The Rev. Jerry Falwell says God has a message for Caesar
The figure is imposing—tall, a bit jowly, dressed like a businessman in a dark three-piece suit. The backdrop, massed American flags and a 33-member choir of attractive college kids scrubbed to a sparkle, is Fourth of July inspiring. The words are measured out in an avuncular bass. God loves America above all nations, the preacher says, but the U.S. is sure giving heaven a hard time. Amens come from the crowd as the pastor inveighs against all the "infidels and in-for-hells." He scourges the Federal Government for fostering socialism, the public school system for making "humanism" its religion and Hollywood for making the nation think dirty. Holding up a Bible, he admonishes: "If a man stands by this book, vote for him. If he doesn't, don't."
The road show is called the "I Love America" rally. The author, producer and star is the Rev. Jerry Falwell, 46, a Baptist out of Lynchburg, Va. Back home, Falwell is the hyperactive founder and director of a religious empire that includes a thriving church, schools and charitable and fund-raising programs. Thanks to his Old-Time Gospel Hour, seen on 324 television stations in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, he is also one of the top stars of the "electric church." All told, his enterprises employ 950 people and have an annual budget of $56 million.
Now Falwell is moving in a big way into political activism on the national scene. His patriotic rally made its debut at the capitol in Richmond Sept. 13. Last week, with an entourage of 50 (choir, soloists, sound technicians, a bodyguard), he went to Columbus, and Harrisburg, Pa. This week it will be Albany. In cooperation with Washington-based New Right political groups, he has just organized his first purely secular enterprise, Moral Majority Inc., and plans to hit all 50 states within 18 months. He sees Moral Majority as a much needed antidote to progressive public interest organizations like Common Cause. Senior Correspondent Laurence I. Barrett traveled with Falwell during the first week of his campaign. Barrett's report:
Jerry Falwell's explanation of his move to politics seems simple: "God wanted me to look beyond Lynchburg. We cannot be isolationists. We've got to have the world upon our hearts." Falwell is a fundamentalist. "The entire Bible," he insists, "from Genesis to Revelation, is the inerrant word of God, and totally accurate in all respects." As Falwell reads Scripture, it stands foursquare against abortion, gay rights, feminism, excessive welfare programs, pornography, tolerance of Communist expansion and SALT II.
Falwell enjoys taking big risks, like starting up a new college from scratch in less than a year, as he did with Liberty Baptist College, begun in 1971. Now Falwell is betting that his views, values and chauvinist spirit will strike a plangent chord in the hearts of millions of conservative Protestants, many of whom have thus far been politically apathetic.