How Jerry Falwell, Jr. Influenced Trump’s Election

Predictions sometimes come true.

And paybacks aren’t always hell.

The NY Times and other news agencies are reporting that Liberty University is in the process of a forensic audit to examine the school’s operations during Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s tenure as its President.

You had to have known (i.e., strongly suspected) that it would happen.

Falwell, Jr. is a real estate attorney-developer whose father, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr. founded the school, and was founding pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. As well, he founded the long-defunct “Moral Majority” – a right-wing Christian religious political action group which was extensively involved in Republican politics, and was predominately concerned with social and cultural matters, and vehemently opposed Civil Rights for anyone but heterosexuals.

Others in the same era include James Dobson, a psychologist and founder of “Focus on the Family” who frequently pointed to Judeo-Christian holy writ to support his theories, the Rev. Don Wildmon, a United Methodist pastor and founder of the Tupelo, Mississippi-based American Family Association, and the American Family Radio network which began as Low-Power FM stations in small communities and neighborhoods throughout the nation, and numerous other predominately White Protestant religious figures, including many in the so-called “blab-it-and-grab-it” heterodox pseudo-faith movement also known as the “prosperity gospel” preachers such as Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Robert Tilton, Jerry Savelle, Marilyn Hickey, Kenneth Hagin, Sr., T.L. and Daisy Osborne, and John and “Dodie” Osteen, whose son Joel, with his wife, now occupies their former positions in the church they founded.

Perhaps now you can better understand the basis for some, if not much, of the shenanigans with the Republican party’s fawning obeisance to Evangelicals. Simply put, it’s payback, because they put them in power. You’ll see that theme emerge again, later in the article.

But back to the matter at hand.

And that is concerning Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s tenure as Liberty University President and Chancellor.

NOTE: For sake of simplicity, and ease of understanding, the junior Falwell will be referred to simply as “Jerry Falwell,” except for instances in which it is pertinent to mention his father, the late “Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr.”

Liberty University today (Monday, August 31, 2020) released a statement regarding their objectives, which also mentioned that they would be pursuing an investigation of Falwell’s time as President. Their statement read in part that,

Cohen In Constant Contact With Federal Investigation Attorneys

“I am in constant contact with the Southern District of New York regarding ongoing investigations.”

– Michael Cohen, former attorney and “fixer” for Donald J. Trump, under oath to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, February 27, 2019

 

That one sentence early in Mr. Cohen’s testimony before the committee is substantial, regardless of whether anything else he said is true, or not. There is no legitimate reason for him to make such a claim, especially if it was a lie.

Consider also the “Liar’s Paradox,” referring to knowing how to discern when a liar is telling the truth. Frankly, however, everyone – WITHOUT EXCEPTION – has lied at one time, or another; therefore, using the faulty “logic” used by Republicans, everyone is a liar… including them. Yet, they except themselves simply by ignoring that fact. So therefore, their hypocrisy is exposed.

Such exercises are part and parcel of logic and reasoning, which is also a branch of mathematics, and forms a foundation upon which philosophy and even the legal profession exists – particularly and especially in criminal trials. In other words, deduction is based upon a formula which can be expressed on paper.

But there are also behavioral (physical) clues exhibited by the liar, which may (though not always) include “body language” such as fidgeting, facial movements and gestures, including eye movement such as covering the mouth and/or looking away, intonation and inflection in their voice and tone of speech, observation of breathing patterns, use or avoidance of certain words, exaggeration of details, response to questions, repetition of certain words, sentences, or phrases (a type of stalling to increase time for crafting a lie), including a “mid-sentence jump” (changing the train of thought in the middle of expressing an idea), deflection (a conversational control tactic which changes the focus of the topic by not directly answering the question), and more.

Michael Cohen takes oath before his testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Wednesday, 27 February 2019.

The Southern District of New York refers to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, a Federal court which has been in existence in New York, NY, since 1789.

The Attorney’s Office writes this about their mission:

“The Office prosecutes cases involving violations of federal laws, and represents the interests of the United States government and its agencies in criminal and civil matters. The Office investigates and prosecutes a broad array of criminal conduct of every conceivable magnitude, even when the conduct arises in distant places.”

Reasonably and logically, no liar would lie about being “in constant contact with” a Federal Attorney’s Office, or a Federal Court, after an investigation has concluded.

The fact that Mr. Cohen made such a comment is telling, simply because