Racy photos do exist, but at least some of the photos are of his wife, Becki, as the Miami Herald confirmed in June. Michael Sean Winters: I did. In emails obtained for this article, top school officials shared a local newspaper article documenting “concerns in some quarters [of Lynchburg] about the overwhelmingly conservative LU students and the possibility they could alter the balance of power on council and change the course of the city.”, “FYI - The challenge we will have in 2010 is [Lynchburg’s local Election Day] is finals week,” a top Liberty official wrote in a November 9, 2008, email to Falwell and other school leaders. Liberty officials who saw the since-deleted post and described its contents said it raised questions about Trey’s involvement in the pro-Trump poll-rigging effort. Crosswhite did not respond to requests for comment. What better way to do that than to cultivate a very public relationship with the late Rev. Patron Saint St. Michael The Archangel 2" Medal Pendant Necklace 24" Box Chain. “In the end, I reluctantly agreed with the recommendation and allowed the transaction to proceed. The evangelical leader is embroiled in yet another alleged scandal. But you say that Jerry Falwell had been preaching a gospel of conservative economics for decades, so this was not a new thing for conservative Christians. That relationship would eventually result in the Falwells investing in a gay-friendly youth hostel they purchased in 2013 for $4.7 million. Minutes later, he returned holding two frayed towels and a folded pile of formerly white bedding. Jerry Falwell was born on August 11, 1933 in Lynchburg, Virginia, USA as Jerry Lamon Falwell. All those issues were changing in the late 60s, 70s, and 80s. Senior reportedly also said any man not married by the age of about 25 might as well invest in a purse and panty hose. Jerry Falwell, Writer: Old Time Gospel Hour. “I never had any picture of Becki Falwell dressed in a French maid uniform, and never sent such a non-existent photo to Ben Crosswhite.”. More than simply talking with employees about his wife in a sexual manner, on at least one occasion, Falwell shared a photo of his wife wearing what appeared to be a French maid costume, according to a longtime Liberty employee with firsthand knowledge of the image and the fallout that followed. “It was a costume party on a — we were on vacation. We are just seeing the information begin to trickle in and there really don’t seem to be good answers just a response that the cost we are seeing are fair, and being handled appropriately.”, “I hope that I am over reacting,” Spence continued, “but I assure you I am concerned.”, “I am fine with going back to bidding every project out if CMA can’t run with the big dogs!” Falwell replied. Kathleen Stone is easily findable on fb; she comes off as a tomboyish and frisky little puddy-tat but seems to enjoy the company of girls as much as boys although it looks like she’s married now. The shirts, in MAGA red with white type, read “TRUMP” in large block letters, with “Liberty University Commencement 2017” in a much smaller typeface. How unprofessional. As the address of its principal office, he gave the location of a house where he and his wife, Sarah, resided. Sounds right for violent Muslim Arabs. "Wonderful seeing my great friend @michaelcohen84 in NY," Falwell wrote. He was a writer and actor, known for Old Time Gospel Hour (1956), The Grim Reaper (1976) and LateLine (1998). “You know, there’s a head of every family,” said a former university employee who worked closely with Becki Falwell for many years. A half-dozen people with inside knowledge of the Falwell family said that, after Falwell’s death, Becki pushed to shrink Jonathan’s role at the university—a move current and former Liberty officials described as the start of Jerry and Becki consolidating power. $19.25. “We’re not letting her have a choice. So we have costume party types + yachtsmen (ultimate hedonists). $13.40 + shipping. "He's the best." In an email dated July 18, 2012, Falwell informed several university executives that his son, Trey Falwell, was “starting a new company to do the management” of properties owned by the school, including the shopping center. In a September 2015 email, Liberty University Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Randy Smith wrote Crosswhite to let him know the terms of the deal. Bello argued that he was promised a similar share. Several people who lack any tie to Liberty but live in the school’s hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, refused to go on the record for this story, fearing Falwell would take revenge upon them and their families. The people interviewed for this article include members of Liberty’s board of trustees, senior university officials, and rank-and-file staff members who work closely with Falwell. But these new revelations