Bacon's Rebellion

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Northam and Falwell — Feuding with Scriptures

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by

Dick Hall-Sizemore
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Jerry Falwell, President, Liberty College

By Dick Hall-Sizemore

Virginians have been treated this spring with a feud between the Governor and Jerry Falwell, Jr., president of Liberty University.

First, Falwell defied the Governor’s coronavirus-related stay-at-home order and told students they should return to the campus after spring break. Northam responded by suggesting that Falwell “look to the actions of the leaders of Virginia’s flagship universities for how to set a strong example in this health crisis.” He then quoted a verse in I Corinthinans, “It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” In the end, only a handful of students remained on the Liberty campus, while the university conducted most classes online, which it is well set up to do.

Next, Falwell objected to wearing a mask as the Governor directed, on the advice of medical experts. Then, he declared that he would wear a mask designed by him to display the infamous blackface photo in the Governor’s medical yearbook. Asked about this statement, the Governor replied, “I would just say that in response that my background in neurology and psychiatry is to deal and really help parents deal with their children’s behavior and child psychology 101, chapter one tells us, ‘do not water the weeds’ and I would consider the source.”

This action about the mask was apparently the last straw for some of Liberty’s supporters and alumni. As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other news sources, nearly three dozen black alumni, including faith leaders, sent a letter, shared with the press, suggesting Falwell resign as Liberty’s president. They said that Falwell had “repeatedly violated and misrepresented Christian principles.” They backed up their words with proposed actions, saying they would stop urging students to attend Liberty, no longer donate to the school, and would urge fellow people of faith to avoid speaking at the school. Signatories included a daughter and son-in-law of the vice chairman of Liberty’s board of trustees.

Among other issues, the letter criticized Falwell for his enthusiastic embrace of the President and “divisive rhetoric” concerning the governor. Falwell responded, “All they need to do is read the Gospels — Jesus got involved in politics.” Grant Neely, the governor’s chief communications officer, resorted to Scripture in his response, “But I recall that Matthew’s gospel teaches us to ‘beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you will know them,’”

This is embarrassing for the Commonwealth, but, you gotta admit, it is sort of fun.

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25 responses to “Northam and Falwell — Feuding with Scriptures”

  1. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    Good post, Dick. The few Liberty grads I have worked are smart, solid people. Too bad Falwell is such a Trump-like huckster.

  2. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
    Reed Fawell 3rd

    What has happened to Governor Northam’s Covid-19 Crisis Pandemic? After all, “It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” I Corinthinans.

  3. Atlas Rand Avatar
    Atlas Rand

    Surely a doctor who supports murdering babies after birth, and supports murdering babies before birth, is not claiming to be a person of faith? Northam is an awful human being and is not a Christian. If anything, Northam is another in the mold of Pelosi, Schumer, and Clinton, claiming to be a Christian because they believe it to be politically expedient, all the while holding beliefs And values that are antithetical to Christian doctrine. Make no mistake, you cannot believe the Democratic doctrine and claim to be Christian. The two are in direct conflict. I have my doubts about Falwell, but Northam quoting scripture and pretending to believe is abhorrent. Then again, even the Devil can quote scripture.

  4. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    and yet a majority of Virginians do support Northam and his stance on abortion, right?

    1. Atlas Rand Avatar
      Atlas Rand

      What does that have to do with the price of eggs in China? A majority of Virginians are not Christians. That’s fine, they don’t have to be, no sense in pretending though.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        If it’s just a philosophical disagreement, yes, but if it’s politics, i.e. “baby-killer” or Falwells love of Trump, then it does have everything to do with what voters think. Right?

  5. TooManyTaxes Avatar
    TooManyTaxes

    Nothing worse than people citing Scripture at (past) each other. I’ll skip this one, thank you.

  6. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    The last time I weighed in on Falwell, Peter implied I was imagining or inventing the ten years of stories (1976-1986) I wrote about his old man and the rise of the Moral Majority. Only when the Post or the NYT did the same story later did it count. I thought the response from his black alumni was powerful so I have nothing to add. He would be wise to heed it.

