It was the high court's 1973 abortion ruling, however, that became the
tipping point for religious conservatives. Falwell began to preach against
abortion and to address what he regarded as a crumbling of America's moral
underpinnings. People who had heard him preach against the danger to the
church when it became entangled with politics suddenly began hearing a
different message. Falwell, whose most famous sermon on the subject,
preached in 1965, was called "Ministers and Marches" in which he opposed Dr.
Martin Luther King's political activism, began to follow King - at least
into the political arena. Falwell had credibility with a large number of
conservative pastors, because he knew them and because they, too, were
concerned about the direction of the country.
The flaw in the movement was the perception that the church had become an
appendage to the Republican Party and one more special interest group to be
pampered. If one examines the results of the Moral Majority's agenda, little
was accomplished in the political arena and much was lost in the spiritual
realm, as many came to believe that to be a Christian meant you also must be
"converted" to the Republican Party and adopt the GOP agenda and its
tactics.
One had only to look at the history of the religious left to see the danger
in a shotgun marriage between church and state. Most liberal theologians
long ago gave up preaching about another king and another kingdom in favor
of baptizing the earthly agenda of the Democratic Party. That too many
conservative Christians followed their liberal opposites into the same error
was to their shame and demonstrated they had missed an important lesson.
Jerry Falwell did not fit the stereotype many sought to impose on him. He
had a wicked sense of humor and he could be very generous. I once took him
to a meeting of inner-city pastors and disadvantaged children in Washington,
D.C. One young boy particularly impressed him and Jerry asked the boy to
ride with him to the airport. The boy told him he'd like to go to college
and Jerry gave him his phone number, saying, "When you graduate from high
school, call me. You will have a full scholarship at Liberty University."
The boy's father cried. So did I.
Jerry liked to say that when he passed away, they'd put "and the beggar
died" on his tombstone because he was constantly asking for money. That
won't happen. His legacy will be his university. He once said he wanted it
to be like Harvard. All of the rest is "wood, hay and stubble."