Falwell, Jerry Laymon, Sr.

▪ 2008

 American religious leader

born Aug. 11, 1933, Lynchburg, Va.

died May 15, 2007, Lynchburg

was a charismatic televangelist who, as the founder in 1979 of the Moral Majority, a political organization for the promotion of conservative social values, was largely responsible for making American Christian conservatives politically active. The pro-family, pro-American organization, which quickly grew to several million members, was credited with playing an important role in the election of Republican Ronald Reagan as president in 1980; it remained a force in American politics during the first half of the 1980s but was disbanded in 1989. After graduating (1956) from Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo., Falwell founded Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg; the congregation grew from some 35 members to more than 20,000 by the time of his death. In 1956 Falwell also started broadcasting his sermons on a radio program, the Old-Time Gospel Hour. Six months later the program began appearing on a local television network; eventually it went into national and international syndication and claimed more than 50 million regular viewers. In 1971 Falwell established Lynchburg Bible College—later Liberty University, a fundamentalist Christian university—which he led until his death. In the late 1980s he unsuccessfully sought to revive the PTL (Praise the Lord) Club, the conservative Christian organization and television network of the disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker. Falwell advocated a conservative Christian faith and condemned what he perceived as the sinfulness and godlessness of contemporary society. A segregationist in his early years, he later abandoned that view. He opposed abortion, feminism, gay rights, and other causes associated with the social and cultural transformations of the 1960s and '70s. In 2004, buoyed by the electoral victories of Pres. George W. Bush, Falwell founded the Faith and Values Coalition—now the Moral Majority Coalition—as a successor to the Moral Majority. Throughout his career Falwell engendered controversy with remarks that many Americans perceived as intolerant or bigoted, but his supporters endorsed his staunch beliefs.

* * *