Rev. Falwell's Moral Majority: How it changed politics and religion

Published: 2007-05-18

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- For many activists in the 1980s-era Moral Majority, there's no doubt that the religiously based, politically conservative organization changed politics and religion for the better. The election of President Ronald Reagan and a cadre of socially conservative members of Congress in the 1980s changed the direction of politics -- particularly by rebuilding the Republican Party -- and gave evangelical Christians a voice in elections and in public policy that continues to be strong. It also brought together evangelicals and Catholics in an alliance that raised the pro-life voting public to a position of prominence and power that it had not enjoyed as a primarily Catholic movement. But for some of the Catholics who had key roles in the movement most closely associated with the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, hindsight suggests the Moral Majority's call to get evangelical Christians involved in politics worked out better for the politicians than it did for the church. Rev. Falwell died May 15, a bit shy of 30 years after the Moral Majority brought the minister from the "Old Time Gospel Hour" in Lynchburg, Va., to the halls of Congress and the White House as a valued adviser.

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