Weekly Roundup: Falwell's Fall and America's Backlash
Brad and Dan begin this episode with a discussion of the new profile of Jerry Falwell Jr. at Vanity Fair. In their view, Falwell is a type for contemporary Christian nationalism. He describes himself as not particularly religious while subscribing to a vision of the United States wherein White Christian men hold power. He was formed politically by Rush Limbaugh. He lavished praise on Donald Trump. For Dan, it's a perfect example of how Christian nationalism is a religious-political-cultural identity that often time has little to do with persona religious practice.
They then segue into analysis of a new piece by sociologist Ruth Braunstein that investigates the backlash against the Religious Right and White Evangelicals. Braunstein examines the rise of the Nones--those unaffiliated with religion--but also looks at how the Religious Left and the "spiritual but not religious" also represent a backlash to conservative American Protestants.
In the final segment Brad goes through the history of SCOTUS picks based on identity. Dan argues that identity politics are always at play and that there are no objectively best candidates for SCOTUS.
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Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
My name is Brad Onishi, faculty at the University of San Francisco.
Our show is hosted in partnership with the Kapp Center at UCSB, and I'm here today with my co-host.
I'm Dan Miller, Associate Professor of Religion and Social Thought at Landmark College.
Good to see you, Brad.
We explore all the nuances of doing this in this bi-coastal way where it's early for you and later for me, but your weather's fine and I'm supposed to get like a foot of snow, so it's nice to sort of fit this into our day.
Yeah, we do have good weather.
We're also coming up on a really dry period here in California.
Anyway, I don't want to bother everyone with the weather, but I am worried about about water.
So it's funny how you have way too much water and we have not nearly enough.
It is worrying.
So anyway.
All right, Dan, today we want to talk about a couple of things.
A huge new profile of Jerry Falwell in Vanity Fair that is incredibly revealing, and it's interesting just for the intrigue, but I think it also exemplifies kind of the waywardness.
Waywardness is the wrong term, but the I'll just say issues for now with evangelicalism and Christian nationalism over the five years.
So if you're listening, like, I'm done with Jerry Falwell.
I don't need more Jerry Falwell.
What I would say is stay with us, because I think it actually illustrates kind of evangelicalism and Christian nationalism as a whole, as it has been developing over the last, you know, couple decades.
Especially in the Trump era.
We'll then talk about a great piece by the sociologist Ruth Braunstein about the backlash against evangelicalism and what's fueling that and what it looks like in terms of the American religious landscape.
And then jump into Biden's Supreme Court nominee or potential nominee and the implications of him promising to nominate a black woman.
All right, Dan.
So there's a new piece, a great piece in Vanity Fair, a long profile of Jerry Falwell Jr., and no bearing the lead.
He says pretty early on in the piece, subconsciously, I believe that's true, he said after being told that it felt like he was trying to destroy himself.
It's almost like I didn't have a choice.
So let me just stop and remind everybody.
Jerry Falwell Jr.
was president of Liberty University.
He took over for his father in 2007 when his father died.
You know, over the last couple years, there's been sort of scandal after scandal.
He had a picture on Instagram with his pants unzipped.
He, you know, was a huge proponent of Donald Trump.
And then broke all of the news about this pool boy or pool attendant with whom his wife Becky had an affair.
Uh, the ideas out there spread by the pool boy who continues to stick to the story that part of the affair was that Jerry Fall will like to watch them have sex and so on and so forth.
So he's eventually asked to leave Liberty.
There's a series of bizarre appearances.
He kind of.
He doesn't seem to want to let go, and this and that.
Now, he's fully gone, right?
He's no longer at Liberty, and yet he still lives on his 500-acre farm not far from the campus where he's always lived.
So here's this interview, and the interviewer's saying, hey, it seems like you were trying to destroy yourself there for a second, you know?
And he says, yeah, it's almost like I didn't have a choice.
Because of my last name, people think I'm a religious person, but I'm not.
My goal was to make them realize I was not my dad.
Dan, you know, there's so much to say about this.
I just feel like this is worth stopping on.
Like Jerry Falwell Jr.
saying out loud, I'm not really a religious person.
The guy who led Liberty University for a long time, who's from one of the most prominent evangelical families of the late 20th century and 21st century, somebody who oversaw the largest evangelical university in the world.
Saying, yeah, I'm not really religious.
Not really religious at all.
I'll just note one more thing before I throw it to you.
He talks about how he became a true Christian in college and that he converted after going to Liberty and taking some classes on apologetics and other things.
And he then, you know, goes to University of Virginia Law School.
Everybody's like, yeah, he was a normal guy.
Played basketball and went to happy hour.
No big deal.
Okay.
He ends up working at Liberty to help his dad because the university is in financial trouble.
They're going bankrupt.
This is kind of turn of the century, late 90s.
So he's like, all right, and he's actually a really good businessman.
He actually has a really good knack for this, as opposed to his dad, who was a preacher and always on television and always on the radio.
Jerry Falwell Jr.
was the kind of guy that wanted to be in his office alone, crunching numbers, And trying to make payroll and all that kind of work.
Now, he ends up sort of becoming his dad's right-hand man.
And there's this great line, Dan, and I'll throw it to you after this.
There's this great line about how when he worked with his dad, you know, his dad every day would go to lunch at the Holiday Inn with certain people on staff and they'd always invite him.
And instead of going with them, he would go eat in his car.
He would go eat Wendy's hamburgers in his car and listen to Rush Limbaugh.
And he says, right, Rush Limbaugh is the reason.
I became a conservative.
His wife Becky says that when Falwell met Rush Limbaugh at the White House Christmas party, quote, that was the most starstruck Jerry had ever been.
So I just want to put two things at you, Dan, to start.
First, Falwell saying, I'm not really a religious person.
Second, the person I idolize, the person I look up to, the person that makes me starstruck and nervous.
You know, I'm Jerry Falwell Jr.
I grew up around Pat Robertson and all the luminaries of evangelical life, and my dad was always on television, and my dad met with presidents, and who's the guy that makes Jerry Falwell Jr.
starstruck?
Rush Limbaugh.
What does that tell you, Dan?
I mean, I'm just wondering your thoughts right off the bat about those two things.
I'm not religious, but Rush Limbaugh?
Wow, that makes me stars in my eyes and love in my heart.
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