Why Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Social Media ‘Yacht’ Posts Were Problematic for Liberty University

(RNS) — It may not be unusual for the head of one of the country’s largest evangelical universities to follow students or student groups on social media.

Or to follow or share content by conservative political pundits. Especially if the school’s leader has been as outspoken about politics as Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. has been.

But tweeting an image of a face mask featuring a politician in blackface proved problematic for Falwell. 

And an Instagram photo of Falwell with his arm around a woman who is not his wife — their pants unzipped and midriffs bared — led to Falwell taking an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as president and chancellor of Liberty.

For leaders of religious institutions, social media can be another way to share their public messages and a peek into their private lives. But it can also backfire. 

“There’s a certain kind of integrity that the president of an evangelical university has to have, and he’s crossed that line of integrity multiple times,” Messiah College history professor John Fea said of Falwell.

Now, some of the images Falwell has “liked” on Instagram are raising eyebrows.

Religion News Service has verified that Falwell has liked a handful of images posted on the social media platform that show young women in swimsuits in the past month.

One is a photo of model Stefanie Gurzanski, who has…