwell would act as the moral compass for Liberty
University while his brother handled the finances. And Jonathan is
still the school's Vice chancellor for spiritual affairs. But the
evidence suggests that he has been largely sidelined at the university.
One Liberty official told Brandon Ambrosino, writing for Politico, quote,
(26:32):
Jerry never removed Jonathan. He just kind of pushed him aside.
He bought all of the Thomas Road Baptist Church properties, Liberty,
Christian Acnomy, Jonathan's building at the airport, and a couple
of others. Jonathan complained, but never stood up to Jerry
because he knew Jerry controlled the purse strings. It seems
like a healthy family. Jonathan seems sad as hell. I
think Jonathan is kind of sad as hell. Yeah, I'd
(26:53):
like to know what he does every day, cry right, yeah, yeah, yeah, family. Yeah,
it seems like a bummer of a family and fallwell.
Junior has done some strange things with his control of
those purse strings. Thinks his father would not have approved of.
One of these things was the four point seven million
dollar purchase of a South Beach hostel in Miami, Florida.
(27:15):
It doesn't sound um, I don't know, Christian and decent, no,
but it actually sounds like a pretty sweet hostele, very
gay friendly, uh. Situated directly above a liquor store with
a bar where you could bring your own alcohol. And
that's what I'm saying. How could they have possibly allowed this? Well,
that's that's that's a fun little story. Um. It listed
its rules as no soliciting, fundraising, politics, salesman or religion
(27:39):
was written inside the hostel That's Fun, owned by Jerry
Fallwell Jr. It was built as a great place for
people around the world to come and get wasted in
pre party before hitting the Miami Strip. So this is
this is so confusing. Yeah, the Fallwells bought the hostel
but mysteriously gave me twenty five steak in its profits
to one John Carl low Granda. Now Mr Granda is
(28:02):
most often described as a pool boy and reporting on
this that you'll find he is a handsome, muscular young
man in his mid twenties. The nature of his relationship
to the Fallwells is unclear, but he seems to have
accompanied them on numerous trips. Some evidence suggests that he
was present with the follow us during the taking of
some racy photos of Jerry Folwell Jr's wife, Becky. So
(28:23):
that's interesting. Yeah, what's the suggestion here. The suggestion is
that Jerry Folwell Jr. His wife, Becky and this pool
boy had a ongoing threesome thing happening, and then they
bought this guy a hostile and gave him a twenty
five percent stake in the profits and let him manage
it a gay friendly hostile. I was hoping that's what
(28:45):
you would That's kind of seems like what's happening. That
is delicious now, But hot pool boy is how he's described.
He's usually just described as a pool boy. But you
said he was hot. He's definitely hot. Oh yeah, no,
you look at him up. He's he's scrumptious. I definitely
pictured the guy from Legally Blonde to what I'm talking about.
Oh yeah, like the guys she's into. That's stupid looking.
(29:08):
Look him up, John Carlo Granda. He's a good looking
guy doing it. Yeah, that's so freaky. I love it. Yeah,
it's it's it's pretty fun. I didn't think Becky had
an inner. A lot of people know what Becky had
in her because these pictures have gone pretty racy. Yeah,
pretty racy. Now the fallwells deny that there are any
(29:31):
racy photos. Well, that's not quite what he says. Uh
In an interview with the Todd Sterns Radio show, Jerry
Fallwill Jr. Said there are no compromising or embarrassing photos
of me. Mm hmm yeah. But Becky, But Becky. Yeah.
Three photographs of Becky have been seen by the Miami Harold.
They are images of her in various states of undressed,
(29:52):
and it is not known who took the photos or
when they were taken. And the Herald has not given
the photographs and therefore has not been able to authenticate them,
uh independently. But too of the photos appeared to have
been taken at the Follwells farm in Virginia, and a
third at the Chica Lodge, where they were known to
spend a lot of time with Giancarlo Granda. Oh yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah in the freak all. Now when these photos
(30:14):
leaked out, I mean, who do you get to help
you if you need to, like recover some racy photos
of your wife? Larry Flint No, Michael Cohen, Oh my god. Yeah.
He was a longtime friend of the Folwell family and
they hired him to clean up the evidence of these uh,
these sexy photo sessions. Amazing yeah yeah yeah. From Politico.
