Psalm 69

 "The God I believe in isn't short of cash, mister." Bullet The Blue Sky - U2

That was Bono singing, well snarling actually, back in 1987. He was addressing the status of one Jerry Falwell. Senior. Pastor Falwell a fundamentalist and televangelist was busy amassing a fortune for himself and his family by asking for contributions to his church. And his university. He was the guy who got into it with Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler Magazine. He stirred up something called the Moral Majority. And, as some suggested back then, it was neither. There was a time, back in the good old 1980's, when it was hard to tell where Jerry Falwell began and Newt Gingrich ended. Jerry had a lot of ideas about how our lives should look, feel and sound. Like how he figured out that the purple Teletubbie, Tinky Winky, was gay. And how "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU" and others were to blame for the attacks of September 11, 2001. And there was this assertion he made about labor unions: "Labor unions should study and read the Bible instead of asking for more money. When people get right with God, they are better workers." Noting that at no time during all these pronouncements did Jerry Falwell ever stop asking for money. For his church. His megachurch. And his family, including young Jerry Jr. 

I give you all that preface to remind you that the apple does not fall far from the tree, as Junior took over for daddy after he passed and kept building the empire that was, perhaps ironically, called Liberty. You  may have heard some of the fuss kicked up over the past few weeks about how the sins of the father were visited on his son. And then some. Truly tacky business about his wife Becki and a pool boy named Giancarlo Granda. This, after all these years and all those millions of dollars going to pay for lavish lifestyles that included such glories as a pool boy would be the thing that would bring down the empire. Jerry, who reportedly liked to watch these pool boy encounters, resigned from his position as major domo of all things Liberty. There wasn't enough disgrace for him and his family to do anything like give back any of the money they have been given over the years. Or to apologize for the way they rushed students back to their campus after COVID-19 shut other institutions down. Like his good friend Donald Trump, Jerry Jr. seems to make his decisions based on the financial bottom line, with safety of others trailing far behind. 

Don't expect this most recent eruption of human frailty to derail the express train to Liberty and Dollars for the Falwells. Investigations will be launched. Stones will be overturned. More pool boys may be willing to come forward. But the Falwells will most likely never be short of cash, mister.