Jerry Falwell

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Liberty University Backtracks on Controversial Plan

Jerry Falwell's school was to resume in-person classes, but has since changed course

(Newser) - Colleges and universities across the US are shutting down campuses in droves amid the coronavirus pandemic, but not Jerry Falwell's Liberty University—at least not until President Trump issued his latest guidance . "The hype in the press" surrounding the COVID-19 situation could be designed, in part, to bring...

Fear, Self-Dealing Rule at Liberty University: Officials

'We’re a real estate hedge fund,' one says

(Newser) - "We’re not a school; we’re a real estate hedge fund,” a senior official at Liberty University said. "We’re not educating; we’re buying real estate every year and taking students' money to do it." Those are among the accusations in a Politico Magazine...

In Secret Recording, Cohen Makes Explosive Falwell Claim

He says he helped evangelical leader deal with leak of racy photos

(Newser) - Michael Cohen says he helped Jerry Falwell Jr. with a highly personal matter months before the evangelical leader endorsed President Trump in 2015, according to a conversation taped by Tom Arnold. Arnold says he was waiting for his friend Cohen to go to prison before he released the recording of...

Trump Retweets Call to Extend His Term

He says 2 years of term were 'stollen'

(Newser) - Article Two of the United States Constitution states that the president "shall hold his office during the term of four years"—but President Trump is apparently interested in making an exception. On Sunday, the president retweeted Jerry Falwell Jr.'s call for "reparations" for the Russia...

Evangelical Leaders Careful on Roe v. Wade Reversal

The Supreme Court vacancy could doom the landmark abortion case

(Newser) - For evangelical Christian leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr., this is their political holy grail. Like many religious conservatives in a position to know, the Liberty University president with close ties to the White House suspects that the Supreme Court vacancy President Donald Trump fills in the coming months will ultimately...

Bernie Sanders Speaks ... to Evangelicals

Gets 'polite, if tepid' applause from students

(Newser) - Bernie Sanders may be running for the Democratic presidential nomination, but that didn't stop him from addressing a group of Christian conservative students today. Sanders appeared at Liberty University, the Virginia evangelical college founded by Jerry Falwell, the Hill reports. "A Southern evangelical university is an unlikely place...

Romney: Marriage Is Between a Man and a Woman

But he doesn't dwell on issue in Liberty University speech

(Newser) - Mitt Romney didn't get very political in his commencement speech at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University today, but his brief reference to gay marriage earned his loudest ovation, reports the Washington Post . “Culture—what you believe, what you value, how you live—matters,” Romney said. “As...

Perry Proves He Won't Shy Away From His Faith

He speaks comfortably about it at Falwell's Liberty University

(Newser) - Rick Perry's speech at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University today made one thing clear about the Texas governor: He will "not shy away from cloaking his candidacy in his Christianity," writes Philip Rucker in the Washington Post . In fact, he "presented his life in deeply spiritual...

University Ski Slope Aims to 'Bring People to Christ'

First all-weather slope 'of its kind in North America'

(Newser) - Virginia’s Liberty University presented its new synthetic ski slope—the first in North America—this weekend with extreme performances from pro skiers and snowboarders. The chancellor of the Christian university, Jerry Falwell, showed off his own moves after paying tribute to his dad, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, who...

Falwell's Liberty U. Quashes Campus Dems

(Newser) - Jerry Falwell’s conservative Christian Liberty University has suspended the student Democratic Club for supporting candidates “directly contrary to the mission” of the school, the Lynchburg News Advance reports. Virginia Democrats are up in arms. “I urge the leadership of Liberty University to reverse this attack on the...

US Youth May Yet Return to Religion, Despite the Right

The religious right has driven young people away, but a change in tone could lure them back: Putnam

(Newser) - Young Americans would likely become more religious if faith were disentangled from the polarizing practices of evangelical conservatives, Michael Gerson writes in the Washington Post. That’s a good thing, because research for an upcoming book found that religious Americans give more time and money—to secular and religious causes...

