Falwell Jr. Shows Advance of Christendom Can Harm Christianity

If you haven't read Politico's lengthy investigative report on Jerry Falwell Jr.'s conduct as president of Liberty University, published earlier this week, I'd urge you to do so. It's a sordid tale of the self-dealing, personal ambition, and extreme intolerance for dissent that's long been an open secret at Liberty and beyond. It's also an extraordinarily familiar tale for any person who's spent any time around institutional evangelicalism. Time and again, powerful Christian men create or nurture powerful Christian institutions — only to fall prey to the temptation to equate the advance of those institutions and their own power with the advance of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God.