Tribulation: An Apocalypse of Liberty University’s Own Making

Liberty University campus. Photo by PCHS-NJROTC, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

In the study of Christian theology, it’s called eschatology — the study of the last things, or the end of times. The apocalypse, some folks call it, which while applied to the end of the world broadly in the common vernacular comes from a very literal Greek translation meaning “to uncover.” An apocalypse is a revealing, imparting of a great otherwise mysterious knowledge, a glimpse of the future. Thus, the Christian apocalypse is written in the aptly titled Book of Revelation among other places. “Write” John the Revelator was instructed, “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter”. The end of things, accompanied by a revealing, and a judgement, and a making of all things right for the better world to come.

But you didn’t need prophesy or divine revelation to know that a reckoning has been coming for Liberty University, rolling and building the way a storm rolls down the James River valley and across the face of Candlers Mountain to drench the Lynchburg, Virginia campus. You could see this storm coming a long ways off. Nor do you need to have had prophecy or revelation to know where things were headed for America’s self-styled “largest private non-profit university in the United States”.

We can, however, sketch out a bit of an eschatology to have a framework of what is occurring at Liberty University, so we understand what is, and has been, and is to come. The ProPublica investigation and allegations of multiple women claiming they were not only sexually assaulted, not only denied help from Liberty University, but were actively silenced and punished is the present, pressing, viral issue. The last few years of the tenure of former president Jerry Falwell, Jr. that led to scandal, disgrace, his ousting, and lawsuits were the preamble to the coming tribulation of Liberty University. And as is often the case with institutional scandals, now comes the feeling that the dam might break and all the various sins and misdeeds of Liberty University and those powers that be that run and profit from it might be laid bare in the near future.

The horror of the abuse allegations and coverup didn’t happen in a vacuum, they happened in a purposefully created eco-system of private Christian education up front and a river of government money out back. Liberty University is not only one of the most profitable universities in the country, but also among the most profitable non-profits in all the land. The $150 million in assets Liberty University had when Jerry Falwell, Jr. took over the role of his father in 2007 had surpassed $2.5 billion by the time his unzipped fly and various other lies, schemes, and scandals finally forced the board to move against him. The swelling in funds came from a dual track strategy. First, raking in tuition — especially subsidized tuition from online students like VA benefits, grants, and student loans — while keeping overhead and outlays on education at a fraction of what other schools spent. Second, spending that revenue on real estate deals and infrastructure that kept the nearly $800 million a year in government guaranteed money in a nice, tidy, tax-free loop.

Whereas his father had mastered the art of communicating and organizing Christians for political and religious ends, the younger Falwell mastered monetizing their children and themselves into one of the greatest moneymaking apparatuses America has ever seen. By his own admission, the dual non-profit shields of the accredited university and the cross out front meant protection from the regulatory reforms for-profit online schools adjusted to in the Obama-era.

But there was more than just the real estate deals and business deals of Jerry Falwell, Jr. All that money coming in, and what we now know about Falwell himself, meant power structures had to be maintained. The ProPublica accusations read like far too many stories of assault victims: cover it up, keep it quiet, handle it for the good of the University, are you sure it wasn’t your fault in the first place? Such power structures don’t just benefit those they are installed to protect, as they did for Jerry Falwell and family for years. Those same power structures become irresistible for other abusers, who can use the eco-system of cover and conceal to inflict their own abuses on victims. Liberty University having an onslaught of sexual assault allegations didn’t happen in a vacuum either; they happened in a sequence of the school’s own design. Designed to protect Falwell and others, to protect the unfettered money flood that buoyed all that growth for Liberty University, to keep the facade clean and inviting regardless of the wickedness beneath.

Power structures that had to be adjusted to meet a changing political landscape. While many were shocked at the swiftness of Falwell, Jr.’s endorsement of Donald Trump, we since learned it made perfect sense. It was brokered in advance, like any other deal when two guys with real estate backgrounds get together, and was a marriage of convenience. Trump needed Evangelicals. Falwell needed some political horsepower. After decades of Liberty having state-level favor in Virginia, that state going Democratic blue meant a loss of influence for the Falwell’s profitable non-profit. Trump provided a powerful federal ally after 8 years of fearing the Obama administration moves, plus tapped into the conservative, politically active base Falwell, Sr. had cultivated so many years before. It was in many ways the natural evolution, the inevitable end game; a generation of preparing the way seemed to have arrived for a new revelation.

Jerry Falwell Library in the rain on the campus of Liberty University. Photo by PCHS-NJROTC, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

But Falwell found, like all others do, that the backside of Mount Hubris isn’t as friendly as the gentle slopes of Candlers Mountain. And then Trump lost in 2020, removing the political cover from the highest office of the land. And now that river of federal money that built the power structures that made a revenue empire but enabled an abusive structure for those within the machine looms as a conduit for outside investigations to potentially ride to what is really at the heart of the self-styled training ground for “Champions for Christ”.

We didn’t need prophecy to foretell this. We could see it in the actions of Falwell, and his enablers at Liberty University, as they tried to keep a lid on the troubles that were becoming evident. Many innocent students and affiliated folks from the 50 years of Liberty University are in line to share in a judgement not of their own making due to those actions. We don’t know the future, but whether or not this is the beginning of the end times for Liberty University might be out of the faithful’s hands. Sinners in the hands of an angry God can at least repent and seek mercy. The mess Falwell and other’s left, which ProPublica is now putting names and faces to the victims of, is very likely to get worse before it gets better.

An apocalypse is upon Liberty University. Whether it reveals and drives the exposed to repentance, or becomes the destructive end of the world for America’s largest Christian university in fiery — or at least legal and/or financial — judgement, the catalyst to this present tribulation was of Liberty University’s own making, design, and choice.

And there is no rapture coming. Only Judgment. And that right quick, if there is any justice under heaven. We must watch, bearing witness, and write the things which we have seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter what is revealed. That much, we can do. Must do. Lest we be judged ourselves for being silent.