  7. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    hmm… scripture _issing contests?

  8. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    Steve, i am not sure what I said but I apologize. I wrote about the Moral Majority a few times for the Pilot but hardly as extensively as you.
    Atlas, I have seen zero evidence that Northam is a baby killer and rather doubt it. If he’s guilty of anything It is giving a stumbling and awkward answer in an interview. He should have just said if the baby is born alive we will do what we can to keep him or her alive. Then you might get into some really tough ethical questions such as how far can you go if it is hopeless. I have no answer and not a doctor.

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      Pro-life Democrats have been effectively purged. It is one of the demarcation issues now. And sadly even late-term abortion has become a shibboleth (good Bible word) for that party. At that point, I see little moral difference whether the child dies inside or outside the womb. His comments in that radio interview were just one more indication he really isn’t very good at communication, stuff just comes tumbling out.

      Thanks, Peter. Ed Briggs of the RTD and I had a fun competition going, scoops back and forth. We both contributed regularly to Religion News Service (RNS) and got stories printed around the country. The national guys would show up and we’d have to show them the way around Lynchburg. I had a couple of phone numbers they didn’t. Jerry was great about calling me back and talking. He liked being in the papers, and that the son seems to have copied. And Dr. Falwell Sr. was very good at communication.

  9. TooManyTaxes Avatar
    TooManyTaxes

    Peter, Northam said that if an abortion attempt results in the baby being born alive, it should be kept comfortable and resuscitated if the mother so desires. When my Aunt was dying, she said she didn’t want heroic efforts but did not want to be in great pain but kept comfortable until death. We keep the dying comfortable. Only if the mother wanted the now-born baby to live should anything more than that be done according to Northam.

    I’m pro-choice but there reaches a point where the fetus has become viable and, according to SCOTUS, the state has a constitutional interest in protecting its life.

    1. djrippert Avatar
      djrippert

      I hate to take Northam’s side but that’s not what he said. In a rambling response to a question reminiscent of Joe Biden, Northam mentally left the matter at hand and started citing his own experiences as a doctor. He started talking about a baby born alive but not able to be kept alive. This was off subject from the matter at hand and intended to establish Northam’s credibility as a doctor. An “I love me” moment gone wrong. It is very easy to construe what he said as supporting infanticide but I don’t think that’s what he was doing.

      The whole episode raised two questions for me.

      First, is Northam intellectually qualified to be governor? His inability to stay on topic during an interview draws his intellect into question. You would normally think that a doctor must be bright but Northam is the son and grandson of Byrd Machine politicians. As a Prince of the Byrd Machine Northam may have gotten any number of special favors bestowed upon him.

      Second, Northam’s Plantation Society Elitism apparently precludes him from admitting mistakes. All he had to do was clarify his comments as Rep Kathy Tran (the patron of the “abortion at anytime” bill) did.

      I seriously doubt Ralph Northam supports the killing of a viable infant after childbirth. However, I am confident that Northam lacks both the intellectual capacity and humility to be an effective governor.

      https://www.baconsrebellion.com/unraveling-the-ralph-northam-infanticide-controversy/

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        If it were only Northam running the govt, I’d agree although it’s not intellectual – the man IS a doctor… perhaps you mean some like temperamentally suited or some such.

        My theory is that he got on the track for Governor despite the fact that he lacked the experience and ability to deal in the public realm.

        Unlike Terry McAuliffe – who reminds me of a car salesman.

        and unlike Bob McDonnell – either but I’ll not dig into that…

        The bigger point is that Northam does have a staff and his staff looks like they are fairly competent… in a number of areas and they do backstop Northam – but Northam is not good at being in the public realm… that’s just the way it is.

        And you know what.. if you look around at some of the other states, he’s got some company! Not every Governor is as experience and skilled as we might want them to be.

        But jeeze.. Northam is here and he’s not going anywhere.. what’s the point here – dead horse?

