You have heard by now that Jerry Falwell Jr. has resigned as the President of Liberty University. I don’t need to recount for you all the sordid details that led to his forced resignation.
I am a graduate of Liberty University. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Pastoral Leadership and Biblical Exposition in 2010. The 3 1/2 years I spent at Liberty were some of the best years of my life. My professors were top-notch. It was at Liberty that I learned how to study the Bible and preach it to others. My love for the local church grew during my time at Liberty. I developed friendships that I still cherish. I had the privilege of serving as a Spiritual Life Director (SLD) and Resident Assistant (RA). My experience at Liberty was everything I could have hoped it would be.
However, I have distanced myself from the school since graduating in 2010. I’ve been concerned about the direction of Liberty University under Falwell Jr’s leadership for a while now. Though I live and pastor in Virginia, I’ve not attended school functions to which I’ve been invited. I’ve discouraged partnership with LU. I’ve refrained from recommending LU to prospective college students. And though I’ve received requests for donations as an alumnus, I had not made any donations to the school.
That changed today. I am hopeful that the resignation of Falwell Jr will mark the start of a new day at LU. Because of that hope, this morning I made my first donation to Liberty as an alumnus. I designated my gift for the School of Divinity. It was a small donation. It’s not even a drop in the bucket for a school with the resource of LU. But I love Liberty University. I will be praying for the trustees as they begin the process of identifying the next President of Liberty University. If you love Liberty, I encourage you to consider making a donation as well.
My son was there around the same time as you. I used to tell his younger siblings that they did not have to go to Liberty if they could provide handwritten notes from heaven excusing them. They ended up elsewhere.
Jerry, Jr nearly ruined that school with his boorish behavior.
I am not ready to make a donation. I would like to see the Trustees, who showed no backbone, no courage in dealing with Jerry, make a solid hire.
But this is, indeed, a new day.
Sorry, posted in wrong spot.
Adam,
Bingo, friend! I too loved my time at LU and agree that every prof I had was top notch. Its been horrid watching the trainwreck we all knew was coming.
As you know, you were among the last students I recommended to LU….and frankly I too discouraged youngsters from going there as a result of Juniors “leadership”.
Here’s to hoping against hope that real change is afoot.
I would pray that God’s vision for and stewardship of Liberty truly leads it to Great Commission effectiveness worldwide. I’ll note that the vision the elder Falwell had seemed greater than anyone imagined was possible and yet the school has fulfilled some of that. We can hope it now is Liberated and fully empowered to fulfill its calling fully both as an institution and an extended alumni network. Jesus is the firm foundation. Everything else, Praise God, washes away.
Has he resigned, or hasn’t he?
Adam, the picture of Jerry Jr. with his paints unzipped is not the most embarrassing picture of a Falwell to be made public. Google Jerry Falwell Sun Myung Moon picture and you can see a picture of Jerry Falwell Sr. hugging his friend Sun Myung Moon. In the 1990s when Liberty was in financial trouble, Falwell went to South Korea to beg for help from the Moon organization. As you know Moon was the leader of the Unification Church (Moonies) and claimed to be the true Messiah since Jesus had failed. In return for 3.5 million Falwell appeared at Moon rallies with Moon and helped host at least one Presidential Prayer breakfast with Moon
I know you are beating your customary drum….but Context is your friend, Ron.
Personally, I am not sure I would take that approach myself – but it is not uncommon nor wrong as long it is unrestricted and not a bribe. I remember him also saying one time that if the Mormons invited him to preach Jesus at thier HQ in Utah – he would rev up the plane and go preach Jesus. You are also forgetting to mention that at the Moonie rally you mention – Dr. Falwell preached the gospel at the rally.
Moonies intent was probably nefarious and/or agenda driven – but Sr. taking their money was not as you suggested it.
Also, in what I think is one of his more admirable qualities – He befriended lots of lost people that many Christians would not be found dead around for the purpose of sharing the gospel. Many of these testified to this at and around the time of his death. Some of them, once enemies then friends, were saved, others not, but all of them knew that Jerry loved them and shared the gospel with them.
