God Forbid: lo scandalo Falwell

As "God Forbid" (2022 release; 109 min) opens, we are introduced to Giancarlo Granda, a Cuban-American who comments "If I knew what would've happened, I'd walked away." We then go to "March 12, 2012" and Becki Falwell, wife of Christian evangelican leader Jerry Falwell Jr., picks up a 20 yo pool boy at a Miami hotel. It isn't long before they start a torrid affair, with Jerry Jr. Looking on (literally). At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from longtime director Bill Corben ("537 Votes"). Here he reassesses the turbulent life and times of Jerry Falwell Jr. And his wife Becki as the leaders of Liberty University. The documentary is basically a 2-in-1: on the one side there is the salacious personal hypocrisy of the Falwells in how they practice their "Christian values" or the lack thereof (comments Giancarlo's sister: "They are not the good Christians they portray themselves to be"), and then there is the political fallout from the Christian evangelicans' wholesome embrace of Trump(ism) : in both 2016 and 2020, about 80% of Christian evangelicans voted for Trump, who of course doesn't have an ounce of "Christian values" in his body, the Big Loser and Liar-In-Chief that he was and still is. In the middle of all this is Giancarlo Granda, who was just 20 years old when all of this started a decade ago. I found this documentary to be surprisingly well done.

"God Forbid" started streaming on Hulu earlier this week, and I just caught it last night. If nothing else, watch this as it exposes (again) the utter and sheer hypocrisy of Christian evangelicans who preach one thing and then have no problem supporting a man who literally lies every single day, cares for no-one but No. 1, and then for good measure tried overturning the 2020 presidential election results in every which way, including staging a (failed) insurrection on January 6. But hey, he did appoint 3 justices to the Supreme Court, so it's all good! Of course don't take my word for it, so check out "God Forbid" and draw your own conclusion.

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.

So many reviewers here are stating that this started out great, then nosedived because there were "unrelated" stories about Trump and Co. For those who actually paid attention, this doc starts out great and remains great throughout. It exposes ALL the hypocrisy, not only of evangelicals, but of the political right. Jery Falwell Jr.'s endorsement of Trump in 2016 opened the door for other evangelical preachers to also endorse him, and thereafter have the evangelicals wrapped around his pudgy little finger. This is an extremely important part of this story. Falwell endorsing Trump and showing him the "loyalty" he so craves, made Falwell think that he was an all-powerful god among men, and that he could get away with anything. Trump offered him the Secretary of Education for his loyalty!

It still sort of shocks me that there are some people who will make statements about people like Falwell and Trump as though the nebulous "Left" is always after Trump or people like Falwell, even though they've NEVER done anything wrong. This documentary puts the truth out there, and it's still called a lie. As a great Senator once said, "everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but they're not entitled to their own facts." If you're one that has an opinion about Giancarlo Granda, or Falwell, or his wife, or even Trump, watch this so that at least you're armed with facts to back up your opinion. We still do that, right?

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.

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.