May 15, 2007
On Jerry Falwell and Politics
COLUMBIA -- Jerry Falwell was a dominant political figure of our time. He was a prime mover in the effort to change the way Christians relate to politics and the architect of the infrastructure that sent them to the polls on behalf of Republicans.
In the public's imagination, he was the archetype associated with one of the important sociopolitical movements of the past thirty years: the Religious Right. He was the most frequent foil for secularists. The mention of his name inspires visceral hatred among liberals.
Fallwell fused contemporary Christian moralism with political conservatism. Being "born again" became a badge of honor in Republican politics. He was opportunistic at the right moments, was always eager to inflame cultural trigger points, and was a master of the media. More than any one man save Ronald Reagan, Falwell brought white evangelicals to the Republican Party and made sure that their concerns were only one rung below communism in the party's hierarchy of concerns.
With the movement, Falwell had detractors. His preference for political oppositionalism -- in insisting that Christians were persecuted by modern politics and had to aggressively wage war against modernism to break free -- was a grave error, according to critics. Evangelical Christianity became synonymous with Christian fundamentalism, and that small trick of language sublimated the political impulses of modernist evangelicals for decades. Others simply felt that he was crass, politically opportunistic and simply, mean.
In recent years, the media overstated Falwell's power considerably, but his influence is undeniable, and has, for years, exceeded his power. Still, the movement he founded lost some of its original coherence. The Moral Majority doesn't exist -- it has matured into a dozen different organizations. The Christian Coalition is a shell of its former self. Some Republicans question their arrangement with the leading lights of the Christian Right; conservative Christians are asserting their independence. But such are the signs of a mature political movement. That tonight's debate will focus, fairly or unfairly, on one candidate's position on abortion -- that's a testament to Falwell's legacy. [MARC AMBINDER]
Posted at 01:50 PM
Comments
Um, didn't he say homosexuals were responsible for 9/11?
bob | 05.15.07 04:30 PM
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Jerry Fallwell's dead?
How nice for those left living-
The world is improved.
buh bye | 05.15.07 06:32 PM
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Remember the good too. He may not have been perfect , there were times when he was just plain wrong, but he did a lot for his community and his family.
cn | 05.20.07 03:47 PM
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