S3: Jerry Falwell Jr. and Liberty University | Bonus: Jane Does v. Liberty

August 25, 2021·1 hr 15 min·6 clips

A former Liberty class president reveals why she kept her rape secret, fearing the school's moral code more than her attacker.

The warning comes first. Before the episode gives any wider context, listeners are told the material includes accounts of sexual violence. Then Chelsea Andrews speaks. She describes attending Liberty from 2011 to 2015, finding faith there, and fitting the school's preferred story of transformation. Her campus record was long: class president roles, student government, campus relations, a dean's council role, college Republicans involvement, prayer and life group leadership, awards, honors, and work in student conduct. That matters because Andrews is not framed as someone standing outside the school taking shots. She was deep inside its public model of success. Then the excerpt turns. Doe One describes waking to a knock at her door and finding Keith Anderson outside with food. According to Doe One, Anderson pushed the door in, entered the apartment, questioned her about the prior night, and denied that his hand had been on her neck. She says she resisted. She says he pushed to apply topical cream to her body, touched her leg, pulled her toward him, and kissed her. Her objections were plain. Doe One says she named the power imbalance: he was married, her boss, and her pastor. Anderson's response is the cold part. She says he told her he always gets what he wants, warned her not to speak, and threatened her ability to stay in the country. The episode says the pressure continued after the physical encounter, with Doe One describing mental harassment in and out of work. Immigration was not a side detail. Doe One says she was at LU on an H-1B work visa that LU had to renew and Anderson had to sign, which made the deportation threat land as real leverage.

As heard by us

A sober look at how institutional authority can hide coercion behind faith and procedure.

Gangster Capitalism treats Liberty University as a place where faith, authority, and discipline overlap in uneasy ways. It follows Chelsea Andrews from a first-year conversion story into campus leadership, then shifts to Doe One and Keith Anderson, where religious authority and…

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You want a hard, careful look at power inside a Christian campus.

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