Unless you can show that Falwell somehow acquiesced to Moonie idealogy or gave them control over the school or church, this point is not well taken at all.
Dave and Tarheel, I can not believe what I am reading. Ask yourself, if you heard Russell Dilday had accepted money from the Moonies for SWBTS, would you be so understanding and accepting. This was not money that just dropped in Falwell’s lap. He sought it out and asked for it because he was desperate to keep the school from going broke. There was quid pro quo Dave. By standing on the platform with Moon he was lending creditability to Moon’s cult and cheapening Liberty University’s witness.
Tarheel, this was not like going to Mormon HQ and preaching the gospel. Falwell went to more than one Moon sponsored event and stood beside Moon. These events always were designed to promote Moon and his cult. Falwell was not the only Southern Baptist that got drawn into this heresy.
I suppose if Moon had offered the IMB 3.5 million if they could appear at events together with our missionaries in Korea, you would have no problem. No! We cannot compromise with evil. If Moon offered 3.5 million to my Baptist university, Ouachita Baptist University, I guarantee they would not have accepted it. If the president somehow got it in, the trustees would have fired him and sent it back. If the trustees did not fire him the Baptists of Arkansas would have demanded he be fired and the trustees replaced. That is what should have happened at Liberty. I can’t imagine any other Baptist college doing what Liberty did. At Liberty there was no accountability because Liberty was the Falwell family business.
Ron, for some of us, the whole if life isn’t about re-fighting the CR and other 40 year old battles.
You insist on turning every discussion into a rehashing of your ancient grievances.
I had issues, at times, with Sr. Jerry, Jr is another matter.
Dave, I am not sure where you see what I wrote is re-fighting the CR. I didn’t mention the CR. I was writing about hypocrisy, heresy and sin.
Ron is right here. Falwell was IFB and not SBC. He was not involved in the CR.
I never could and still don’t understand the love of LU.It was/is a family business enterprise. Jerry, Jr did just what he was supposed to do in that regard. He grew the business. It was seen as Bob Jones light when I was a kid and SBC kids did not go there. IFB kids who attended segregation academies would go to LU to as a BJU alternative.
In the later years of his life, I believe that Jerry began to affiliate with the SBC, especially with the newly-formed SBC convention in Virginia.
Yes, post-CR and let me say that I am not calling you or anyone else who attended or had children attend LU an IFB. Just my perspective growing up in a town with a large formerly SBC turned IFB church that pushed BJU & then LU hard on the graduates of their segregation academy. LU certainly outgrew that aspect but family control is bad for a university, charity or church.
Today’s article is one that can take up multiple books.
Louis,
You really need a Kingdom understanding to appreciate LU. Liberty has trained large numbers of pastors, youth ministers, missionaries, evangelists, theologians and other ministry workers. Even larger numbers of Christian laymen and women have come through LU.Not to mention the families that exist because mom and dad met at LU. There are also many, many people who have come to Christ through the witness of LU students and faculty.
Also, Louis. It is extremely offensive to call Christian schools “Segregation schools.” Every Christian school I have been familiar with has enrolled minority students.
The early Christian schools started across the South were no more integrated than the churches that started them. Most, if not all, may indeed enroll minority students today but that does not change their history or the purpose behind their creation.
I am not aware of one single Christian School started for segregation purposes in our area. The school I went to had minority students it’s very first year of existence. Most Christian Schools have started as a result of secularism and the suppression of Christian thought in public schools. Race was not a factor.
“Most…” You grossly overreach with this sentence.
What year was your school established?
I can easily support the assertion the most private schools in my area (GA SC) were started in the 1970s when integration finally came to be a reality. Some were overtly Christian, some private, not promoted as Christian. The rationale that these were just reactions to culture and race not a factor is a familiar dodge.
