US evangelist Jerry Falwell dies
US evangelist Jerry Falwell dies
By Jurek Martin in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: May 15 2007 19:39 | Last updated: May 15 2007 20:22
The Rev Jerry Falwell, whose evangelical convictions and organisational abilities, including as a founder in 1979 of the Moral Majority movement, did much to place religious conservatives in a role of great influence in American politics, died on Tuesday in Lynchburg, Virginia, of apparent heart failure at the age of 73.
He was a figure of immense controversy over the last 40 years, outspoken to the point that his apologies appeared almost as regularly as his thundering denunciations. To him the three great scourges afflicting his country were “atheism, secularism and humanism,” and nothing would deter him from defeating his evil trinity.
Most notoriously, he laid the blame for the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, at the feet of his domestic opponents. “I really believe,” he said at the time, “that the pagans, the abortionists and the lesbians … and all those who have tried to secularise America helped this happen.” His subsequent recantation attracted less attention.
Early in his career he was an avowed segregationist, frequently featuring the likes of Lester Maddox and George Wallace, the diehard southern governors, on his tele-evangelical programmes. He often spoke scathingly of what he called the Civil Wrongs Movement, a position from which, in later years, he again retreated
He strongly supported the apartheid regime in South Africa, once dismissing Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace prize laureate, as “a phony”. He was an equally ardent backer of Israel, believing that turmoil in the Middle East was the precursor of the Second Coming of Christ, with the stipulation that “the Anti-Christ must be, of necessity, a Jewish male.”
But he was a man who, at the same time, believed that institutions as much as words were necessary to further his cause and in this respect his achievements should never be underestimated, reaching far beyond his native Lynchburg.
He was born there on August 11, 1933, and it remained his base for the rest of his life. After education at two bible colleges, in 1956, he founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church, initially with just 35 parishioners. It was to grow into the prototype of the modern mega-church and now has over 22,000 members.
He never stopped building. By the mid-60s he was the star host of the Old Time Gospel Hour, one of the first evangelical television programmes to marry faith with politics. In 1971, he founded Liberty University, a religious-based school.
These days it is an obligatory pit stop for aspiring national Republican politicians, including last year Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has been previously critical of Rev Falwell.
Its law school’s mission is to train Christian lawyers able to fight against the secularisation of America. An untold number of its graduates now serve in the Bush administration; Regent University, set up by Rev Falwell’s friend and contemporary, Rev Pat Robertson, boasts more than 150 graduates working for the government in Washington.
But it was his role, along with two others, in setting up the Moral Majority in 1979 that made him a national political figure to be reckoned with. Until then evangelicals had been mostly apolitical, but his voter registration drives and his encouragement to pastors to use their churches as political pulpits introduced a new force into national political life.
Dismissive of President Jimmy Carter, whose was uncharacteristically contemptuous in return, he put his forces to work hard for the election of Ronald Reagan. In all subsequent Republican administrations, he has been a welcome guest at the White House, even though he disbanded Moral Majority in 1989.
Karl Rove, the current president’s political mastermind, openly courted the support and advice of religious conservatives. With the passing years, others of similar persuasion but with less fiery oratory, like James Dobson of Focus on the Family, became, arguably, more influential, as in the anti-abortion and anti-homosexual struggles, but all owed a debt to the Rev Falwell.
He was married to the former Macel Pate. They had two sons and one daughter, all of whom survive him.
By Jurek Martin in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: May 15 2007 19:39 | Last updated: May 15 2007 20:22
The Rev Jerry Falwell, whose evangelical convictions and organisational abilities, including as a founder in 1979 of the Moral Majority movement, did much to place religious conservatives in a role of great influence in American politics, died on Tuesday in Lynchburg, Virginia, of apparent heart failure at the age of 73.
He was a figure of immense controversy over the last 40 years, outspoken to the point that his apologies appeared almost as regularly as his thundering denunciations. To him the three great scourges afflicting his country were “atheism, secularism and humanism,” and nothing would deter him from defeating his evil trinity.
Most notoriously, he laid the blame for the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, at the feet of his domestic opponents. “I really believe,” he said at the time, “that the pagans, the abortionists and the lesbians … and all those who have tried to secularise America helped this happen.” His subsequent recantation attracted less attention.
Early in his career he was an avowed segregationist, frequently featuring the likes of Lester Maddox and George Wallace, the diehard southern governors, on his tele-evangelical programmes. He often spoke scathingly of what he called the Civil Wrongs Movement, a position from which, in later years, he again retreated
He strongly supported the apartheid regime in South Africa, once dismissing Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace prize laureate, as “a phony”. He was an equally ardent backer of Israel, believing that turmoil in the Middle East was the precursor of the Second Coming of Christ, with the stipulation that “the Anti-Christ must be, of necessity, a Jewish male.”
But he was a man who, at the same time, believed that institutions as much as words were necessary to further his cause and in this respect his achievements should never be underestimated, reaching far beyond his native Lynchburg.
He was born there on August 11, 1933, and it remained his base for the rest of his life. After education at two bible colleges, in 1956, he founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church, initially with just 35 parishioners. It was to grow into the prototype of the modern mega-church and now has over 22,000 members.
He never stopped building. By the mid-60s he was the star host of the Old Time Gospel Hour, one of the first evangelical television programmes to marry faith with politics. In 1971, he founded Liberty University, a religious-based school.
These days it is an obligatory pit stop for aspiring national Republican politicians, including last year Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has been previously critical of Rev Falwell.
Its law school’s mission is to train Christian lawyers able to fight against the secularisation of America. An untold number of its graduates now serve in the Bush administration; Regent University, set up by Rev Falwell’s friend and contemporary, Rev Pat Robertson, boasts more than 150 graduates working for the government in Washington.
But it was his role, along with two others, in setting up the Moral Majority in 1979 that made him a national political figure to be reckoned with. Until then evangelicals had been mostly apolitical, but his voter registration drives and his encouragement to pastors to use their churches as political pulpits introduced a new force into national political life.
Dismissive of President Jimmy Carter, whose was uncharacteristically contemptuous in return, he put his forces to work hard for the election of Ronald Reagan. In all subsequent Republican administrations, he has been a welcome guest at the White House, even though he disbanded Moral Majority in 1989.
Karl Rove, the current president’s political mastermind, openly courted the support and advice of religious conservatives. With the passing years, others of similar persuasion but with less fiery oratory, like James Dobson of Focus on the Family, became, arguably, more influential, as in the anti-abortion and anti-homosexual struggles, but all owed a debt to the Rev Falwell.
He was married to the former Macel Pate. They had two sons and one daughter, all of whom survive him.
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 6:10 PM
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