Nearly three dozen black alumni of Liberty University denounced school president Jerry Falwell Jr. on Monday after he mocked Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's mask-wearing directive by invoking the governor's blackface scandal last year.

Thirty-five faith leaders and former student-athletes sent Falwell, a strong supporter of President Trump, a letter stating that his past comments "have repeatedly violated and misrepresented" Christian principles.

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While stating his objection to Northam's May 26 coronavirus mask policy, Falwell, who has downplayed the public health risks associated with coronavirus, shared a picture of a mask he would wear, which featured a picture from Northam's medical college yearbook allegedly showing him in blackface.

Northam's picture sparked a scandal in 2019 that had state and national leaders calling for him to resign. He didn't. After first apologizing for the photo, Northam claimed it wasn't him in the picture.

Virginia's mask policy requires people to wear face coverings in places of business across the commonwealth, including retail shops, restaurants and on public transportation.

Falwell said he was "adamantly opposed" to the mask mandate "until I decided to design my own."

Liberty's angry alumni said Falwell's latest stunt is just one of several missteps he has made.

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The alumni claimed they would stop urging students to attend the Lynchburg, Va., school, would no longer donate to the university and would urge people of faith to avoid speaking at the school unless Falwell changes his behavior or steps down from his post.

"You have belittled staff, students and parents, you have defended inappropriate behaviors of politicians, encouraged violence, and disrespected people of other faiths," the letter states, advising Falwell that "your heart is in politics more than Christian academia or ministry."

Falwell Jr., who has pictures of himself with Trump on his social media posts, claimed his comment about the blackface scandal was made in defense of Liberty students. He added that his involvement in politics was in the spirit of Jesus Christ, "who was not silent about the establishment political folks of his era."

"Jesus got involved in politics," Falwell said in an interview.

He also tweeted, "People have asked why I don't apologize for reminding people of the @vagovernor racist past in a recent tweet.  It's because that same Gov just ended tuition assistance grants for the 27% of @LiberyU online students who are African-American! Put you $ where your mouth is Gov. Sad."

He followed up that tweet with: "I was one of the only conservatives to defend @GovernorVA when his racist yearbook pic surfaced. I called him and told him not to resign and I forgave him when he apologized. Then he cut the decades long $3,400 grants to VA students, 27% minorities & 65% low income. Just a reminder"

Monday’s letter was signed by more than 30 former students at Liberty, one of the nation’s largest Christian universities, including pastors with churches in Virginia, Tennessee and Michigan. Current pro football player Walt Aikens and former pro football player Eric Green were also among the signatories.

“While your tweet may have been in jest about Virginia’s governor, it made light of our nation’s painful history of slavery and racism,” the alumni wrote to Falwell. They described the tweet as “a microcosm of the past several years of divisive rhetoric” that falls short of their faith’s ideals.

Signatories also included a daughter and son-in-law of the vice-chairman of Liberty’s board of trustees, Virginia pastor Allen McFarland.

The rebuke came after an online instructor for Liberty, a black pastor who also teaches at Ithaca College, announced his resignation online in response to the tweet.

The alumni who wrote Monday’s letter also lauded their experience at the university and offered to meet with Falwell to “provide counsel on ways for L.U. to best move forward” if he stays in office.

They asked him to “withdraw your racist tweet immediately and make a public apology.”

The Virginia General Assembly in March passed a budget for the 2021-2022 biennium that eliminates a tuition assistance grant for online students at private colleges such as Liberty. Existing students are grandfathered in, said Laura Osberger, spokeswoman for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

“The governor’s intent was to harm Liberty, and to harm minority students and to harm low-income students,” Falwell said, linking the cuts to his tweet by saying that as a result, “people needed to be reminded of (Northam’s) racist past.”

Northam initially said he was in the yearbook photo and then denied it the next day, while acknowledging that he did wear blackface to a dance party that same year. He faced swift, widespread calls to resign, but he resisted, saying he instead wanted to help heal the state’s lingering racial wounds and devote the rest of his term to promoting racial equality.

The governor and the university president sparred indirectly in March, as the coronavirus began to take a bigger hold in the U.S., and Falwell decided to “welcome” students back to campus after their spring break. Northam quoted from Scripture in urging Falwell to rethink that decision.

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A spokesman for the governor said Monday that it was good to see ministers “speaking out for civility” and that Northam would not dignify the tweet with a response.

“But I recall that Matthew’s Gospel teaches us to ‘beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you will know them,’” Northam’s chief communications officer, Grant Neely, wrote in an email.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.