(30:38):
Longtime listener, first time caller, would love to clean this
up for you. No, he'd known them a while. Yeah.
Longtime Liberty officials close to Fallwell told me that the
university president has shown or texted his male confidence, including
at least one employee he worked for him at Liberty,
photos of his wife in provocative and sexual poses. At Liberty,
Fallwell is very, very vocal about his sex life, in
(30:59):
the words of one Liberty official, a characterization multiple current
and former university officials and employees interviewed for this story
support in a car write about a decade ago with
the senior university official who has since left Liberty. All
he wanted to talk about is how he would nail
his wife, how she couldn't handle his penis size, and
stuff of that sort. His former official recall, Fulwell did
not respond to questions about this incident more than simply
(31:20):
talking about it with employees about his wife in a
sexual manner. On at least one more occasion, Fallwell shared
a photo of his wife wearing what appeared to be
a fringe made costume. According to a long time Liberty
employee with firsthand knowledge of the image and the fallow
up that followed, this is amazing. This sounds like a
healthy working environment, right. I think it's the kind of
working environment that what Joaquin Phoenix provided, right, super safe.
(31:46):
You get a bit picture of Giancarlo grand To pulled up.
I mean I looked at it. They don't wear are
the pictures of of him and Becky? Where do I
find that? I mean, Michael Cohen cleaned him up. I'm
just gonna say I can't find them. I just want to.
I just want to look at that handsome pool boy.
I mean, laze there is okay, yeah, not bad. It
(32:10):
looks better in that picture were was wearing the purple shirt.
It seems like a fun Miami party now leaning a pool.
Oh my god him great photo shop. So that French
made picture that Jerry Folwell Jr. Accidentally Sent to an
(32:33):
employee had been intended to be sent to Ben cross White,
Becky's personal trainer, as a thank you for helping her
get in the better shape. Another possible thank you to
Ben cross White was the sale of a sizeable fitness
center on the Liberty University campus to Ben for wildly
less than its market value. Liberty University insists that there
was nothing untowards her sketchy about this arrangement. So that's cool. Also,
(32:56):
I love that he bragged about having a big dick,
which is exactly how you know he does not have
a big dick. Yeah, handle it. My wife can't take
my huge dick. It's like, that's okay. Will you sign
these payroll force? Yeah? They're like, can my son have
a scholarship? Once I finished telling you about how my
(33:20):
wife cannot take this monster hog, I'm hold on, hold
on my rail, my railing. My wife's story is not over.
Where are you going? Don't you want to hear about
me fucking my wife? Who's also your boss? Becky, get
in here and hope you tell the story about nailing you.
So I'm fucking my wife, and I mean fucking my wife.
When the pool boy comes in and we buy him
(33:42):
a hostile on the Miami Strip, the only person that
could take my penis that's not my wife is Jean
show Carla at the pool. Have you met gen Carlo Geancarla?
Get over here. That's my impression of of Jerry Fowl Jr.
At work, Jerry follow Jr. During like a business like
(34:04):
a media staff meeting. Yeah, so we got to talk
about how our students are doing on the the how
our bar exam acceptance rate is going. But first let's
talk about my dick. Also, H bet you he would
bring in slides and you know, I don't know how
this got in here. You had a slide made of
(34:24):
your wife and a French meat outfit. I don't know
this got in here. This is crazy. Who's that muscular
guy in the pictures? That the same guy who owns
that hostel that our school bought. You know what's better
than a hostile secretly owned by a Christian extremist cult products.
(34:53):
We're back. We're back, and I think I'm gonna try
and throw this English muffin now before before we get
back into Jerry fall. All right, now, this muffin is
a little bit smaller than the bagel holders, so I
don't know it's gonna work. Yeah, I mean that was
honestly just you flinging it with your hands is basically
(35:13):
just be flinging it with like But I appreciated it,
thank you. I did not. I mostly appreciated that it
didn't hit me or Sophie or Anderson is not in here.
She is, She's that bit shocking me. She's either here
or not here. And I never know which she never
reacts to throwing things. Sometimes I don't know she's here
in here. So it's like shro Schrodinger's Anderson, don't you.
