“Wut is happening,” Houston Chronicle religion writer Robert Downen quipped on Twitter this week.

Downen’s colloquial query about an, um, unexpected snapshot of Jerry Falwell Jr. quickly went viral.

Falwell is, of course, the president of Liberty University and a prominent evangelical ally of President Donald Trump.

As noted by Julie Roys, an independent Christian journalist, the “racy picture” of Falwell and a woman was seemingly taken at a party on his yacht. Falwell posted the image to his Instagram page and then quickly deleted it.

“In the picture,” Roys explained, “Falwell and a woman, described as a friend, appear with their shirts hiked up and pants unzipped with the caption: ‘Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht. I promise that’s just black water in my glass.’”

Roys added: “A video of the party also showed up on the internet, featuring Falwell and others at what appears to be a Trailer Park Boys themed party. The scenes are surprising, given that Falwell is the president of the largest Christian university in the country. One guest in the video makes a vulgar gesture toward the camera. Some are wearing tight clothes with bellies exposed. Many have cigarettes dangling from their mouths.“

At first, some questioned whether the man in the picture was actually Falwell. But it soon became clear that it was indeed him.

Later, Falwell apologized for posting the photo, Politico reported. But the same news article said he “also defended the incident as a vacation ‘costume party’ that was ‘just in good fun.’”

“I’ve apologized to everybody,” Falwell said in an interview with radio station WLNI 105.9 FM in Lynchburg, Va. “And I’ve promised my kids I’m going to try to be — I’m gonna try to be a good boy from here on out.”

For his part, Downen — best known for his award-winning investigative project on sex abuse in Southern Baptist churches — said he was surprised by the heavy response to his tweet.

“Given the myriad scandals that he’s faced,” Downen said of Falwell, “I honestly didn’t think this would turn into such a big deal. It keeps getting described by media orgs as ‘bizarre,’ and that’s exactly how I felt, hence my ‘wut is happening’ comment.”

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. He prays for Chicago as violence takes children’s lives: Kurtis Lee, a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, writes about a “53-year-old self-described street pastor” who “has found a calling in consoling the families of victims of gun violence.”

Lee paints a simple-but-powerful portrait of Donovan Price, who offers this prayer near the end of the heart-wrenching story: “Please, dear Lord, please heal the sick in this city, please heal the weary. Dear Lord, we ask for peace in the streets.”

Amen.

2. Southern Baptists confront stain of racism, slaveholding past, but for some it's not enough: Holly Meyer, religion writer for The Tennessean, delves into the racial history of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination — and the current questions facing the SBC.

For those paying attention, much of the recent history that Meyer recounts will sound familiar. But she does a remarkable job of weaving all those important developments into a single, cohesive piece.

Continue reading “'Racy Picture' Of Liberty's Jerry Falwell Jr. Sparks Curiosity And Controversy,” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.