Undelivered Facebook Statuses: Jerry Falwell & Relief Money For Churches

burgoynealexburgoyneLeave a comment
JPEG image-55A9BEC27022-1

Today, just right now,
I spent thirty minutes and
Reaped this dumb reward

Listen, fraud happens. It’s a brand new, giant thing. Of course people attempted to steal from it. I get it. But it feels a little like Falwell shaming people’s sexual appetites and then getting caught in the midst of his own secret liaison*.
 
*allegedly
 
Also, who cares about Jerry Falwell Jr.? Christians acting morally dubious (the lying and stealing part, not the kinky part – you do you my dude) is a story as old as Christians.
 
Well, for starters these operations are being funded by taxpayers, at first indirectly (pre-pandemic) and now directly (post-pandemic). If they don’t pay taxes, but are receiving federal aid, I’m upset about it. For a lot of reasons I guess.
 
I get that. But this is pretty small-time in the grand-scheme and doesn’t really have anything to do with the story you shared.
 
Here’s the thing, I can be upset about Jerry Falwell using Liberty University money to pay for a kink in the privacy of his own home (or a hotel room or whatever) while he (probably would – I actually don’t know or care) publicly shames those that would do the same, AND be upset that churches IN GENERAL get money from the government. I think both things are (unequally) ridiculous.
 
I see. Well, is this the right platform for you to express that? I mean, your aunts and uncles and grandma read this…
 
I read their stuff too. Mostly they post aunt and uncle and grandma stuff, but every once in a while, or recently more frequently, they post stuff that’s pretty wild or factually inaccurate or mean-spirited or at least VERY opinionated. Am I supposed to not post opinionated stuff because it might offend my family? They certainly don’t seem to care about that!
 
I guess you’re right. It just feels sort of icky to imagine folks who know me VERY well reading something I wrote and hating it, or even me, even if for a split second.
 
(That’s right, I’m both you and I.)
 
Icky is a stupid feeling that doesn’t mean anything. What did icky ever do for or to you except be a dumb story in your head about what you can’t or shouldn’t do. Plus the constitution.
 
Yeah, the constitution.
 
I was just thinking about “the people who write Facebook statuses like these,” and how mostly, I try to read the long ones because I like to write long ones, but I’d bet there are a more than equal number of folks who absolutely just skip over the long ones. I wonder what their lives are like.
 
Right. Are they better than you because they don’t read long statuses. A classic story.
 
 
 
 
The end.

Undelivered Facebook Statuses: Jerry Falwell & Relief Money For Churches