speak to rising discontent with Falwell’s stewardship. Falwell did not respond to questions about this incident. Tenure and its protections are not available to Liberty faculty members outside the law school. They are reluctant to speak out—there’s no organized, open dissent to Falwell on campus—but they said they see it as necessary to save Liberty University and the values it once stood for. Falwell's funeral took place on May 22, 2007, at Thomas Road Baptist Church after he lay … There’s a very funny episode in the early 80s where one of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s staffers signs up to get the Moral Majority report in order to see what was being written about Kennedy. “To answer your question, yes, creative deals are commonplace at Liberty University.”, “When I hear the laundry list of interested transactions and the questionable use of Liberty University’s assets … I hear a nonprofit that is not well-governed in a sense that I would hope and expect from a sizable nonprofit,” Pitt Law’s Hackney said. As a general matter of law, “a nonprofit director or officer owes a ‘duty of loyalty’ to the nonprofit. When Corry was provided the exact wording along with the date he sent the email, he replied that he wasn’t shown his “signature block,” perhaps suggesting he had not sent the email in question. Falwell and his wife Becki pose for a photograph with Robert Moon during a boat ride on the James River. On issues like abortion, when Ronald Reagan signed a very lenient abortion law as governor of California he did it with the support of Republicans in the state legislature. And she’s definitely knocked up as of this writing. This is the earliest association between Junior and Trump that I could find. Members of the Liberty University community are generally reluctant to go on the record. When he took over as president in 2007, the school, which is a nonprofit, had listed assets of just over $259 million on its then most recent IRS Form 990; in its filing for the fiscal year ending in June 2017, its assets surpassed $2.5 billion. At Liberty University, all anyone can talk about is Jerry Falwell Jr. Just not in public. | AP Photo/Steve Helber. Sounds like he was expecting a deal that didn’t happen. Andy took one top bunk and I threw my stuff on the only other open top bunk, in the opposite corner of the room. Large sums of money getting moved around the nation in real estate markets by an entrenched false Christian with sex perversions… Pizza Party anybody? You can go into the kitchen.”. RedFinch’s online work for the school goes beyond typical SEO marketing. “At the end of the day, if one student sees this and feels welcome … it was all worth it,” Fitzpatrick said. “It has the sense of being managed for a charismatic leader and his family and friends rather than for the mission of Liberty.”, Liberty University graduates celebrate after the school's May 2007 commencement ceremony. Jerry Falwell Jr Biography – Jerry Falwell Jr Wiki. | Getty Images. Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. urged students, staff and faculty at his Christian school to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon on campus to counter any copycat attack like the deadly rampage in San Bernardino, California just days ago. Were it actually devout, these students would have been canned:.. to say nothing of the Diversity Office: LIBERTY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ORGANIZE A #METOO AND LGBTQ+ DEMONSTRATION ON LIBERTY’S CAMPUS IN RESPONSE TO COMMENTS MADE AT CPAC, https://www.liberty.edu/champion/2019/03/liberty-university-students-organize-a-metoo-and-lgbtq-demonstration-on-libertys-campus-in-response-to-comments-made-at-cpac/, Between 20-30 Liberty University students organized a #MeToo and LGBTQ+ demonstration on Liberty’s campus March 6 in response to comments made by President Jerry Falwell Jr., Becki Falwell and Donald Trump Jr. at CPAC March 1. Each son had worked under their father at the respective institutions; each knew well what those positions would require. “I’m having my RedFinch guys blow this up right away,” Gauger responded. | Twitter. It is completely a typical arms-length business relationship.”. The girl stared blankly at the guy, who was very angry at whomever he was on the phone with. “Shortly thereafter, Becki had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person, something in which I was not involved — it was nonetheless very upsetting to learn about,” he explained. I couldn’t understand anything he said except a few shouted fucks. In Trump, Falwell has found the opportunity to secure his own status as one of America’s preeminent Christian political leaders—the chance to finally obtain the national relevance of his father. During the trip, photos were taken of Jerry and Trey Falwell partying at a Miami nightclub—photos that multiple Liberty University officials said Jerry Falwell tried to make disappear. School will now let out on May 14 instead of [M]ay 7.”, This wasn’t a fluke. On July 19, 2014, popular Swedish DJ John Dahlbäck performed at Wall, a nightclub in Miami Beach, Fla. That night, the club happened to have a photographer on-site to grab candid shots of the revelry. Right: Also at the club that night were Trey Falwell and his wife, Sarah. Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen claimed that he had helped Falwell clean up racy “personal” photographs. “The day that man died was the day I lost a father,” one current university official said. Falwell Jr is a sex pervert, fraud, hypocrite and real estate scam artist. Falwell described the woman in the photo as his “wife’s assistant.” On his Instagram account, Falwell tagged a picture of the woman as Kathleen Stone, who lists on her Facebook account that she works for Liberty University. They issue a membership card to Ted Kennedy. A Liberty student prays during convocation at the university in February 2013. That growth is driven largely by a vast increase in the number of online students at the school, who now number some 95,000. It’s just not him, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”. I won’t cover it in detail but Granda reportedly had sex with Becki while Junior watched frequently. Right: At Thomas Road Baptist Church, Rev. Trey did not respond to requests for comment. Inevitably, Junior went one scandal too far: Falwell landed in hot water once again this week after posting a photo of himself on a yacht while on vacation with his pants unzipped, midriff hanging out, a drink in hand and his arm around a woman. The couple, he said, “forgave each other, because while her indiscretion may have been more obvious and apparent, I realized that there were important smaller things I needed to do better too.”. Sen. Kennedy is in Palm Beach and his mother is ill. He apologized to his sons specifically, not to the Christian university with its uniquely stringent moral code that he has now completely disgraced… and flaunted for the entirely of his leadership. Jerry Falwell Jr., the embattled president of Liberty University and one of President Donald Trump’s earliest and most vocal supporters, has resigned … There was not a lot of intellectual curiosity in Dr. Falwell, although he was certainly an extraordinarily intelligent man. Most of your exposes are like drinking from the proverbial, but I read through all of this one of course, as it’s in my back yard, plus dozens of my friends are Liberty grads, plus one of my closest friends was childhood/school/college buddies with Junior, as his dad was one of the first professors at the college. Jerry Falwell, in full Jerry Laymon Falwell, Sr., (born August 11, 1933, Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S.—died May 15, 2007, Lynchburg), American religious leader, televangelist, and founder of the Moral Majority, a political organization for the promotion of conservative social values.. “I will let Trey Falwell respond separately on his own behalf if he has any comment regarding your question.” Trey Falwell did not respond to requests for comment. “Big Jerry dies, and all of a sudden, [if] you’re walking down the hall and you didn’t greet her right, you’re fired.” As if to underline this point, one longtime university employee shared a 2012 email in which Becki contacted four school executives at 7:06 p.m. to complain that a low-level university employee had posted a Facebook status on her personal account criticizing a lack of adequate parking on campus. In January, the Wall Street Journal reported that in the run-up to Trump’s presidential campaign, Cohen hired John Gauger, a Liberty University employee who runs a private consulting firm, to manipulate online polls in Trump’s favor. “Why do that if you’re not involved with it?”. I also think his son Trey and his probable lover Granda are the ones who forced this on him. At the outset, some in Falwell’s inner circle were not so confident in the arrangement with Moon. Everybody walks around in fear,” said a current university employee who agreed to speak for this article only after purchasing a burner phone, fearing that Falwell was monitoring their communications. In 2013, Robert Moon, a friend of Falwell’s with deep family ties to the Falwells, founded Construction Management Associates Inc., a construction company devoted to work on and around campus. It gets even creepier when you think about this and connect some dots. That’s where “American exceptionalism” with a very Christian inflection comes about, and part of that was not only that Communists were godless, but that they were Communists. “Liberty University was not simply a lender, but was a minority investor in Prototype Tourism, LLC,” he wrote. “During a vacation over eight years ago, Becki and