Jonathan Pate Falwell (born September 7, 1966) is the senior

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

at the

Thomas Road Baptist Church Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC) is a Baptist megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia, located on the campus of Liberty University, which it founded and is closely affiliated with. In 2016, a church spokesperson stated they had an average weekly atten ...

Lynchburg, Virginia Lynchburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner and Abolitionism, abolitionist John Lynch (1740–1820), J ...

, and Chancellor at

Liberty University Liberty University (LU), known simply as Liberty, is a Private university, private Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservativ ...

Education

Falwell earned his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree from

in 1987, his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree in Religion from the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in 1995, and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

degree in 2005 from the Taft Law School in

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana (Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, California, United States. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census. As ...

Family

He is the son and successor of the late Reverend

Jerry Falwell Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. (August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) was an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservatism in the United States, conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch ...

and the younger brother of Jerry Falwell Jr. Upon Jerry Sr.'s death in 2007, Jonathan succeeded him as senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church and Jerry Jr. succeeded him as president of Liberty University (2007–2020). Jonathan would become chancellor of Liberty University in 2023. Their older sister Jeannie is a surgeon. During a 1974 family discussion about abortion as the 'national sin' of America, Jonathan asked his father why he did not do something about it, which was the start of his father's reading of other

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

writers such as

Francis Schaeffer Francis August Schaeffer (January 30, 1912 – May 15, 1984) was an American evangelical theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He co-founded the L'Abri community in Switzerland with his wife Edith Schaeffer, , a prolific auth ...

on the issue.

Career

As a young adult and minister in his father's church, Thomas Road Baptist Church, Jonathan invested in video processing technology and began overseeing the operations of the church ministry.Winters. (2012). p. 371. In April 2021 the trustees of Liberty University named Falwell as the university's pastor.

Personal life

Falwell and his wife, Shari, have four children.

References

External links

Archived personal webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Falwell, Jonathan Pate 1966 births Living people 20th-century Baptists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century Baptist ministers from the United States American Christian theologians American evangelicals American male non-fiction writers American television evangelists Baptists from Virginia Baptist writers Jerry Falwell Liberty University alumni Liberty University faculty Southern Baptist ministers Writers from Lynchburg, Virginia Heads of universities and colleges in the United States