Republican congressman Mark Walker recently declared that Jerry Falwell, Liberty University president, should step down from his post as president, citing his appalling and ongoing behavior.
“Jerry Falwell Jr’s ongoing behavior is appalling. As a Music Faculty Advisory Board Member and former instructor @LibertyU, I’m convinced Falwell should step down. None of us are perfect, but students, faculty, alumni and @LUPraise deserve better,” Walker tweeted.
Conservative pundits such as “The View’s” Meghan McCain even tweeted about it calling Falwell gross and hypocritical. So what is this “behavior” everyone’s talking about?
Falwell recently posted a picture on instagram showing him with an arm around a woman who is not his wife. They were posing with their pants’ zippers undone and holding a dark-colored drink. The caption accompanying the photo read “More vacation shots. Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht. I promise that’s just black water in my glass. It was a prop only.”
The university subjects its students to a strict code of conduct prohibiting premarital sex, consumption of media, lewd lyrics, anti-Christian messages, sexual content, nudity, pornography, etc. He can’t expect students and faculty to uphold a standard that he himself won’t uphold.
The post was quickly deleted after some raised eyebrows, being that he is running the largest Christian university in America. Having yourself on social media with your pants undone on a yacht with random women is not very Christian-like.
Falwell went on an interview with a radio station in Lynchburg, VA addressing the controversy. “I’ve apologized to everybody and I’ve promised my kids I’m going to try to be — I’m going to try to be a good boy from here on out.” That’s a weird way of putting it.
Falwell also went on to say that the woman he posed with for the photo is his wife’s assistant and that the picture was “just in good fun.” The unzipped pants yacht photo is sadly the least of Falwell’s worries.
Liberty Alumni members have also come forward expressing the unprofessional and ridiculous things that have come out of Falwell’s mouth, especially during our current climate. For the sake of the school, they need better and stronger voices reflecting what they believe in. This is also considering how stringent the rules are for students too.
Mark Walker is not the first Republican congressman to come forward about Falwell’s behavior and he won’t be the last.
