Jerry has sued Liberty University for defamation and breach of contract because university officials allegedly damaged his reputation, forcing him to resign. Wow, that’s like a skunk accusing a rabbit of having bad breath. Some of the accusations against him may never be authenticated, but there is substantial evidence of their wrongdoing. The suit is a ploy to refurbish his tarnished image, but the rust and blemish are irrevocable.

In other words, his self-inflicted wound was terminal.

In his complaint filed in the Virginia Circuit Court in Lynchburg, Falwell also claims that university officials accepted what Falwell alleges are false claims about his involvement in an extramarital affair between his wife and a former business partner without investigating the matter.

According to the Associated Press, “This action seeks redress for the damage Liberty has caused to the reputation of Mr. Falwell and his family.” Of course, that is lawyer-speak; surely, Jerry has more brainpower than that. Even a flickering one candlepower brain understands that Jerry and his wife are the culprits even if acknowledging that the university officials didn’t do everything right.

I believe the Board of Trustees, which includes five friends of mine of 40 years, was very slow on taking charge and holding Jerry’s feet to the fire. That includes the new president of the school Dr. Jerry Prevo, one of the most gracious and kind men I know.

By taking the initiative, Jerry thinks it will convince the non-thinkers to say, “Well, maybe Jerry and Becki are not fornicators, voyeurs, liars, and hypocrites after all.” After all, would guilty people drag others into court, thereby bringing attention to themselves again, again, and again? Sure, they would. All you need is some money, unprincipled lawyers, and much chutzpa. Evidently, Jerry and Becki have what’s needed.

The Associated Press reported that the lawsuit alleges, “Liberty’s actions are antithetical to the teachings of Christ.” Jerry doesn’t seem to admit that his kettle is black, very black. Yet, the kettle keeps calling the pot black. The God-haters inside and outside Christianity look for opportunities to throw stones at any professing Christian, and Jerry’s maneuverings have given everyone reasons to throw stones at him, and by extension, at all Christian entities.

Forget what accusations against Jerry that may never be proved; consider what we know.

We know Jerry used the university plane for personal use. That is illegal. He was fiduciary of a nonprofit entity, not the Sultan of Morocco. He could afford a first-class ticket to Miami, but he would have to rub shoulders with the hoi polloi; therefore, he took advantage of his position.

We know that numerous Falwell family members are on the university payroll, and that suggests either nepotism or the family has many highly talented people. No doubt, some are qualified and would be hired if their last names were Smith or Jones.

Jerry, with his limited knowledge and no educational experience, would not have been president of Liberty if his name were Jerry Jones.

We know Jerry and various family members partied, danced, and drank at a Florida nightclub. Falwell first denied being there and then admitted he had. His daddy would have been aghast, angered, and ashamed.

We know that Jerry helped his son Trey, a Liberty vice-president, finance a Miami hostel known for being “gay-friendly.” I hope no one in Heaven has told Jerry Sr. that fact.

We know that Becki had a yearlong affair with a young pool worker in Miami after her successful seduction of him. Both the Falwells admitted that allegation; however, Jerry still denies he watched them from time to time. He admitted he might be a fornicator and drunk and a cuckold, but not a voyeur.

According to Politico, Becki seduced and provided oral sex on a student who was in the band with her son, Trey, during an all-night stay at Falwell’s home. The media reported a close friend of the Falwell’s and a neighbor confirmed that Becki had told her about her affair with the student.

It seems Becki is not only a Jezebel with major character deficiencies; she is also stupid.

We’ve seen, as has the world, a photo of Jerry on a boat with a young woman with both their pants partly unzipped and him holding a glass of “black water,” according to Jerry. Falwell captioned the post, “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.” He was incredibly stupid or immature to permit such a photo. Then to send it to others is beyond the pale.

We now know that it was probably booze since Becki called 911 after he fell at home in a drunken stupor.

The New York Post reported that Jerry’s daughter-in-law and a female Liberty student were using the family’s guesthouse for cooking a meal. Falwell said that the friend pulled up her own skirt, as a joke, while she was cooking. The daughter-in-law was video recording the girl and sent screenshots around, according to Falwell. “She had on, I don’t know how to say this, granny panties,” he said, saying the image “wasn’t sexual.” Well, I may be a little dense or naïve, but when a woman lifts her dress to reveal her underwear, that is sexual. Falwell said he sent the screenshot to several people because he thought it was funny!

I knew Jerry Sr. since the 1960s, and he was known for his jokes, often on himself and sometimes very involved, but the son didn’t get his father’s sense of comedy or character or conscience.

On November 1, Politico published another scandal about Jerry and Becki playing a secret game called “Would you rather.” According to a former student, the Falwells walked through the university campus and eyeballed different students discussing what it would be like to have sex with them.

It is incredible the Falwells could be so carnal-minded, but then to tell others of their not so secret “game” indicates dwindling and flickering intellectual candlepower and spiritual blindness.

