May 15, 2:38 PM EDT


Founder of the Moral Majority Rev. Jerry Falwell Dies at 73 after
collapsing at his university

By SUE LINDSEY
Associated Press Writer




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Founder of the Moral Majority Rev. Jerry Falwell Dies at 73 after
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LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) -- The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist
who founded the Moral Majority and used it to mold the religious right
into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found
unconscious in his office at Liberty University. He was 73.

Ron Godwin, the university's executive vice president, said Falwell was
found unresponsive late Tuesday morning and taken to Lynchburg General
Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later.

"I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast," Godwin said.
"He went to his office, I went to mine, and they found him
unresponsive."

Dr. Carl Moore, Falwell's physician, said the evangelist had a heart
rhythm abnormality. He said Falwell was found without a pulse and never
regained consciousness.

Falwell had made careful preparations for a transition of his leadership
to his two sons, Godwin said. "He has left instructions for those of us
who had to carry on, and we will be faithful to that charge," Godwin
said.

Falwell had survived two serious health scares in early 2005. He was
hospitalized for two weeks with what was described as a viral infection,
then was hospitalized again a few weeks later after going into
respiratory arrest. Later that year, doctors found a 70 percent blockage
in an artery, which they opened with stents.

"Jerry has been a tower of strength on many of the moral issues which
have confronted our nation," fellow evangelist Pat Robertson said
Tuesday.

Falwell credited his Moral Majority with getting millions of
conservative voters registered, electing Ronald Reagan and giving
Republicans Senate control in 1980.

"I shudder to think where the country would be right now if the
religious right had not evolved," Falwell said when he stepped down as
Moral Majority president in 1987.

The fundamentalist church that Falwell started in an abandoned bottling
plant in 1956 grew into a religious empire that includes the
22,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, the "Old Time Gospel Hour"
carried on television stations around the country and 7,700-student
Liberty University. He built Christian elementary schools, homes for
unwed mothers and a home for alcoholics.

He also founded Liberty University in Lynchburg, which began as
Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971.

Liberty University's commencement is scheduled for Saturday, with former
U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich as the featured speaker.

In 2006, Falwell marked the 50th anniversary of his church and spoke out
on stem cell research, saying he sympathized with people with medical
problems, but that any medical research must pass a three-part test: "Is
it ethically correct? Is it biblically correct? Is it morally correct?"

Falwell had once opposed mixing preaching with politics, but he changed
his view and in 1979, founded the Moral Majority. The political lobbying
organization grew to 6.5 million members and raised $69 million as it
supported conservative politicians and campaigned against abortion,
homosexuality, pornography and bans on school prayer.

Falwell became the face of the religious right, appearing on national
magazine covers and on television talk shows. In 1983, U.S. News & World
Report named him one of 25 most influential people in America.

In 1984, he sued Hustler magazine for $45 million, charging that he was
libeled by an ad parody depicting him as an incestuous drunkard. A
federal jury found the fake ad did not libel him, but awarded him
$200,000 for emotional distress. That verdict was overturned, however,
in a landmark 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that even
pornographic spoofs about a public figure enjoy First Amendment
protection.

The case was depicted in the 1996 movie "The People v. Larry Flynt."

With Falwell's high profile came frequent criticism, even from fellow
ministers. The Rev. Billy Graham once rebuked him for political
sermonizing on "non-moral issues."

Falwell quit the Moral Majority in 1987, saying he was tired of being "a
lightning rod" and wanted to devote his time to his ministry and Liberty
University. But he remained outspoken and continued to draw criticism
for his remarks.

Days after Sept. 11, 2001, Falwell essentially blamed feminists, gays,
lesbians and liberal groups for bringing on the terrorist attacks. He
later apologized.

In 1999, he told an evangelical conference that the Antichrist was a
male Jew who was probably already alive. Falwell later apologized for
the remark but not for holding the belief. A month later, his National
Liberty Journal warned parents that Tinky Winky, a purple, purse-toting
character on television's "Teletubbies" show, was a gay role model and
morally damaging to children.

Falwell was re-energized after family values proved important in the
2004 presidential election. He formed the Faith and Values Coalition as
the "21st Century resurrection of the Moral Majority," to seek
anti-abortion judges, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex
marriage and more conservative elected officials.

