Religion and Politics: Falwell Claims Victory, Dissolves Moral Majority

TV evangelist Jerry Falwell, saying religious conservatives are now a fixed political bloc in America, announced plans to dissolve Moral Majority, the controversial lobby he and allies on the Religious Right founded 10 years ago.

At a press conference before the opening of the annual Southern Baptist Convention in Las Vegas, the fundamentalist leader told the Religion Newswriters Association that his Washington-based political group is no longer needed because “the Religious Right is solidly in place.”

Falwell said he feels the Religious Right is “winning,” with victories for Ronald Reagan and George Bush and a more conservative Supreme Court, even though the broad agenda he espoused is far from being in place. Religious conservatives, he said, now account for more than 20 percent of the U.S. electorate and have been persuaded that “it isn’t a sin to vote.”

Mobilizing Christians

Moral Majority spent more than $69 million in the last decade, Falwell said, with most going to register voters, back conservative candidates, and press its views on such social and moral issues as abortion, pornography, and homosexual rights. Falwell said his group also concentrated on influencing 50,000 pastors of evangelical churches.

At its zenith in 1984, Moral Majority claimed up to three million backers and spent $11 million, he said. But the group, which became a lightning rod for opponents of the Religious Right, lost momentum in recent years and saw its budget drop to about $3 million in the current fiscal year.

Moral Majority was a frequent target for liberals. And even conservative godfather Barry Goldwater accused Falwell and his followers of trying to impose their fundamentalist values on U.S. society and violating the principle of church-state separation.

Leaving Politics?

The 55-year-old minister also said the closing down of Moral Majority by August 31 is another step in his own” master plan” to withdraw entirely from politics and concentrate on his broadcast ministry (the “Old-Time Gospel Hour”), Liberty University, and the Thomas Road Baptist Church he pastors, all based in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Falwell has been phasing out his political activity in recent years, previously handing the presidency of Moral Majority over to Atlanta businessman Jerry Nims, but remaining as chairman of the organization’s board of directors.

That came within months of the time when Falwell temporarily took charge of the scandal-ridden PTL ministry. Shocks from that religious Watergate caused six months of paralysis for Falwell’s own ministry, the evangelist said, and caused a drop in revenues and consequent layoffs.

But the evangelist told reporters his own operations have rebounded so well that revenues for the fiscal year, ended June 30, 1989, exceeded $140 million, compared to $88 million the prior year.

“Those ministries that ought to survive have survived,” he declared, pointing to the organizations of Billy Graham, Charles Stanley, and D. James Kennedy as well as his own.

Falwell says he will still speak out occasionally on moral and social issues, but ruled out reactivating Moral Majority or a similar group under any foreseeable circumstances.

By Richard Walker, in Las Vegas.

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