“We were all hot and sweaty. She goes, ‘Hey, can you help me with something?’ I said, ‘Sure, heck yeah, I can help you!’ I figure she needed some heavy lifting. I’ll never forget, she corners me and goes, ‘Have you told your friends?’ I say, ‘Excuse me?’ She goes, ‘Have you told your friends that I think you’re hot?’” the former student recalled. “She’s standing there with her eyes locked on me, waiting to see what I’d say. I probably laughed it off, like, ‘Haha. No, I haven’t told them that one.’”

Fucking real normal dude.

“One night [in August or September], we were up till one or two, and we went back to his room. We had a decent amount of Jack Daniels,” the former student said. He remembered walking into the guest room, just as he’d done many times, closing the door behind him, and preparing the bed.

”I’m laying in the bed and I hear, like, giggling to the side of me on the floor. And, pardon my French, but I was like, ‘What the fuck is that?’ I look over and it’s Becki,” he said. “Just, you know, in my room. I’m like, ‘You can’t be in here. This can’t happen.’”

He was a 22-year-old student at Liberty. She was the wife of the president of the school. The Falwells were, effectively, the First Family of conservative evangelicalism in America.

After some prodding, he coaxed Falwell into leaving. He slept, woke up and acted like things were normal.

Things were certainly normal.

A few nights later, he stayed the night again. Again, Falwell came into the guestroom where the then-student was in bed.

This time, she was more aggressive. The former student remembers that Falwell climbed into bed with him, and quickly took down his pants.

“I was like, ‘uh, what are you doing?” the former student said. Falwell then proceeded to give him oral sex.

Over the last year, the former student has recounted this story several times in interviews with POLITICO. He maintained that while some of the details from the 12-year-old encounter are fuzzy, there are others that are clear. He remembers lying on the “right side of the cot.” He remembers thinking the room “looked like an Embassy Suites.” He remembers that Jerry Jr. was away that weekend, and that Wesley, the Falwells’ second son, wasn’t there.

Ughhhhhhhh my tummy hurts

  • Spartacus [none/use name]
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    4 years ago

    The student was 22 at the time of the encounter

    i have no comment on the assault part, but a person cannot be groomed at age 22. these words matter. you are a grown human by 22

    • communiste [she/her,comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      "grooming" is terminology used by counselors and psychologists to refer to the way abusers prepare their victims to accept abuse, even in adult-adult relationships. it's not dependent on the age of the victim or even the power dynamic within the relationship.

      more info here: https://pro.psychcentral.com/recovery-expert/2018/09/how-victims-are-groomed-by-abusive-predators/

      • Spartacus [none/use name]
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        4 years ago

        i'm a grown ass man. i cannot be groomed. everyone knows the implication of a person being groomed. this is silly.

        • WintersNstuff [none/use name]
          hexagon
          ·
          4 years ago

          Whatever everyones using that word lately and i didnt have anything better. She was the wife of the all-powerful head of his school, shits fucked either way

        • hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          everyone knows the implication of a person being groomed.

          It's very common for words to have a broad connotation in common usage and a more specific, "term of art" connotation you learn when you work more closely with the relevant subject matter. The easiest example is "assault." In common usage, if you punch someone you assaulted them. But someone who works in or around the law might refer to that as battery, and tell you that you don't need to touch someone to assault them.

          Neither usage is really wrong so long as everyone knows what everyone else is trying to communicate.

        • gayhobbes [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Hey maybe just accept that the word isn't used the way you think it is instead of saying that the description of someone's sexual assault by a more powerful person is silly because the word doesn't fit what you think it is.