Jerry Falwell galvanized the Christian conservative movement and provided an unparalleled moral leadership, say local religious leaders who knew the evangelist. Falwell died shortly after noon Tuesday at a hospital in Lynchburg, Va., according to the Web site of Liberty University, which he founded in 1971.
He was 73. "His leadership is so significant from the standpoint on morality in this nation that a lot of us are going to have to step up," said the Rev. Andy Hepburn of Taylor Road Baptist Church, whose daughter, Andrea, is the associate dean of women at Liberty.
"It's going to take a lot of us to fill his shoes." Falwell was found unconscious in his campus office by members of his staff, who tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him, according to the Web site. Falwell had a heart condition and presumably died of a heart rhythm abnormality, said Dr.
Carl Moore, his physician. Less than two hours later, ministry officials announced Falwell's death to more than 6,000 Liberty students and faculty members as well as parishioners of the reverend's Thomas Road Baptist Church. Falwell, known for his booming voice, started a fundamentalist church in an abandoned bottling plant in Lynchburg in 1956 with just 35 members.
He built it into a religious empire that included the 24,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, the "Old Time Gospel Hour" carried on TV stations around the country and the university. In a statement, President Bush said he and first lady Laura Bush were "deeply saddened" by the loss of a man who "cherished faith, family and freedom." Hepburn talked to his daughter just as she was headed into the meeting.
"It saddens me greatly," he said. The head of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, too, was touched by the news. Randy Brinson considers Falwell one of his mentors and was planning to meet with him in a couple of weeks about the coalition's Redeem the Vote campaign.
It was Brinson who described Falwell as the galvanizing influence behind Christian conservatives, who have become a political force to be reckoned with. Falwell became interested in politics after the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established a woman's right to an abortion. Six years later, he founded the Moral Majority, a conservative lobbying group.
The group's greatest success came just a year later, when Ronald Reagan was elected president. The rise of Christian conservatism -- and the Moral Majority's full-throated condemnation of homosexuality, abortion and pornography -- made Falwell perhaps the most recognizable figure on the evangelical right. Jerry Falwell galvanized the Christian conservative movement and provided an unparalleled moral leadership, say local religious leaders who knew the evangelist.
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