posted on:  5/15/2007     revised: 3/9/2010

Reverend Dr. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, died yesterday (May 14, 2007)at age 73. History will recognize him one of the most influential people in modern American history. In fact, U.S. News and World Report had already named him as one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1983 long before he was involved in any of the national news headlines that many of us may be most familiar.

He took credit for the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 that ultimately carved the economic foundation for the lives of most of us who are alive today. Apparently political historians say that it might be a credible claim. Certainly I am a product of Reaganomics - both in financial terms as well as economic philosophy. Without this marked turn in history, who can imagine where we would be today?

Dr. Falwell's ministry grew to over 6 million and he was hugely effective in fighting abortion rights and equality for same sex couples for two decades. He offended the Jewish community often - most notably when he said that the Antichrist was an American Jewish man alive today. He lost credibility with many of his supporters in 2001 when he blamed the 9/11 tragedy on the immoral acts of gays and liberal politicians. He took over the PTL (Praise the Lord) Ministry when Jim Baker went down in a fire of sexual scandal flames but then quit only months later when bad press about financial misdeeds of the organization surfaced. Many may remember when he attacked the "Teletubbies" as being gay and immoral. If he had not caused so much pain to the lives of gay Americans for so many years, it would have been simply laughable.

Aside from the historical accomplishments and tragedies, the most amazing aspect of this man was his ability to invoke the wrath of people who would characterize themselves as middle-of-the-road progressives. I put myself in this category. I despised him. While I certainly would not object to the core Christian values he supported, the way that he went about expressing the message made me crazy. While I am no fan of publisher Larry Flint, I was pleased in 1988 when the Supreme Court ruled that pornographers are entitled to First Amendment rights.

To his credit, the Reverend Falwell was the most successful pioneer to use modern technology (television) to expand his voice, power and economic base. Many people do not realize that his media career began simply by broadcasting the sermons that had originally been written for his small church. The broadcasts were made from his living room. In a sense, he was the grandfather of today's Blogging profession.

Perhaps Dr. Falwell's the most memorable legacy will be the bumper sticker that says "The Moral Majority is neither". I doubt that many of today's young people who ride around with this message plastered to their pimped-out VWs would even recognize the name of Jerry Falwell. But fast fade into anonymity is a risk of messing with the weave of contemporary American culture.  In this case, no love lost. I won't miss Jerry Falwell's name in the news headlines.

keywords:   PTL, Larry Flynt, First Amendment, Moral Majority

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Copyright 2010 by Tony Novak. Originally produced and published for the "AskTony" column syndication prior to 2007. Edited and independently republished by the author in March 2010. All rights reserved.