COMMENTARY
The Rev. Jerry Falwell passed away yesterday after collapsing at his office in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was 73.
Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority in 1979 to give conservative Christians a political voice. He worked to mobilize the Christian voters who helped elect Ronald Reagan president in 1980. Even though the Moral Majority membership was reported in the millions, I was never able to detect that it developed much traction in Wisconsin. But Falwell did have a headline-making appearance in the heart of Madison back in those early days.
One of his ideas to take his conservative Christian message across the country was to hold an "I Love America Rally" on the steps of each of the 50 state capitols. No doubt the show drew large crowds at some capitols. In others, such as Madison, the protesters were as numerous as the supporters.
His red, white and blue bedecked choir rolled into Madison on Sept. 15, 1980, according to Bill Wineke’s column in the Wisconsin State Journal today. Just a few weeks later I moved to a new job in Lincoln Nebraska, and I got to see the show again.
Even though it’s been more than a quarter century, I have two fairly clear memories about the experiences.
The local news reporters obviously thought that Falwell was an unsophisticated backwoods preacher. In the news conference before each program they peppered him with loaded questions, trying to trip him up or get him to say something stupid or controversial. In the end the reporters were the ones who looked unsophisticated.
His 1980 "I Love America" choir traveled with a high powered sound system so that the protesters were at a great disadvantage. Their chants and jeers sounded pretty weak in comparison to the waves of sound coming out of the giant speakers. I’m not going to say the choir was only lip synching, they probably were singing, but singing along with a full-bodied complement of recorded voices and instruments.
A few years later, at a news conference following his takeover of Jim Bakker’s troubled theme park, a friend of mine was the reporter who asked him if he was going to go down the Heritage USA water slide. "Of course not," he said, "you’re not going to see me go near that water slide." But later his keen marketing sense must’ve realized what a great story that would be. Sure enough, after a pledge drive reached its goal, he went down the water slide dressed in full suit and tie.
He was known to be controversial at times, and he wasn’t afraid to speak out for what he truly believed. Some of his comments appeared buffonish, and got him into trouble. However I noticed that sometimes the problem was as much the way the comment was interpreted and reported as what he had originally said, in context. As the pastor of one of the largest churches in Virginia, and the founder of a university, he was not unsophisticated. Most reporters just didn’t understand his conservative Christian faith and politics.
Another reporter friend lamented that major U.S. media always seem to turn to Falwell and Pat Robertson as the spokesmen for evangelical Christianity in America, long after they had used up most of their political currency. Certainly evangelical Christianity is much broader and more diverse than the fundamentalism represented by Jerry Falwell. But as someone who was willing to stand up for what he believed and defend it vigorously, and represent millions of Americans who felt the same way, Jerry Falwell was an American original.