This is from: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/09/jerry-falwell-liberty-university-loans-227914

"“We’re not a school; we’re a real estate hedge fund,” said a senior university official with inside knowledge of Liberty’s finances. “We’re not educating; we’re buying real estate every year and taking students’ money to do it.”

...Falwell presides over a culture of self-dealing, directing university resources into projects and real estate deals in which his friends and family have stood to make personal financial gains. Among the previously unreported revelations are Falwell’s decision to hire his son Trey’s company to manage a shopping center owned by the university, Falwell’s advocacy for loans given by the university to his friends, and Falwell’s awarding university contracts to businesses owned by his friends."

The Mormon corporation runs nearly identically. Nepotism at its finest. They are not the only church to own a shopping center.

God's one true and living real estate development corporation. It must be a thing.

Yes, but Falwell Jr. has accepted Jesus as his personal Savior. Falwell is Saved, praise Jesus, and therefore Jesus has already forgiven him of his sins.

The cheap grace of evangelical Xtians is arguably as bad as the mormon Second Anointing. Auto-forgiveness for everything and a free ticket to heaven.

The celestial get-out-of-jail-free card...

Not knowing all evangelicals as you do, I can only speak from my experience that those I do know do not believe that forgiveness received is ever a license to sin without consequence.

Never said I knew "all evangelicals." But the concept is a commonly accepted one in evangelical circles.

Maybe "cheap grace" is the wrong term to use. So sue me. This one uses "free grace," which may even be worse.

https://faithalone.org/blog/a-response-to-the-cheap-grace-charge/

"Dr. Charles Stanley was asked about cheap grace. In a message called, 'The High Cost of God's Grace,' Stanley says, 'Grace is free, but it’s not cheap. It cost God His Son, and yet He gives it to us freely' (see here). Cheap wrongly implies we buy our own salvation at a steep discount. But as Stanley says, it is free to us, not cheap. But for God it was not cheap, rather the greatest price paid in history.

"I agree. ***Everlasting life is a free gift given to all who simply believe in Jesus. There is no other condition.

"Those who add additional conditions are trying to improve on God’s Word.*** They think that the quality of people in our churches is low. They are convinced God wants church people to live holier lives than they are living. So their solution is to make it harder to get into the church. Raise the bar. Raise the entrance requirements."

Just *believe in Jesus* and you receive everlasting life. *No other conditions.* Rape and murder but still believe in Jesus? You may rot in prison, but it's heaven in the eternities.

Evangelicals do believe that grace is free but not that it is a free pass to commit sin. If it could be earned it would be wages due, something refuted by Paul. But perhaps that is a discussion for a different time an place.

This is also a very popular MO with many for profit colleges.

Manipulation is manipulation.

Scam is scam.

Abuse is abuse.

There are variations but it's surprising how much is much the same.

Real estate parallels for sure.

Funny how Jesus didn't go around buying land and buildings to enrich his buddies and build investments.

He was selling real estate in an alternate dimension. His business was known as the "Many Mansions Real Estate Company".

A lot of people are still working their butts off to make down payments on the alternate dimension real estate being sold by Jesus's sales agents.

It's a better scam than the Florida swamp land swindles. Sure, the buyers may have a hard time getting over to Florida to inspect the land before committing as buyers. But it's easier to get to Florida than it is to go to an alternate dimension.

The Mormon church has developed their own angle on selling Jesus Real Estate in the alternate dimension. Their deal is that if you pay 10% of your gross annual income to the Mormon church, so that the Mormon church can buy real estate in this dimension, the Mormon church can promise you and your family some prime real estate in the most exclusive community in the alternate dimension.

They can't show you pictures or show you floor plans. But they promise that it's really fantastic and you're gonna love it when you get over to that alternate dimension and can finally see the posh residence that you've purchased.

"Celestial Kingdom -- The Most Exclusive and Luxurious Gated Community offered by the Jesus Development Company. The alternate dimension is waiting for you."

Provo has always been company town owned and operated by the Mormon Church.

Lynchburg is becoming a company town owned and operated by the Falwellites.

Provo didn't need to be retro-fitted. Lynchburg has all the signs of retrofitting.

In both places, there are other things going on, but the dominant presence, politically and economically, is clearly the Mormon church/business/university in Provo and Falwell's church/business/university in Lynchburg.

Because of the misspelling of the name "Fallwell" in this thread's title, I didn't see it when I researched before beginning my own thread on the subject (which can now be deleted).

Anyway, here are the comments I made on this subject:

"It's Jerry Fallwell Jr. being written about here, and I couldn't help but note some comparisons with modern-day Mormon leaders. They include:

1) Fallwell being a ruthless businessman who will bend (and sometimes break) the law if it earns him income;

2) Mr. Fallwell's almost complete indifference to the religious followers of his father (check out the last few paragraphs of the article to see what I mean);

3) the attempt by Fallwell's church to build a shopping center near Liberty University (it certainly mirrors the LDS church's attempts to do the same in Salt Lake City); and

4) the role that Jerry's wife, Becky, has played in laying down the career path of her husband. I saw on a recent thread here (and I agree with it) that Mormon women, while being denied the priesthood, are very strong-willed in their own right and really push their husbands on making church decisions.

The picture being painted is that of a couple who use the beliefs and support of his late father's followers for personal gain. The family's apparent lack of empathy or sympathy for anybody else but themselves was a real turn-off for me, and I find myself wondering late at night why people are attracted to people such as the Fallwells and Joseph Smith who in no way exemplified the lifestyles they wanted their followers to lead"

My mistake in misspelling his name.

Anytime there are a bunch of Jesus sheep that extreme, you can bet there is someone fleecing them.