(35:39):
We don't want to be talking about Shreddinger's cats around
the fall Walls because the skin and fig that catch
don't not be cool. If you like through the English
muffin and then it just hit you in the face,
that would be hilarious. Oh it's what I was hoping
and not that good at using my time. Next time
fingers crossed, I'm gonna practice. So yeah. The Fallwells family's
current sketchiness is kind implicated as it is infuriating, and
(36:01):
the recent rash reporting on the family seems to reveal
compelling proof that, whatever their public commitment to evangelical politics,
the family has left their godly roots well behind. On
July nineteen fourteen, Swedish DJ John Dahlback performed at a
Miami Beach nightclub named Wall, which is interesting because you
remember the Wall gang from earlier. Now. Photographs taken that
(36:23):
night show fallwell junior sons Cherry and Tray, both in
attendance with their wives Fucking Tray. Tray pictured drinking. Now,
considering that their father runs and they work for a
school that bands both co ed dancing and alcohol, those
pictures were considered deeply embarrassing the Fallwell clan. Liberty staffords
(36:44):
told the author of that political article that Fallwell Jr.
Went to John Gauger, the head of I T, to
deal with the problem. Quote. Longtime Liberty officials described Gauja
as a sort of fixer for Fallwell, a man promoted
because he would do what Fallwell asked him without complaint.
But Gauja is more than just a university employee since
two thousand sub Since two thousand nine, Gaja is also
(37:06):
run Redfinch Llc, an online business he founded that specializes
in search engine marketing and does lucrative contract work for Liberty.
Tax records show Liberty paid Red Pinch a hundred and
three thousand, nine and fifty dollars during two sixteen for
what sources described as a search engine recruitment for online
students to the university. Redfinches online work for the school
goes beyond typical s CEO marketing, and an email from
(37:27):
August two thirteen obtained for this article, Fallwell asked Gauja
to defend him. In the comments section of a local
news article that Folwell felt reflected to negatively on him.
Fallwell emailed Gaja the exact wording to post, I'm having
my Redfinch guys blow this right up right away. Gaja responded,
I'll tell you how it goes. Now. That's all silly, right,
(37:47):
But here's where it gets really fucking infuriating, because if
you've heard of Redfinch at all outside of the context
of Liberty University, it's because Redfinch LLC is the company
that Michael Cohen hired to rig online polls in Donald
Trump's favor in two thousand, fifteen and sixteen. Gaja wrote
a computer script to vote constantly for Trump in exchange
(38:10):
for fifty dollars cheap. It wasn't a big job. But
this means here's what's infuriating to me. Not this Not
that he could ask for more money for a job
like that. No, no, No, as a freeliancer, I'm in fury.
You just want a collective bargain to get him more money. No,
(38:30):
it's that the fifty dollars he got came from Follwell money.
Follwell money comes from federal taxpayer money, So the taxpayers
paid for John Gazer to influence polls in Donald Trump's
favor uh into fifteen and sixteen. Yeah, that that's that's
(38:50):
really frustrating and multiple reports from multiple outlets, Fallwell's management
of Liberty University has been described as dictatorial and fundamentally abusive.
One senior university official told journalist from Politico, We're not
a school. We're a real estate hedge fund. We're not educating.
We're buying real estate every year and taking students money
to do it. Another stated it's a dictatorship. Nobody craps
(39:11):
at the university without Jerry's approval. In July of two
thousand twelve, Fallwall told university executives that his son Trey,
would be starting a new company to manage properties at
the school, including the shopping center. This might represent what's
known as a breach of duty of loyalty to the nonprofit,
as it could be seen as Folwell Junior enriching his
son at the expense of giving the school's property a
(39:31):
qualified manager. But it's fine. It's just fine for this
to happen, which is cool. Folwell Junior has also put
his support for President Donald Trump above the health of
his students and his ethical responsibilities as the manager of
a nonprofit religious institution. In two thousand and seventeen, he
invited the President to deliver the school's commencement address. Now
this is fine and happens regularly with a number of schools,
(39:54):
but Jerry Fallwell Jr. Also had Liberty University starts selling
a line of Trump branded shirts hats commemorating the event.
Becky Folwell wrote an email threat, I want to make
sure that we have a lot of options available to purchase.
It's great advertising for Liberty to be on products with
Trump's name. She added in a later message, I spoke
to Michael Cohen and he said to make sure any
shirts we buy are made in America. He loved the designs.