These people are worldly, wild, and weird people. Evangelicals and Fundamentalists are discussing Jerry and Becki’s failures (which all of us have in varying degrees), but I have doubts as to their personal salvation. I almost never make that judgment, and all Christians fail (sin) from time to time, but we don’t live in a vile lifestyle for months and years without repentance or without even awareness.

There is a big difference between committing adultery and repenting and living in adultery for years without repenting.

Jerry sued the university because they hurt his reputation, but it appears to anyone, blind in one eye and cataract-laden in the other, that the Falwells did it to themselves.

It appears that Jerry has added to his sins of carelessness, carnality, drunkenness, nepotism, arrogance, and greed, the sin of taking other Christians to court. Most non-Christians won’t be aware of this, but Christians are not to take other Christians to court but settle all disputes within the church walls. Christians have honest disagreements and misunderstandings that require a just settlement since we are not perfect, just born again. Paul said that Christians will judge angels, so we should be able to solve our human problems.

Falwell charged the university officials had defamed him multiple times, such as in an announcement that there had been a “lack of spiritual leadership” at the school. No sane, honest person could say Falwell had given any spiritual leadership to the school. In that, he was a total failure. While enforcing the rules on students, faculty, and workers, he flaunted the most basic Christian principles.

Liberty did not defame Falwell, and he is trying to get in court what the court of public opinion can not give him. If I ever saw a hard sell, that is one. But anything can happen in court.

However, Jerry will appear before another Court where truth, fairness, justice always reign, and the sentence is always just. I don’t know what will happen with Jerry’s suit, but I know in Heaven, his name, influence, money, and friends will have no standing.

His claim of defamation is frivolous, faulty, fanciful, and false. The public’s assessment of him as a hypocrite is sadly true, and hypocrites must exercise remorse, repentance, and return to their first love.

My relationship with Jerry Sr. revealed a man of character, but the carnality, crassness, and compromises of his eldest son reflect badly on his legacy.

So sad. Such a tragedy.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 18 books, the most recent being Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! The eBook is available here with the printed edition (and other titles) at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D.; and visit his blog. Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles, and click here to support his work with a donation.)

Jerry Falwell, Jr. was Liberty University president and did a very commendable job as an educator even though he was not trained in education. He generated a $1.60 billion endowment fund, erected many impressive buildings to where Liberty has the sixth-best campus in America, hugely increased student enrollment, established a School of Medicine and School of Law, and developed a world-class athletic program. Additionally, Liberty is the number one online college in America.

Evidently, Jerry did some impressive things as president.

Sadly, as the world knows, Jerry admitted his wife Becki had a sexual affair that reportedly lasted over six years. The additional allegation from the male adulterer is that Jerry also watched the affair between him and his wife. Jerry has not confirmed that perversion known as voyeurism.

After much media confusion, Liberty’s Board of Trustees accepted his resignation that included a $10.5 million retirement package. His contract signed in July of 2019, “entitles him to $10.5 million over two years, including $8 million in retirement and $2.5 million for the equivalent of two years’ salary.”

My sources at Liberty and Thomas Road Baptist Church tell me there is “outrage” over the contract. One email revealed, “The [Trustee] Board has taken a beating over the $10 million.” I have some longtime friends on Liberty’s board and a few casual acquaintances, and I don’t mean to embarrass them, but did they confront Jerry about the sordid lifestyle of their president and his wife?

If not, why not?

This is not new. Jerry has been acting like an-out-of-control high school freshman for a long time. Liberty University has been receiving bad press in recent months with outrageous charges against Jerry. If some of the more egregious accusations of the past 18 months are true, then the compromises of the son will tarnish the impressive contributions of his father.

With the news of recent days, we know that the charges of the past are minimized by the factual charges of the present.

Being a longtime friend of Jerry Sr. and Liberty Dean Dr. Harold Wilmington plus knowing many Liberty graduates, I decided to get the facts of Jerry’s past activities from the source, so I emailed Scott Lamb, Liberty’s Senior Vice President of Communications and Public Engagement on October 19 and again on November 12. Scott wrote back on November 12, saying, “we’re just not under a mandate to answer any, and every question posed to us.”

Of course not, however, friends and supporters of Liberty have a right to hear some answers regarding charges as reported in the major media.

I am a longtime friend of Jerry Sr. and Liberty, and I bought a Liberty annuity, so I think I have a right to some answers. I emailed Jerry on November 14 but did not hear from him. But then he probably doesn’t know me. At least, I don’t remember meeting him.

Jerry’s pastor, University Trustees, family, and friends failed him in not confronting him with the many accusations that would get any Liberty student expelled.

Jerry tweeted about a fellow Baptist, “Sorry to be crude, but pastors like @plattdavid need to grow a pair. Just saying,” That is not acceptable speech that honors Christ. Christians are commanded in Col. 3:17 “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus…”

That includes Jerry, Donald Trump, me, and all other professing Christians.

