I wonder if Jerry Falwell is thinking about Jim Bakker today.

He is making me think about Jim Bakker today.

A history thread:

Falwell, like Bakker, said his wife’s infidelity was the problem, shifting blame to the spouse.

Falwell, like Bakker, claimed he was caught in a blackmail plot.

Both men defended their masculinity in uncomfortable ways and adopted narratives about how opposition to them was really anti-evangelical bias. Bakker would say he was the cone of the rocket, taking the heat for everyone else.

Falwell, like Bakker, was also involved in a scandal that at first seemed like a financial scandal and then seemed like it was really about sex.

The scandalous allegations, also, in both cases, involving two men having sex with one woman.

People who remember the woman’s name in Bakker’s scandal sometimes forget this. There was another televangelist involved who allegedly recruited the woman for Bakker. She said they both had sex with her.

At least once, according to reporting from the Charlotte Observer in the '80s, Bakker was in the hotel room while the other televangelist had sex with the woman.

An allegation against Falwell is that he arranged to watch a man have sex with his wife https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/25/jerry-falwell-pool-attendant-401398

In the Bakker scandal, the other televangelist also said he had sex with Bakker. There were several men who worked with Bakker who made similar claims about homosexuality.

Suzanne Krivulskaya, who is finishing a book on the history of Protestant sex scandals, told CT that the breaking point, in a lot of these stories, is “accusations of homosexuality and allegations of bi-sexuality—where there’s another man involved.” https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/august/jerry-falwell-jr-resigns-liberty-university-affair-scandal.html

Both Falwell and Bakker reacted similarly to the scandal coming out. Both took a temporary leave of absence, at first.

We know with Bakker, there were plans for him to gradually return to leadership. The person orchestrating that process was Falwell’s father, Jerry Falwell Sr.

Jerry Falwell Sr. was brought in to manage the scandal and took over when Bakker was forced out. That was 1987. Jerry Falwell Jr. was 25.

The younger Falwell graduated from law school that year and started working for his father's Christian college, Liberty University.

So Falwell's last days at Liberty may well remind him of his first.

History repeats itself, the saying goes. It’s probably a matter of perspective whether it seems like tragedy, farce, or a combination.

Whether Falwell is thinking about Bakker or not, right now, I am. Because the events 33 years ago remind me that the events of yesterday are not a complete anomaly. History may not actually repeat or rhyme, but there are patterns, structures, incentives, systems.

Reinhold Niebuhr once said the problem with good people is they underestimate their own capacity for self deception.

Thinking about sin and history can help us get to a more honest answer to one question with a scandal: Wait, how did we get here? Because we've been here before.

/end