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.
