August 6th 2020

By Bill Berkowitz

BuzzFlash Editor’s Update: Jerry Falwell Jr. "apologized for posting a photo of him in unzipped pants and arm around a woman — but also defended the incident as a vacation ‘costume party’ that was 'just in good fun.’” Politico reported. “I’ve apologized to everybody,” Falwell said in an interview on the Morningline show on WLNI 105.9FM, a local radio station in Lynchburg, Va. “And I’ve promised my kids I’m going to try to be — I’m gonna try to be a good boy from here on out.”

A post of a picture holding a glass with a dark liquid in it, and his arm around a woman with a bare midriff while his pants are partially unzipped showing his underwear, has brought Jerry Falwell Jr, President of Liberty University, the biggest Christian University in the world, zooming back into the headlines. Falwell captioned the photo: “More vacation shots. Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht. I promise that’s only black water in my glass. It was a prop only.”  Falwell later deleted the image which he said was taken on a yacht, but it was shared by a Houston Chronicle reporter on Twitter.

Falwell Jr is one of America’s most powerful evangelical leaders and an early and enthusiastic supporter of President Donald Trump. According to The Guardian’s Ada, Gabbatt because Liberty University, which has strict rules over dress code and social activities, Falwell “has been accused of hypocrisy after he shared the photo … with his pants unzipped to reveal his underwear.”

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Gabbatt reported that “An accompanying video, obtained by the Pulpit and Pen website, says Falwell was portraying Julian, one of the lead characters in Trailer Park Boys. Julian is known for wearing black T-shirts, having a black beard, and perpetually holding a glass of rum and coke, but less so for wearing his pants unzipped to reveal his underwear.”

The photo “should actively anger you on behalf of the students who have faced significant consequences on campus for the *same* actions,” Liberty student Alexandra Green wrote in a series of tweets. “Drinking? Smoking? Possession of cigarettes/alcohol? Against the rules regardless of age. Could result in a ‘$300 fine, 30 hours community service, and/or expulsion.’ Real people who could not afford the fines have been fined for this. Real people were kicked out for this.”

Green also pointed out that “Oh and unbuttoning your pants? Could cost you $150 and/or 15 hours or community service for being in “any state of undress with a member or the opposite sex.” And, Green added: “*also* what half of those women were wearing would disallow them from attending a class, going to the gym, or walking around on campus so as to not risk the purity of men. Guess Falwell’s not too concerned about his ‘purity.’” 

Several conservative women also responded to Falwell’s unzipped visage: 

“There were already so many good reasons not to entrust your kids to Jerry Falwell Jr’s learning institution. The unzipped pants yacht photo — of the school’s PRESIDENT — is sadly the least of them,” tweeted S.E. Cupp, a conservative host for CNN.

Meghan McCain, the daughter of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), also tweeted: “How is this Jerry Falwell Jr. photo even real? Also if you're running the largest Christian university in America maybe don't put photos of yourself on social media with your pants undone on a yacht — with random women in bad wigs. So gross, so hypocritical.”

Falwell Jr. – the son of the late Reverend Jerry Falwell who founded the Lynchburg, Va.-based Liberty University, has run the university since his father’s death in 2007. 

This is not unchartered territory for Falwell. In a May 2019 story titled “Falwell Jr. Denies Trump Fixer Michael Cohen Saved His Butt, Then Handed Butt To Team Trump”, I wrote about allegations that Trump fixer, Michael Cohen, helped him resolve a blackmail attempt over racy personal photos, shortly before Falwell endorsed Trump. 

According to Reuters: “Months before evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr.’s game-changing presidential endorsement of Donald Trump in 2016, Falwell asked … Cohen for a personal favor, Cohen said in a recorded conversation reviewed by Reuters. Falwell … said someone had come into possession of what Cohen described as racy ‘personal’ photographs — the sort that would typically be kept ‘between husband and wife,’ Cohen said in the taped conversation. According to a source familiar with Cohen’s thinking, the person who possessed the photos destroyed them after Cohen intervened on the Falwells’ behalf.”

The conservative Washington Spectator’s columnist Kaylee McGhee called Falwell “a self-interested crook who sees the Christian faith as a means to further his political and financial agenda.” 

Falwell has previously faced questions over his behavior, including after he was photographed partying at a Miami nightclub. Over the past year, there have been reports of real estate deals benefitting Falwell’s friends and family, partying at nightclubs, and passing along sexually charged pictures of his wife Becki. 

“The most titillating story, previously reported by the Miami Herald, concerns the fact that Falwell and his wife, Becki, seem to have an interesting sex life involving sharing naked photos with other men — men who, likely not coincidentally, enjoy healthy levels of financial assistance from the Falwells and Liberty University,” Salon’s Amanda Marcotte reported.  “For instance, Politico reports that Falwell sent pictures of his wife in "a French maid costume" to their personal trainer, Ben Crosswhite. They also used Liberty funds to set Crosswhite up as the owner of a lucrative gym.”

Falwell’s response to all these charges has been Trumpian, calling on his best impression of the president and the president’s mentor, the late Roy Cohn, whose motto was basically attack, attack, attack those that attack you.

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