I met an ambitious young man who was working at our hotel and was saving up his money to go to school. One of them caught my eye: a closeup of a redhead with entirely too much eyeshadow, sporting a wide choker around her neck. Jerry Falwell Jr. (born Jerry Lamon Falwell Jr.) is an American lawyer and the president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. And we do it all the time,” Falwell said. Starting with his 2007 appointment upon his father's death, Falwell served as the president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia until resigning amidst controversy in August 2020. A stone’s throw from the shopping center is a LaQuinta Inn whose ownership also raises questions about whether Falwell is directing business to family and friends. In a July 2012 email obtained for this article, Jerry Falwell Jr. tells several high-ranking Liberty University officials that his son, Trey, is starting a new company to manage a property owned by the school. Just days after the 2008 election of Barack Obama, top university officials were already considering ways to ensure that Liberty students voted in 2010 local elections in Lynchburg. Liberty University has transformed under Jerry Falwell Jr.’s leadership. At Liberty, Gauger reports to Trey, and Trey answers only to his dad. Falwell Sr was a psychopathic political manipulator who gatekept the ability of Christians to participate in politics. “Fear is probably his most powerful weapon,” a former senior university official said. In the 1980s, few figures loomed larger – or exerted greater influence – on the national stage than televangelist Jerry Falwell. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. htt ps://www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/news/2011/11/02/10595/the-vatican-occupy-wall-street-and-jerry-falwells-legacy/. Jerry Lamon Falwell Sr. was an American Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist. “Over the last couple of weeks we have had a lot of meetings and conversations on cost and cost overruns. “Bragging about business success and washing his hands of any responsibility for spiritual life at the university—that was frankly a pretty Trumpian line of commentary,” said one former university official with longstanding ties to both Liberty and the Falwell family. htt ps://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/25/jerry-falwell-miami-hostel-liberty-university-trey-falwell-215528. According to a former high-ranking university official who participated in some of these discussions, Falwell often takes “aggressive efforts … to register students in an effort to gain political influence.”, Similarly, in a 2014 email exchange, Falwell complained that Liberty’s commencement date meant that most students would be gone for the summer by the time voting began for Lynchburg’s local elections. “Because Donald Trump is conservative, there is a benefit for a conservative Christian school to be associated with him, so long as the association does not cross the legal line set by the federal government.”. Andy grimaced at the stench of the room. You knew you were working for a higher calling. Liberty officials also pointed to a tweet sent out by the university’s Twitter account on January 23, 2014, linking to one of the polls that the Wall Street Journal reported Gauger had rigged. On Jan. 23, 2014, Liberty University's official Twitter account asked its followers to vote for Donald Trump in an online poll hosted by CNBC. “He just kind of pushed him aside.” For one, Jerry used Liberty’s abundant resources to bring his father’s diffuse properties under his control. Larry Flynt, the publisher of distinguished adult magazine Hustler, has died at the age of 78. I already knew he took flak for being a segregationist holdout. Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., who is currently on an “indefinite leave of absence” from the Christian college after a series of public embarrassing acts, revealed Sunday that he had been depressed after his wife, Rebecca, had an affair with a young man who then blackmailed his family. The full board of directors will meet Tuesday. And that love bled from the campus,” a former longtime university official said. SS: I want to talk about your new book, The Right Hand of God . Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer, Greg Dowell, said Liberty works very hard to make every student, faculty, staff and for that matter, even visitors to the campus, that do not necessarily agree with the university’s mission or doctrinal statement, feel welcome. But for those at Liberty who know both Falwell Jr. and his late father, there’s no comparing the men. Within months, Macel had broken off her engagement to the roommate and agreed to marry Falwell instead. And Falwell intentionally and publicly posts a picture like this on public social media? Other loans were precursors to massive contracts. He carried M-80 firecrackers in his pockets, had an extra-loud horn installed on his SUV, and learned to hotwire his associates’ cars, drive them several blocks away, and leave them. He took it as a personal offense that Junior accused him of photoshopping evidence and graciously made these public to prove his innocence. | AP/Norm Shafer. Pictured are Trey Falwell, Jerry Falwell Jr., Becki Falwell, & Wesley Falwell. But they go on to talk about money changing hands which is a much more specific accusation than being a rayyypist. “It’s a dictatorship,” one current high-level employee of the school said. There’d been thefts, and management took pains to remind us that they weren’t responsible for what happened to our stuff. One source pointed to a tweet Jerry Falwell Jr. sent out in June 2019 criticizing David Platt, an evangelical Virginia pastor who apologized for welcoming Trump to his church. A bigger question remained: Who would step into Falwell Sr.’s unique role as a national figurehead at the crossroads of evangelical Christianity and conservative politics—a man who counted presidents and senators as friends, a public figure whose outspoken statements riled critics and endeared him to conservatives, and whose endorsement carried real weight with a certain segment of voters? htt ps://www.cbsnews.com/news/jerry-falwell-liberty-university-not-resigning-scandal/, By Caroline Linton, Updated 25 August 2020. Trump just went along with the arrangement. Ever since Falwell endorsed Trump ahead of the 2016 Iowa caucuses, political pundits have speculated that Trump was simply using Falwell to achieve his own political ends. The school uses nondisclosure agreements to prohibit many university employees or board members from openly discussing what they’ve seen Falwell do. Under Falwell’s stewardship, the Moral Majority political organization counterpunched the previous decade’s progressive strides, mobilizing various evangelical and rightwing Christian groups into a potent, unified conservative political force. | AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, AP PHOTO/The News & Advance, Jill Nance. This got to the press, and what comes of it is that Kennedy goes to Lynchburg and speaks at Liberty College. Among the previously unreported revelations are Falwell’s decision to hire his son Trey’s company to manage a shopping center owned by the university, Falwell’s advocacy for loans given by the university to his friends, and Falwell’s awarding university contracts to businesses owned by his friends. But Gauger is more than just a university employee: Since 2009, Gauger has also run RedFinch LLC, an online business he founded that specializes in search-engine marketing and does lucrative contract work for Liberty. “Many schools try to cancel classes or hold no classes on Election Day to encourage students to vote or be poll workers or engage in election protection activities. “Since Ben Crosswhite would not be receiving full use of the entire property” given the university’s continued use of the facility, Liberty decided “Crosswhite never received full value of the whole property and thus should not pay full price.”, “Unless you are approaching this with some sort of pre-determined outcome, the transaction is very easy to understand,” Liberty COO Smith wrote in an email responding to questions for this article. Take a dive, humiliate Trump’s Christian supporters and in return, he’ll be allowed to feed off the family empire. Eventually, in 2015, Falwell had a university executive draft a proposal for Liberty to sell the property to Crosswhite at a discount, paying him up front for Liberty’s use of the facility for the next seven years. But someone’s gotta tell the freakin’ truth.”, “We’re talking about the difference between right and wrong,” a current high-ranking university official said. He did not answer for his son. If you teach or work at Liberty, you must get approval from Falwell’s office before you speak to the media. As controversy swirled around Falwell’s business dealings involving a young pool attendant in Florida, photos emerged of the Liberty president and members of his family partying at a Miami Beach nightclub in 2014; Falwell dismissed the allegations, which don’t line up with the school’s standards for students barring co-ed dancing and drinking, saying the images were photo-shopped (though the photographer published more the next day). According to emails and loan documents obtained for this article, in 2014, the university gave loans of at least $200,000 to Prototype Tourism LLC, a “destination marketing” company founded by Liberty graduate Josh Oppenheimer, whom Jerry Falwell Jr. described to me as “a friendly supporter.” According to emails I’ve reviewed, several high-ranking Liberty officials knew about the loan, including Vice President Trey Falwell.