SEPTEMBER 18, 2020
Just over a month ago — only a month! — Jerry Falwell, Jr. made nationwide headlines when he posted a bizarre picture of himself on a yacht, arm around a woman who wasn’t his wife, fly unzipped, belly out, and holding a drink. Then he quickly deleted it.
Of all the weirdness in that photo, maybe the strangest was his caption saying he was just holding “black water.” Not alcohol, not at all… Nor did Falwell admit to drinking when photos turned up of him at a nightclub in Miami.
There’s a reason he wouldn’t want to admit that if it were true: Drinking is prohibited at Liberty U., on or off campus. While Falwell is an adult, chronologically and legally anyway, it would’ve been incredibly hypocritical to be seen drinking alcohol. That’s before the Pool Boy sex scandal blew the whole hypocrisy thing out of the water.
Well. Funny thing about that hypocrisy…
According to Roque Planas of HuffPost, Becki Falwell made a 911 call on the evening of August 30 saying that her husband was apparently intoxicated and injured.
(In case you’re wondering about the timeline here, August 30 would be about a week after the Pool Boy scandal broke and he resigned from Liberty University and a couple of days after the revelation that Becki had performed oral sex on a Liberty student.)
On the phone call, which took place around 2:30 a.m. on the morning of August 31, Becki Falwell said she had been at church that night when she got a call from her husband because he had fallen down the stairs and was bloody.
… Finding the doors locked when she got home, she used a chair to break through the back door.
The dispatcher asked whether her husband had been drinking alcohol; Becki Falwell said “yes.” When asked if he had been drinking “heavily,” she said, “I’m not going to answer that question.”
…
“The more I tell you the name, the more you’re going to understand why we’re not talking to you right now,” Becki Falwell said. Dispatch logs, obtained by HuffPost via a public records request, state that “He won’t let her take him to the hospital as he is stubborn. Caller was not forthcoming.”
When medical responders got to the house, records show there were multiple cuts on Falwell’s face and “empty alcohol containers” around him. Falwell spoke with slurred speech.
If this were somebody else, this would be a much sadder story. A story of someone who may need help. A story of someone who’s struggling. Instead, because it’s Falwell, it’s a story of hypocrisy and cover-up. It also adds one more major piece of evidence to the rumor that Falwell has a drinking problem:
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that “Former school administrators said staff and donors complained that he showed up to campus appearing drunk or smelling of alcohol.” Jerry Falwell Jr. told the Journal he did not come to campus drunk, though noted alcohol was not banned for faculty.
I would normally say I hope he gets the help he needs. But you can’t get help unless you admit there’s a problem, and Falwell has always been stubborn about admitting any personal failures. He has a long record of saying one thing and doing another, then lashing out at anyone who documents the hypocrisy. If Liberty U. students ever acted like their former school president, they would be expelled in a heartbeat.
It’s another reminder that, for conservatives like Falwell, Christianity has nothing to do with being a better person. It’s all about power, pure and simple. Becki Falwell clearly didn’t give a damn about it because she played along for years. How many other people who worked with this family were aware of their issues but remained quiet about it?
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