Secular Kid Goes Undercover at Falwell's School

Book about his experience is out now

(Newser) - Kevin Roose spent spring break in Florida last year, but instead of boozing with the rest of the college students, he proselytized them. It was all part of the Brown University student’s undercover semester at Jerry Falwell-founded Liberty University, where he “had to follow their 46-page code of...

A Double Standard for White Preachers?
A Double Standard
for White Preachers?
OPINION

A Double Standard for White Preachers?

Why do we excoriate Wright but let his right-wing counterparts slide?

(Newser) - While Jeremiah Wright is hammered from all sides for his left-wing rhetoric, Washington Post writer EJ Dionne Jr. wonders why the same degree of backlash fails to surface over extreme statements from right-wing white preachers. Among many examples: Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell famously linked feminists and gays...

McCain Keeps His God to Himself
McCain Keeps His God
to Himself

McCain Keeps His God to Himself

Dems more vocal on religion; Mac's silence called 'soldier's faith'

(Newser) - John McCain is notably reserved about his religious faith. He rarely refers to God on campaign stops, in marked contrast to the two presidents who preceded him and, in a role reversal, to his Democratic opponents. His reticence is a throwback to the days when religion was kept out of...

Huckabee: Lay Off Obama Pastor
 Huckabee: Lay Off
Obama Pastor 

Huckabee: Lay Off Obama Pastor

Former minister goes to bat for controversial figure

(Newser) - Barack Obama got some unexpected help yesterday from Mike Huckabee, of all people. The former candidate called Obama’s speech “historic” and said it wasn’t fair to hold candidates accountable for everything the people near them say, ABC News reports. Huckabee, once a pastor himself, said he understood...

WH Told to Reveal Visitor List
WH Told to Reveal Visitor List

WH Told to Reveal Visitor List

Court rules that Bush and Cheney's appointments are public knowledge

(Newser) - Who stops by the White House or Dick Cheney's place is a matter of public record, a district court judge ruled today, blocking the Bush administration's attempts to keep visitor logs sealed. Liberal watchdogs had argued the information is covered by the Freedom of Information Act, while President Bush had...

Blackwater CEO Thick as Thieves With Bush, Christian Right

Prince's ties date to White House internship

(Newser) - The CEO of embattled Blackwater USA has deep ties to the GOP and the religious right, beginning with a college internship in the first Bush White House. Erik Prince’s security firm's federal contracts have grown from under $1 million in 2001 to over $1 billion today, and he's made...

Student Bomber Foiled at Falwell Funeral

FBI found explosives in Liberty University student's car

(Newser) - A student at Jerry Falwell's university is under arrest for a bomb plot against protesters at the late evangelist's funeral. A relative of Mark Uhl tipped off authorities, who found five bombs in the 19-year-old Liberty University student's trunk. Uhl admitted he planned to use the bombs to disrupt a...

Evangelicals Sway Toward the Center
Evangelicals Sway Toward the Center

Evangelicals Sway Toward the Center

New generation prays for Darfur, against climate change, though abortion lingers

(Newser) - The once hard-right Evangelical Christian movement is waxing centrist, the New York Times reports, as a new breed of religious leaders breaks from an abortion-and-sexuality-obsessed old guard to tackle broader nonpartisan issues like AIDS, and even liberal-leaning ones like Darfur and global warming. 

Falwell's Death Ends an Era
Falwell's Death Ends an Era

Falwell's Death Ends an Era

Fineman takes the measure of a partisan preacher and his political legacy

(Newser) - It's impossible to grasp the profound change in American political life in the last quarter-century without understanding Jerry Falwell and the movement he fostered, writes Newsweek's Howard Fineman. Falwell, who died yesterday, created the Moral Majority, helped launch the Reagan Revolution, and dug the evangelical foundations—currently shifting—on which...

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