The big, blue-eyed preacher with a booming voice started his independent
Baptist church with 35 members. From his living room, he began
broadcasting his message of salvation and raising the donations that
helped his ministry grow.

"He was one of the first to come up with ways to use television to
expand his ministry," said Robert Alley, a retired University of
Richmond religion professor who studied and criticized Falwell's career.

In 1987, Falwell took over the PTL (Praise the Lord) ministry in South
Carolina after Jim Bakker's troubles. Falwell slid fully clothed down a
theme park water slide after donors met his fund-raising goal to help
rescue the rival ministry. He gave it up seven months later after
learning the depth of PTL's financial problems.

Largely because of the Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals, donations to
Falwell's ministry dropped from $135 million in 1986 to less than $100
million the following year. Hundreds of workers were laid off and
viewers of his television show dwindled.

Liberty University was $73 million in debt and on the verge of
bankruptcy, and his "Old Time Gospel Hour" was $16 million in debt.

By the mid-1990s, two local businessmen with long ties to Falwell began
overseeing the finances and helped get companies to forgive debts or
write them of as losses.

Falwell devoted much of his time keeping his university afloat. He
dreamed that Liberty would grow to 50,000 students and be to
fundamentalist Christians what Notre Dame is to Roman Catholics and
Brigham Young University is to Mormons. He was an avid sports fan who
arrived at Liberty basketball games to the cheers of students.

Falwell's father and his grandfather were militant atheists, he wrote in
his autobiography. He said his father made a fortune off his businesses
- including bootleging during Prohibition.

As a student, Falwell was a star athlete and a prankster who was barred
from giving his high school valedictorian's speech after he was caught
using counterfeit lunch tickets his senior year.

He ran with a gang of juvenile delinquents before becoming a born-again
Christian at age 19. He turned down an offer to play professional
baseball and transferred from Lynchburg College to Baptist Bible College
in Springfield, Mo.

"My heart was burning to serve Christ," he once said in an interview. "I
knew nothing would ever be the same again."

The day before he died, Falwell "had been up on the mountain by the
logo, and students were up there picnicking, and he had had a happy
exchange with those students," Godwin said. Tuesday morning, he said,
Falwell was talking about plans for the future.

harlylouya praize the lord another one bites the dust

And now in the hands of two completely brainwashed sons...

Perfect.

It's really important that someone be remembered well when they die. No
matter how terrible someone is or how much you hate them, someone loved
them and is mourning. The two common denominators of humanity is we are
all born and we all die. I wish Mr Falwell's family and friends the
best and pray that the Holy Spirit brings them comfort and solace during
these trying times.

My prayers and thoughts go out to Jerry's family and loving friends. I
only met Mr. Fallwell once in the early 80's. He seemed like a very nice
man. He had much charisma, and definitely preached what he believed.

Would I fit in his church? No, but I do believe that he is now learning
more than he ever thought possible. (just my opinion). One thing I will
say about him was when he realized he was in the wrong and was
confronted with it he was man enough to say (the best he could) I'm
sorry.There has been very few people in the world who carried the
pressure that he did.

In closing I would just like to say that I met one of the people from
his church at an airport who was returning from Africa, helping aids
victims, hundreds, maybe thousands of them. I was humbled as I thought
how dare I be so judgmental of a man who really did in his own way do so
much. The same man who preached aids was a sin, sent hundreds to help in
the fight.

Who am I?

stuffed if i know mg you dont know who you are????thats a bit

never agreed with him... But I'll miss him

I agree with you spider and mg, a family lost a husband, father, a
brother, grand father, uncle...from that perspective, yes, as a man, he
deserves recognition and empathy to his family's loss.

My previous comment is harsh, and showed no respect for the man, nor his
family.

Thats shows class Jess

I just saw this response after a pretty busy week. If I can I would like
to throw in a dido. Jess, the more I read you the more I see your
graciousness, and class.

You add a lot to JSH.


michael

Boooo Hooooooo

Do I cry crocodile tears?

Drip Drip

Here's to the Immoral majority. Rahhh Rahh Rahhh~!!