A high-ranking Liberty official said, “At Liberty, Falwell is very, very vocal about his sex life.” A great sex life is commendable, even Christian (!), between a naturally born man and a naturally born woman married to each other. However, it does not follow that one talks about it with anyone except in a counseling setting. Jerry’s sex talk seems to be common knowledge around Liberty Mountain.

If so, Jerry is dumb as a post and needs to repent.

It was charged that there are “racy” or embarrassing photos of Jerry, his wife, or both of them. Jerry said. “There are no compromising or embarrassing photos of me.” Good, but what about photos of Becki in a French maid costume? He said, “I never had any picture of Becki Falwell dressed in a French maid uniform,” but are there any compromising photos of her?

It is common for those who attend a couples’ conference to hear the teacher/preacher/ family counselor suggest a way to spice up a marriage is for the wife to do some strange things such as her greeting hubby in the evening wrapped in Saran wrap, or dressed as a French maid! While that may be quirky, such photos should never be taken or shown to friends. The Liberty Trustees should have asked if he (or anyone) took questionable pictures and permitted them to be seen accidentally or purposefully.

If so, Jerry is dumber than a post, and the Trustees may be culpable for inaction.

The Trustees should have asked if Jerry supported his son Trey’s purchase of a “gay-friendly” hostel in Miami Beach in 2013. Evidently, he did if he lent him the money or guaranteed the loan. With Jerry’s lack of wisdom and a pathetic sense of right and wrong, how could the Trustees approve such a generous retirement contract without a morality clause? Or was there a clause that does not legally apply to the situation?

Even the Hollywood crowd demands a protective clause in their contracts.

Jerry’s support of a “gay-friendly” business cannot be justified with Scripture since, I Timothy 5:22 commands, “neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.” If he helped purchase the place, then he is a participant in every drunken party, adulterous affair, and homosexual hook-up.

And he needs to repent.

A well-placed Liberty source told me that Jerry Sr. would never have anything to do with homosexuality or abortion. Since I knew Jerry Sr. almost 60 years, I agree. Jerry Sr. would have run from the pro-homosexual hostel deal as if his hair were on fire.

His son did not run away; he financed it.

Jerry is said by Liberty people to boast about the size of his genitals! Is he so insecure that such boasting inflates his ego, providing a false sense of power and influence? There is little doubt that the boasting was coarse, crude, and crass if reports are accurate.

Jerry was quoted in an unrelated article in the Washington Post saying, “I have been accused of having balls the size of cannonballs.” That may be acceptable talk with athletes in a locker room or even the boardroom with a bunch of lawyers, but it is always juvenile, wrong, and never in good taste. He would not have said that in the presence of his mother or father.

Did the Trustees look at this quote and try to help him?

Obviously, Jerry has no convictions about visiting nightclubs since he admitted visiting the Wall nightclub in Miami “to listen to music for about 30 minutes.” A photo was published, but Jerry denied that the photo of him and Trey was genuine. However, there is no question about the picture of Trey and his wife holding drinks at the club.

Did the Trustees confront him about his night at the nightclub?

Brandon Ambrosino accused Jerry of trying to scrub the nightclub pictures from the internet; then Jerry strangely emailed him asking, “Why would I want a picture like that taken down if I had seen it?” That suggests very clearly that being in a nightclub is permissible, and nothing a Christian leader needs to defend. Are Liberty students permitted to frequent such clubs?

The issue is not if Jerry tried to get photos scrubbed, but did they exist?

Politico reported there are “photos from that evening in which Jerry Falwell Jr. and other members of the Falwell family can be seen—including Jerry’s wife, Becki, sons Trey and Wesley, and Trey’s wife, Sarah. In the images, the Falwells can be seen in the middle of the club’s dance floor, while lasers and other light effects reflect around them. In at least two photos, Falwell’s family members can be seen holding alcohol.”

The photos are rather damaging. Does Jerry now or did he in the past drink alcoholic beverages as has been reported?

If so, he needs to repent. If the Trustees refused to deal with that, then they need to repent. Moreover, it is shocking that a golden parachute would be given to him without an escape clause.

It would appear from what we know that Jerry Falwell, Jr. has major problems—lack of wisdom and commitment—and for sure did not get any of his father’s character, convictions, or common sense.

The world now knows about the Falwell failures, but to be honest, fair, and balanced, there were other failures if the Board of Trustees refused to deal with very public and damaging accusations. An explanation is due to the school why a generous retirement contract was signed, with the board members knowing of Jerry’s failures.

It will not surprise me if Donald Trump, in a seizure of compassion and obligation (for Falwell’s past support), puts Jerry in a top spot in his new or even present administration. I hope not.

But even more destructive, why did Jerry’s local church (wherever it is) not put him under church discipline. But few churches do that anymore. You know, “it will hurt the ministry.”

Oh, yes, tell me about it.

It appears that to Jerry, Christianity is a flag to fight under but not a faith to follow.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 18 books, the most recent being Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! eBook is available here with the printed edition (and other titles) at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D.; and visit his blog. Send request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles, and click here to support his work with a donation.)