        1. djrippert Avatar
          djrippert

          Ralph’s daddy was a three term Commonwealth’s Attorney and then a circuit court judge. His grandfather was also a circuit court judge. Do you understand how the Byrd Machine worked? From Wikipedia, “ Over forty years, Byrd built up relationships with the “courthouse cliques,” consisting of the constitutional officers in every county. The five (elected) constitutional officers in each county were the sheriff, Commonwealth’s attorney, clerk of the court, county treasurer, and commissioner of revenue.“

          Meanwhile, I dug up this little nugget about Eastern Virginia Medical School …

          https://www.prospectivedoctor.com/15-medical-schools-that-dont-require-a-high-gpa/

          The problem with rampant corruption is that it invariably leads to nepotism. Ask Hunter Biden. And the problem with nepotism is that you never really know if the beneficiaries of nepotism really earned what they have.

      2. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
        Dick Hall-Sizemore

        Thanks, Don, for clarifying his comments. That is how I interpreted them as well. As for clarifying his comments, because of the furor, probably anything he said would have made matters worse.

    2. TooManyTaxes Avatar
      TooManyTaxes

      “This is why decisions such as this should be made by providers, physicians, and the mothers and fathers that are involved. When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of the mother, with the consent of physicians, more than one physician by the way, and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus which is non-viable. So in this particular example, if the mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if this is what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physician and the mother.”

  10. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Well once again. Northam is incompetent at public relations, no question.

    … but we’re not going to stop abortion… we can make it a lot harder but in the end when young women engage in sex and they do not have access to birth control – no good happens – whether it be abortion or a child to a 15 yr old who lives in poverty already.

    1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
      Dick Hall-Sizemore

      Not “having access to birth control” is not a legitimate excuse to have an abortion. Everybody has access to birth control. In Virginia, if you can’t afford to go to a doctor for it, there is the local health department which will provide it free if you are indigent. Planned Parenthood also provides birth control measures as an alternative to abortion.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        You are correct… but..

        This is what I was reading: https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/06/05/abortion-teen-pregnancy-decline-colorado/

        but also things like morning after pills… which are not widely available and still cost dollars.

        another article:

        ” IUD program leads to big decline in teen pregnancies, abortions in Colorado
        State avoided spending nearly $70 million to care for babies of low-income teens, study says.”

        We need to be concerned about every child that is born to a parent who did not want it and/or cannot care for it. Children born to poor and uneducated moms often grow up to repeat that cycle.

  11. Atlas Rand Avatar
    Atlas Rand

    I could care less about the “politics” of abortion. Whether you are actively performing abortions or just support them, it is incompatible with the biblical doctrine. We live in a secular society. Neither Northam nor anyone else is required to base his views or the law on the Bible. It’s a religious text, though certainly has value as the basis of the moral law we keep. For that reason, Northam should stop pretending to be a Christian and quoting scripture when his views are the exact opposite of what the scripture says. I feel the same about Pelosi and Cuomo supposedly being Catholic yet disagreeing with the teachings of the Church. If you don’t believe what the Catholic Church believes, it’s fine you don’t have to be Catholic, so stop pretending.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I think a lot of people who consider themselves Christians – and lead christian lives – would not agree with your judgement but there are religious groups with their beliefs that stay out of politics altogether. They just keep to themselves and follow their own beliefs.

      Once you cross that threshold and become involved in politics, it’s different.

      Right?

      There are more than a few people who are not particularly religious who still oppose abortion because they say they oppose taking a life – not just abortion… but capital punishment and even wars…i.e. conscientious objectors…

      1. Atlas Rand Avatar
        Atlas Rand

        Larry, none of what you said is wrong per se, it just isn’t relevant to what I said. Very clearly, so you can follow me: You can not “be” a Christian if you’re opposed to the teachings of Christianity. Therefore, Ralph Northam cannot be a Christian because he personally opposes the teachings of Christianity. Thus, he should not be quoting scripture at anyone.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          re: ” the teachings of Christianity”

          that covers a lot of ground … no?

        2. Steve Haner Avatar
          Steve Haner

          Unless somebody loaned you the Keys to the Kingdom, Atlas, you have no more power to judge somebody’s heart or salvation than other people. But the registered owner of those keys is a pro-life Catholic, I agree….

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