The Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr.

Friday Five: Astros blunder, Chick-fil-A, SBC women profs, Ugandan justice, Jesus (really) saves

Before we dive into the Friday Five, a few updates to earlier posts:

• I followed up Thursday on my analysis last week of The Associated Press’ haunted obituary of Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland. Kudos to AP for a new piece that delves into the important role of the black church in Cummings’ life.

• Earlier this week, I highlighted the bush-league PR response by the Houston Astros to a foul-mouthed, female-sportswriter-bullying assistant general manager named Brandon Taubman. Welp, the Astros eventually did the right thing and fired Taubman, a Houston Chronicle sports columnist writes.

• Also this week, I asked “What’s the real story?” concerning plans to close the first-ever international Chick-fil-A? The location at British mall apparently will shut down after six months amid protests by gay-rights activists. In that post, I mentioned a lawsuit over the San Antonio airport refusing to allow a Chick-fil-A. Now, the San Antonio Express-News reports that the Chick-fil-A could wind up opening there after all.

Now, on to the Friday Five:

1. Religion story of the week: Here’s a “story of the week” that actually hasn’t hit the mainstream press yet, assuming my Google News search skills are adequate.

Separate stories emerged this week, both concerning female professors and Southern Baptist seminaries, but the only reports I’ve seen were in the religious press: One involves the faculty of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, voting to affirm women colleagues amid attacks from some critics.


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Washington Post follows trail of Donald Trump's charitable giving everywhere -- almost

Frequent consumers of mainstream news may recall that Citizen Donald Trump traveled to Liberty University back in January to deliver one of his fire-from-the-hip speeches in his White House campaign. This was the Two Corinthians speech. It was all the rage in the news biz.

You may also recall that the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Jr., delivered a long, long, long introduction for Trump that left little if any doubt who he -- as opposed to his university -- would be endorsing in this race.

One of the major themes in this Falwell speech was that Trump the man is radically different than Trump the media figure. Falwell said this other Trump has hidden, even secret, virtues that would appeal to many Christian believers who might be turned off by his brash, super-confident, Playboy role model public image. In particular, Trump was reported to be a great family man who took his faith seriously and was quite generous to those in need.

One version of these Falwell's remarks -- as repeated on Fox News -- can be found at the end of a Washington Post essay -- "Missing from Trump’s list of charitable giving: His own personal cash" -- that is creating quite a bit of buzz.

“His limousine broke down one time, a couple stopped and helped him. He paid off their mortgage a few days later. These are all things that you never hear about Donald Trump,” Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, said on Fox News’s “Hannity” in January. ...
In a telephone interview, Falwell, who has endorsed Trump, was asked: Did you ever ask Trump if that story was true?
“I never did,” Falwell said. “But, Trey, didn’t you search that on Google?”
“I didn’t,” his son Trey said. “But somebody did.”
“It was in some publication in 1995,” the elder Falwell concluded. “But I forget which publication.”

This is, in the Post piece, offered as another example of a popular American folk legend -- the tale of the "Grateful Millionaire."


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