Jerry Falwell Jr. Agrees To Take ‘Indefinite Leave of Absence’ From Liberty University

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. participates in a town hall meeting on the opioid crisis as part of First Lady Melania Trump’s "Be Best" initiative on March 5, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Et... Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. participates in a town hall meeting on the opioid crisis as part of First Lady Melania Trump’s "Be Best" initiative on March 5, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Jerry Falwell, Jr. has agreed to take “an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as President and Chancellor of Liberty University,” the school’s board of trustees announced Friday afternoon.

The move would be “effective immediately,” the board’s executive committee said in a statement.

Falwell, the son of the prominent evangelical and university founder Jerry Falwell, Sr., is a high-profile Trump ally. But in recent years, he’s found himself involved in a number of bizarre scandals.

The most recent controversy involves a series of “vacation shots” Falwell posted to Instagram. In one, which he later deleted, he stands with his arm around a woman and his belly bulging over unzipped jeans. He holds a glass of something dark.

“Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht,” the caption read. “I promise that’s just black water in my glass. It was a prop only.”

Falwell removed the image, but not before screenshots of it were shared widely on social media.

On Wednesday, the university president offered up an explanation in an interview with a Virginia radio station.

“She’s pregnant so she couldn’t get her pants up and I was like, trying to like — I had on a pair of jeans that I hadn’t worn in a long time so I couldn’t get mine zipped either,” he told Lynchburg’s WLNI 105.9 FM. “So I just put my belly out like hers.”

“She’s my wife’s assistant and she’s a sweetheart and I should never have put it up and embarrassed her,” he added. “I’ve apologized to everybody, and I’ve promised my kids … I’m going to try to be a good boy from here on out.”

But it was too late.

The image prompted calls for Falwell’s resignation, including from Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC), the House Republican Conference Vice Chair and a member of the university’s advisory board.

“I just think there’s a code that leaders have to live by,” Walker later told CNN. “Especially when you’re leading the largest evangelical university in the country.”

“There’s been a pattern of behavior that’s not becoming to what that school’s code of conduct is,” he added.

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