God Forbid: lo scandalo Falwell

I saw an ad for this documentary on TikTok and knew I had to watch. I recognized the Falwell name but was unaware that any of this occurred. I had a vague recollection of some type of scandal but that was it. The documentary does well laying out the way GianCarlo was drawn into their world and the repercussions of that decision. This was a good documentary, but the background music was too loud for me. The music would stop for a moment then start again. It would have been a 9, or maybe a 10, but the music was distracting. It is probably just me and this won't stop me from recommending this doc to others, but I had to pause frequently and restart. I finally turned the volume down and watched with subtitles.

The story itself is hard to believe. To think that someone in the public eye is stupid enough to do something that is so sleazy is shocking. Here the Falwell's have this persona of being straight laced ultra religious people, and set high moral standards for students at the university, yet they secretly engage in all sorts of sleazy activities. Disgusting.

As an aside, reading some of the negative reviews by Trump supporters I had to laugh. Many said that the second half of the movie tried to make trump and the republicans look bad. LOL! Trump does a pretty darn good job of that all by himself. Lighten up people.

The documentary explained things exactly as it is, yet the truth is deemed biased. Maybe Charlie Kirk called on his many sheep to come here and submit their BS?

Great documentary shedding a ton of light on what happened between this kid and a bunch of hypocrites. During the first 20 minutes, I thought "hey, live and let live." I didn't care what they did behind closed doors. But when it was revealed how twisted their true agenda was and how it impacted literally all of our lives politically, it made me sick. The Amerikan Taliban is thriving thanks to disgusting characters like the Falwells. It explains perfectly how their alleged faith plays third fiddle to power and greed. Their faith actually isn't even on their radar. This goes for all of them, not just the Falwells. They're in it for the money and the power, and nothing else. Gross human beings who will be remembered in history as the charlatans they are. And their supporters will be remembered by their children and grandchildren as nothing more than an embarrassing era in their family histories. We actually deserve this. I guess a society has to dabble in theocracy and fascism before it knows any better. I take comfort in knowing that I'll be able to look my children and grandchildren in the eyes one day and confidently say that I was not one of these idiots.

I thought the documentary was well made and clearly well researched. It exposed not only the hypocrisy of the Falwells, but the white evangelical movement as a whole. I found Granda to be believable and well prepared to support his account of events. He was not innocent, and he admits that freely and in detail, but they ran over him and damn near cost him his life and then Jerry threw his own wife directly under the bus to preserve....what? His godly reputation? I live not far from Falwellville (Liberty) and I don't know anyone who was surprised by this. His alcoholism and lack of character and moral compass were the worst kept secret in Lynchburg. While I believe that what you do in the privacy of your relationship is of no concern if no one is getting hurt (ultimately granda was damaged), when you make your fortune and grab political power by oppressing others you deserve the fall from the grace you pretended to embrace.

It appears by some of the reviews that people have a hard time hearing the truth about the hypocrisy of these evangelical political pundits. This documentary does an excellent job of showing how predatory and powerful the religious right has become in the last 40 years. Manipulating the weak minded by bashing the morals of others all the while living a double life. I can't believe people still put any weight in what these hypocrites say after the truth has come out about so many of them. Bunch of snake-oil salesmen (and women). I feel truly sorry for the young man that got roped into JFJ's chaos.