Packs of youth roam tidy walkways, tossing balls and toting Bibles. Looking west, beyond the school grounds, you get the feeling that there is nothing but hilltops melting slowly into the heavens. At Liberty, this detachment can start to feel literal. New students pledge to follow the Liberty Way: no having sex outside of marriage, no listening to music with lewd lyrics, no drinking.
In truth, of course, Liberty is not just of the world but an engine of its power and ambition. The campus—seven thousand idyllic acres in Lynchburg, Virginia—is the cradle of a white evangelical dynasty that has shaped a half century of American politics.
Jerry Falwell, Sr. Known as a winsome salesman fond of practical jokes, Falwell steadily won converts, filling successively larger halls, until he presided over a renowned Baptist megachurch and a national television ministry.
The elder Falwell died in and was buried in a hilltop memorial site at Liberty. His lifework was left to his two sons: the elder, Jerry, Jr. Jonathan was seen as upbeat and pious, but Jerry, Jr. Liberty became one of the largest providers of online learning in the country. Some online students, too, questioned the quality of the education that they received. But these complaints tended to be eclipsed by the flashy results: a backwater Bible school became a flush university with elaborate facilities, competitive sports teams, and more than a hundred thousand students.
Falwell relished his turn as a political kingmaker, in the tradition of his father, but, privately, he was succumbing to the temptations of the world. A very public downfall was coming and, with it, a broader reckoning for Liberty. Subscribe today » ]. Dustin Wahl arrived at Liberty as a freshman, in Slight and sandy-haired, with an earnest and eager affect, Wahl had been raised in South Dakota by evangelical parents.