Thankfully, many of these, perhaps most, have come to routine acceptance of minorities although economic factors weigh heavily in that.
Perhaps, I should say “most of the Christian Schools I am familiar with” which are largely in my part of the mid-South / Midwest border area.
Most of the schools I am familiar with started in the 1980’s or later (with one or two late, late 70’s exceptions). None in our area have a start in the 60’s or early 70’s. The “familiar dodge” is an inaccurate thought here as you are implying something that isn’t true of my experience.
I have seen the attacks on Christian Schools (all day Sunday Schools, sheltering kids, poor academics, etc.) and I do tire of seeing them unnecessarily opposed by people who are not required to send their kids or grandkids there. This segregation attack was a new one (to me anyway) and I negatively reacted to it as yet another attack against schools trying to perform education from a Christian perspective.
I grew up with Liberty and BJU being pushed in the IFB church I grew up in as well as a few other smaller Christian colleges and they were what I call “Segregation” schools with no minorities. In fact they pushed segregation. So I would disagree with you Scott H.
Debbie, my comments are largely about K-12 Christian schools rather than Independent Baptist colleges so we aren’t really talking about the same thing.
But to discuss what you bring up, Liberty wasn’t a segregated school, first of all (it didn’t start until 1971). As to the other schools you refer to, I cannot say one way or the other (but, yes, BJU was definitely segregationist at one time – see early 1980’s Supreme Court case).
Secondly, I grew up in a very, very conservative SBC church but grew up very familiar with the IFB movement as my church at that time promoted some IFB preachers (Jack Hyles, Curtis Hudson, etc.) and I had friends whose fathers pastored in that movement. The IFB churches I grew up around mostly hated Liberty because they viewed it as a liberal school (Liberal University being the pet name for it). It is hard for me to imagine an IFB church promoting both BJU and LU as usually BJU loving churches hated LU for being too liberal in their view (actually the IFB churches I knew were more likely to promote Tennessee Temple or Hyles-Anderson College than BJU) and an IFB church that promoted LU wouldn’t promote BJU too as BJ was viewed as too legalistic.
Jerry Falwell started Lynchburg Christian Academy in 1966 prior to starting Liberty. What was unique about LCA? It was all-white.
It quickly integrated (before the 60’s were finished). I am not aware in my experience of any other non-Catholic Christian school that is anywhere close to that old (see my response to William above for further clarification of this as I need not repeat myself here).
Certainly there were segregation academies across the south. As integration came, some parents withdrew their kids to private schools. Some Christian, some “god and country”, some secular. When Armageddon did not happen, many of these schools folded or withered away over time. The ones who survived found a reason to exist that was broader than segregation. Most admitted black students forty years ago. Segregation is a thing of the past. I am not sure why its relevant today. What difference does it make?
Totally agree with this. I am a two time, and future three time graduate of LU, and I am glad I don’t have to keep that a secret anymore.
I graduated in 2016 with a PhD in Theology & Apologetics. Proud of my time at the school but watching Jerry, Jr., decimate the School of Divinity has been heart wrenching. I am glad he is gone. Will not lie or sugarcoat it. He was a blight on the school and its legacy.
Does the fact that Egun Caner was the dean of Liberty’s Theological Seminary say anything about the theology taught at Liberty?
I think Caner and Falwell’s hiring says less about the theology taught at LU and more about the vetting and discernment in their hiring practices.
Bill: Yes. No checking of facts or caring if one was qualified. Which as we can see is a disaster both morally and economically.
Agreed, Bill and Debbie.
Liberty wanted to be able to brag about having the “former Muslim”.
It was a huge bragging point to be the first evangelical Christian Seminary with a converted Muslim as Dean.
There was little concern as to qualifications and veracity of his claims….You might call it an affirmative action hire. It was stupid.
To boot – at the time of his hire there were a couple of very popular Calvinist leaning professors and lots of students who came into the school leaning that way and many leaving that way… And Caners brash and attacking persona against that soteriological thought was also desired.