Students at the fundamentalist Christian college Liberty University are expected to protest on campus against President Jerry Falwell Jr. on Friday after the prominent evangelical was implicated in financial shenanigans and other sleazy scandals.
According to a report from Religion News Service, students at the school are expected to call for both an internal and external investigation of Falwell and his administration, based upon recent news reports.
According to RNS, a recent article in Politico exposed Falwell for "bragging about his sex life with employees, attending a nightclub and later denying it, claiming photos of him at the club were altered. He is also accused in the article of dealing university contracts to friends and family."
Elizabeth Brooks, a Liberty University sophomore who is the main organizer of the student protest said she wasn't calling for Falwell to step down, and is hoping that her demonstration, will,"bring to light the truth of these allegations of various misconduct.”
Another student at the school, Ian Parish, said there has been a shift in attitude by students towards Falwell over the flood of accusations against the school president.
“The mood is changing from ‘We wish Jerry would keep quiet’ to ‘We wish we had better representation for our school,’” Parish said. “Jerry doesn’t have our best interests at heart. He doesn’t share Liberty’s mission statement to train champions for Christ.”
RNS reports that Falwell is attempting to ignore attacks upon him by blocking Twitter accounts of students who have been critical of him -- including Brooks and Parish -- but support for the protest has gone beyond them.
"Shortly after the protest was announced Thursday morning, Brooks said that she met with student members of the Student Government Association to talk about it," RNS reports with Brooks explaining, "SGA declined to give us public support, but they were very receptive to what we were saying, asking, ‘What can we do to listen to you better, to help you get this through?’ They were definitely receptive to our mission.”
As for Falwell, he has pushed back at the students, tweeting a link to a story where he states, "If it was me, I would turn the other cheek, but this is not me."
For their part, administrators at the scandal-plagued school are also pushing back with Liberty University’s official Twitter page promoting a statement backing Falwell, while also declaring: “The truth about Liberty that the press refused to print in recent articles, is now published here: #FakeNews.”
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