“We almost had a monarchy,” said one of many students who were relieved that Mr. Falwell’s resignation was accepted.
Jerry Falwell Jr. is out as president and chancellor of Liberty University, the influential evangelical institution founded by his father in 1971. The departure was the culmination of a chaotic 48 hours that began Sunday night, when Mr. Falwell issued a statement claiming that his wife, Becki, had a sexual relationship with a man who later tried to extort the couple in exchange for silence. The statement appeared to anticipate an interview with Reuters that appeared the next day, in which the man, Giancarlo Granda, claimed he met Ms. Falwell regularly for sexual liaisons, with Mr. Falwell looking on. Mr. Granda denied the claim of extortion. The sordid details resulted in swift action from the Christian university’s conservative board of trustees, handpicked for their loyalty to Mr. Falwell and his father, Jerry Falwell Sr., though Mr. Falwell’s departure was as rocky as his recent tenure at the school. On Monday afternoon, he told the board and reporters that he was resigning but then abruptly reversed course, before eventually sending a resignation letter late in the evening. The board’s executive committee met on Tuesday morning and voted to accept Mr. Falwell’s resignation immediately. The full board then convened an emergency conference call and unanimously confirmed Mr. Falwell’s departure. He will receive severance as dictated by his employment agreement, according to the board’s statement, which did not specify the amount. He also resigned from his seat on the board. Mr. Falwell suggested he was happy to move on. “The quote that keeps going through my mind this morning is Martin Luther King Jr: ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I’m free at last,’” he told a Lynchburg newspaper reporter on Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Falwell did not respond to requests for comment from The New York Times.