(40:17):
The school ended up printing shirts that looked almost exactly
like official Trump campaign merchandise, including the words making America
great again, one degree at a time. Yeah, it's possible
these shirts are a violation of the school's five oh
one C three status since they might be seen as
political advertising. But there's no inclination that Fallwell Junior gives
a shit about this or that anything will be done
about it. Who's going to prosecute him, Who's going to
(40:39):
prosecute him? Nobody cares when these guys break the rules. Nope.
From Politico, Fallwell has become known as a Trump loyalist
who is willing to put his in his school's reputation
on the line to defend the president from any critic
and Trump. Fallwell said in two thousand seventeen, evangelicals have
found their dream president. When asked by The Washington Post
late intils An eighteen if there were anything President Trump
(41:00):
could do that would endanger the support from you or
other evangelical leaders, Fautwell said no. And in May two
that's a nineteen tweet about their Muller investigation, fault Well
appropriated the language of reparations for descendants of slaves to
argue that Trump's terms should be lengthened. I now support reparations.
Trump should have two years added to his first term.
Is pain back for the time stolen by this corrupt,
failed coup? Yeah? I just think it's neat that both
(41:22):
uh Jerry Folwell and Jerry Folwell Jr. Have appropriated the
language of in Folwell's case, abolitionists, and in Jerry Jr's case,
the reparations movement to support their own political bullshit. That's neat. Yeah,
and also um, kind of a hilarious, uh defeat of
(41:44):
their own ideology. Yeah, you know, yeah, to like be
borrowing by borrowing and being very kind, it's like with
quotation marks, I mean stealing. By stealing something from somebody
that you don't even respect, You're just giving credence to
the fact that they are valuable and have ideas and
and that value and merit, And all you do is
(42:06):
just steal it and appropriated to your own, uh and
and then you still maintain your superiority. It's just kind
of hilarious. Yeah. Yeah, it's unself aware. That is moral
hermit crabbing. Um, except for I like hermit crabs, and
I do not like the Fallwells. Jerry Folwell Jr. Is
considerably more positive in his words to the President than
he has been in emails writing about his own students. Earlier.
(42:29):
In September two, nineteen, Reuter's published an article based on
leaked emails from Fallwell to his faculty. The title Exclusive.
Fallwell blasted liberty student as retarded, police chief as half
wit in emails. Yeah, Reuter's interviewed reviewed several dozen emails
which painted a pattern of intense disrespect for the people
who attend Liberty and work there. Here are some examples.
(42:49):
Ronald Songs, the dean of the engineering school, was a
bag of hot air who couldn't spell the word profit.
Fallwell wrote in two thousand eleven, Richards, he thinks that's
like a sick burn. I think he does. It's not,
It's definitely not. Richard Hinckley, the campus police chief, was
a half wit and easy to manipulate, and shouldn't be
allowed to speak publicly. Hinckley couldn't be reached for comment
(43:11):
on the count, probably of how half he's too much
of a half wit to talk to the press. Of
Kevin Keys, then Liberties Associate athletics director Folwell wrote in
two thousand twelve, only get Kevin involved in something if
you want it to not work. Why would you hire
that guy? Like, why won't you let that guy have
a position at your school? If that's what you're saying
about it. Up until very recently, only an idiot would
(43:35):
hire Kevin only a fucking moral I am his employed,
I am his employer, and I regularly show him pictures
of my wife naked. Get in here, show him your ass.
You don't deserve to be here. Up until very recently,
Folwell Jr. Has been allowed to get away with this
behavior due to the sheer terror everyone else at Liberty
(43:55):
seems to hold for him. One current university employee told Politico,
everybody is scared for their life. Everybody walks around in fear. Uh.
This place to learn a cool place to learn. This
employee only agreed to speak to Politico after buying a
burner phone because they were afraid that Fallwell Junior is
monitoring their communications. Fuck. Yeah, Yeah, it's a real dictatorship
(44:18):
over there. Sounds pretty great. I love that he's an
advocate for free speech at schools. Now, the good news
is that all this bad behavior has finally percolated out
into the wider world. An activist Christian group, Faithful America,
has launched a petition to force the Virginia Attorney General
and the I r S to open criminal investigations into
Jerry Folwell Jr. They have received over fifteen thousand signatures
(44:40):
so far. Earlier this month, The Washington Examiner, a very
right wing news website, published an editorial simply titled Jerry
Folwell Junior needs to go. And on September, after several
of these damning articles dropped, two hundred Liberty students protested
on campus. At least sixty of them demanded an investigation
into the school's president and his administration. So that's good.
