Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), a minister with ties to Liberty University, on Thursday called for the school’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., to resign.
“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,” Walker tweeted.
“None of us are perfect, but students, faculty, alumni and @LUPraise deserve better,” he wrote.
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.
— Rep. Mark Walker (@RepMarkWalker) August 6, 2020
Falwell made headlines this week after he posted a picture on Instagram with his arm around a woman on a yacht, both with their pants apparently unzipped.
Falwell is holding a glass containing a dark-colored liquid while the caption 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 caption added.
The picture was condemned by liberals and conservatives alike, as the evangelical university that Falwell leads enforces a strict code of conduct for its students.
After backlash, the post was deleted.
Falwell tried to explain the post in an unusual interview this morning, claiming the woman was his wife’s assistant and that he’s ‘gonna try to be a good boy from here on out’.
‘You know it was weird, because she was, she’s pregnant, she couldn’t get her pants up, and I was, trying to like — my, I had on a pair of jeans I haven’t worn in a long time so I couldn’t get mine zipped either,’ the influential evangelical leader said.
And so I just put my belly — I just put my belly out like hers,’ he added, calling his wife’s assistant ‘a sweetheart.’
The woman tagged in the original post was Kathleen Stone whose Facebook page lists Liberty University as her place of work.
This is not the first time Falwell has been caught up with controversy over allegedly inappropriate pictures.
Politico reported in 2019 that they had found pictures of the Christian leader visiting a nightclub in Miami in 2014.
Falwell claimed the images were photo-shopped but the publication doubled down on their claim, providing additional images allegedly of him from a Miami nightlife site in response.
Liberty University was in June accused of ‘racial insensitivity displayed by leadership’ by several students athletes who decided to transfer from the school, according to Relevant.
It came after Falwell apologized over a tweet that used blackface and KKK imagery to make fun of Virginia’s Democratic governor, Ralph Northam.
Falwell later apologized after several Black football players and faculty at the school condemned the tweet.
Even after the apology, players Tayvion Land and Kei’Trel Clark both announced their intention to transfer to other schools.
In April, an anonymous student filed a class-action lawsuit against the university over its response to the coronavirus pandemic.