Minister responsible for turning religious right into political power

Before the Rev. Jerry Falwell became a public figure, the only fundamentalist or evangelical Christian ministers one was likely to see on television were local pastors with their Sunday morning shows broadcast live from their churches, a bumper crop of syndicated televangelists and the rare national figure such as the Rev. Billy Graham.

They spoke of faith, grace and redemption. Some spoke about money. But they seldom spoke much about politics.

The Rev. Falwell changed all that when he decided to turn his church pulpit into a bully pulpit as far back as the 1970s and started speaking out about what he saw as major problems with Americas direction.

He wanted to make a difference. And he did.

The Rev. Falwell died Tuesday at age 73.

From his early political rumblings to the founding of the Moral Majority and his emergence as a major political power to be courted by those in the highest levels of the Republican party, the Rev. Falwell created a new culture in the U.S. A culture that gave conservative Christians the freedom to express their political opinions in terms of faith and mobilize as a block to influence all manner of debate, from local elections to national legislation.

He said he wanted conservative Christians to have a greater say in their government. In that, he succeeded impressively.

The Rev. Falwell was no stranger to criticism. His opponents charged he also wanted conservative Christians to control the country, that he wanted an America where the Bible outweighed the Constitution.

Some of the criticism was of his own making. He wasnt shy about expressing his views on his belief that various disasters, natural and manmade, were Gods judgement against mankind for what the pastor perceived as societys sins, a trait he shared with his fellow icon of the religious right, the Rev. Pat Robertson.

Such pronouncement galvanized some, but angered others. The Rev. Falwell on more than one occasion backtracked, trying to explain away his statements. But the damage was done over time and his political influence lessened, especially in the wake of his remarks to the Rev. Robertson about the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The man who was once a force in Republican politics had become something of a liability to his former political allies.

But the Rev. Falwells influence shouldnt be overlooked simply because he, as have so many before him, faded in his later years. He was, more than perhaps any other religious figure of the late 20th century, responsible for politicizing conservative Christians and turning them into a political force to be reckoned with.

And despite changes in leadership, the Christian right is still a political force. Thats the Rev. Jerry Falwells legacy.