(45:02):
Maybe something will happen, they've but so much time has passed. Yeah,
he made billions of dollars stealing taxpayer funds and giving
people worthless degrees uh, in exchange for money it should
have gone to infrastructure. Yeah, it's like doubly terrible because
(45:22):
you both waste all those tax dollars and then all
of these kids wind up in horrible debt for no benefit.
It's pretty cool, and they don't get educated, and they
don't get educated, and then the money goes to rigging
polls online in favor of Donald Trump. Yeah, this is
and buying that hostile a lose lose situation. Except for
Jean Carlos. Jean Carlo didn't crushing it. Can I assume
(45:45):
some like European backpackers had a great like great stay
summer break in Miami. Yeah, yeah, they're also winning so well.
Thanks Sophia, how you feeling? I mean a lot better
than after you invited me to talk about dead babies ours.
I'm not even sure I feel positive like leaving. It's
(46:09):
just a weird feeling. Normally I leave here and I
want to curl up until a ball and die. Well,
I will find another dead baby story to tell you.
I am not afraid of that being untrue. Yeah, it's
is going to happen. I just got to find another
real good baby murderer. Like, that's part of the trouble,
is Yeah, that that is part of the trouble. It's
(46:31):
just hard to find a good baby killer these days. Hey,
that's not a challenge. Listeners, don't be like, you know what,
I'll give Robbert something to talk about. If you know
someone who killed a lot of babies, reach out to
us on Twitter. What he just loves Cansylvania. He loves
it there. It's you know what it is is it's
the mild falls. Well, there's no such thing. It's all
(46:55):
only one temperature and Cansylvania and it's just unbearably hot.
Who's he? Who's your new roommate? Yeah it's you mana
for he didn't even get canceled. I mean, he just
got imprisoned. Then how is he in Cansylvania with you? Well,
I I guess I would say he didn't get canceled
(47:16):
because he actually faced consequences and the people in Cansylvania
really don't. Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah, m hmm.
I don't know. Maybe that little observation moved you up
to a higher level of Cansylvania. Now I'm I'm bunking
with We already did a Louis c k joke. I
can't think of anyone else who's been canceled. Yeah, I
(47:38):
think that's a there's a lesson in there somewhere. Well, Sophia,
you want to plug your plug doubles. Sure you guys
can find me on Twitter and Instagram at the Sophia
s O f I y A, and on my podcast
Private Parts Unknown and Courtney Kosak it's a podcast about
(47:59):
love and sexual lality around the world, and Fance my
podcast about ninety with Miles Gray. And you can find
me in Cansylvania performing at the Comedy Cellar. I opened
from Michael Richards. I thought of another one. Thank you
for You's website Behind the Bastards dot Com, Twitter at
(48:22):
bastard's pod Instagram, the same as the Twitter and T
shirts at T Public. Uh what it will SOPI? Oh yeah,
if you buy T shirts at T Public, I will
use them to purchase a hostel in Miami Beach. Uh
(48:42):
my pool boy. But I won't keep it a secret.
I will, I will will be proud of Jean Carlow.
I am. I am very proud. Giancarlo is the only
one in the story I actually am proud of. It's true.
He really knows how to ratchet up just being the
third guy in a threesome. It just seems a person
in the threesome into some actual real estate and to
(49:02):
owning a hot co, owning a hospital in Miami Beach.
That's a weird flex, but I'm I'm in it. I mean,
I feel like your choices are one of two things.
Either Liberty University taxpayer dollars go to fund like fraudulent
polls that support Donald Trump's candidacy, or they go to Giancarlo.
And I know that I would rather Giancarlo. Gean Carlo
(49:23):
buy a mile, So buy some T shirts support Giancarlo.
Listen to the worst year ever, where we'll try to
get Gian Carlo On as a guest. Uh, actually really fun. Yeah.
If you know someone who's had a threesome with the Fallwelves,
tell them to hit us up. Episodes done,
Behind the Bastards News
Host
Robert Evans
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