A homosexual scandal is rocking Rev. Jerry Falwell’s archconservative Liberty University, where rumors are rampant that male students engaged in gay sex with a campus pastor.
Scrambling to do damage control, Falwell — an outspoken foe of homosexuality — slammed a news lid on his Lynchburg, Va., campus.
When an ENQUIRER reporter contacted the university to ask about the sudden resignation of Eric Lovett, 29, assistant pastor in Liberty’s spiritual life department, Falwell himself called back within minutes.
“While I have heard rumors, I myself have no knowledge, no personal knowledge, of any gay movement,” said the 68-year-old preacher.
Lovett vehemently denies being part of any gay ring and insists he is not homosexual, but Falwell told The ENQUIRER: “I was told that he has had problems in this area that you speak of (homosexuality), but I myself have no personal knowledge of this.”
Both Eric Lovett, a strapping bodybuilder and leader of the school’s band, and his father, Rev. Danny Lovett — dean of Liberty’s theological seminary — played down the resignation. Rev. Lovett insists Eric had been planning since summer to try another career path.
“There has never been any gay activity, nothing at all, in all the years I have been here,” said the minister.
“My son Eric and I have been praying together on what he wants to do with the rest of his life. He feels the Lord may be leading him in a new direction, into a music path. This has been coming.”
Eric, caught in the middle of a whirlwind, told The ENQUIRER: “I resigned on my own. I don’t know where the rumors came from. You know how college campuses are — full of rumors of all kinds. I am not a homosexual.”
Iron-fisted Falwell — who founded the university in 1971 — held an emergency meeting on December 11. In attendance were his top deans, the spiritual life department staff, and university president Dr. John M. Borek Jr., an insider revealed.
“Falwell told them the controversy was a bomb ready to explode.
“He ordered that only two people in the spiritual life department were to answer the phones the following week. If any of the press got pushy, they should be told to call Falwell.”
The lid blew off the alleged existence of a campus gay group shortly after Thanksgiving, said the insider. At that time, a male member of the university band went with his girlfriend to see one of the deans.
“The girlfriend had overheard a conversation about her boyfriend getting intimately involved with a university male staffer,” disclosed the insider. The male student confessed — but university authorities accused him of lying, said the insider.
“But the student described the staffer’s bedroom, and even the sheets and pillowcases on his bed. Everything he said checked out 100 percent. The story spread like wildfire around the campus.
“Falwell planned to announce a general assembly to inform the student body and faculty that Eric Lovett was resigning.
“But Falwell cancelled the idea when he was told that a number of other male students had been discovered to be actively gay.”
The ENQUIRER called student dorms to get more information, but by the second day of our calls, the lid of silence had slammed tight.
“We have been told not to talk to you, about any gay circle or any rumors or anything about Liberty,” explained one student.
However, a few students revealed that Eric Lovett e-mailed goodbye messages to some students.
“Eric said he regretted any harm he had done and that he was leaving the ministry permanently,” divulged student Steve Anderson.
“He said he had a lot of spiritual problems to resolve and apologized for leaving on such short notice.”
What elevates the scandal to national importance is Falwell’s prominent platform — which he uses at times to assault the homosexual lifestyle and gay leadership.
Two days after the emotionally devastating September 11 tragedies, the evangelist joined religious broadcaster Pat Robertson in stating that pagans, homosexuals, abortionists and feminists were partly to blame for the attacks — because they offended God who allowed America’s enemies “to give us probably what we deserve.”
