Read Ruth Gledhill on the death of Jerry Falwell

Jerry Falwell, the US televangelist who founded the Moral Majority and spearheaded the extraordinary political rise of America’s Christian conservatives, died today after sudden heart failure.

Falwell, 73, was the key figure in turning the Religious Right from a fringe group in the 1970s into the electoral powerhouse that today exerts enormous influence on the American political landscape.

Falwell, the small town son of an alcoholic father who sold bootleg liquor during Prohibition, was credited with registering millions of conservative voters to the Republican cause. He was treated as a conquering hero at Ronald Reagan’s re-election convention in 1984. In 1994, when Republicans took over Congress after decades of Democratic control, he boasted of getting 8 million new voters to the polls.

Although a waning influence within the Religious Right, with many Christian voters turning to a new generation of evangelists rather than his old school fundamentalism, Falwell’s Liberty University in Virginia was still an almost compulsory campaign stop for aspiring Republican presidential candidates.

John McCain, who in his 2000 primary battle with President Bush provoked the ire of millions of religious voters when he called Falwell and Pat Robertson, another fundamentalist, “agents of intolerance”, felt compelled to try a reconciliation in his current bid for the White House. He spoke at Liberty University in May 2006. Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker and another probable Republican contender, was due to speak at the college this Saturday.

Falwell, who had a history of health problems, has often courted controversy, most notably when he said the September 11 terror attacks were Divine punishment for gays, feminists and abortionists. He later apologised for the remark, blaming a lack of sleep. He also said on another occasion that Aids was God’s punishment for homosexuals.

Former President Jimmy Carter, a Baptist, once said that, speaking as a Christian, “Falwell can go straight to hell”.

The fundamentalist church that Falwell started in an abandoned bottling plant in 1956 grew into a religious empire that includes the 22,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, the Old Time Gospel Hour carried on television stations across America and the 7,700 student Liberty University. He built Christian elementary schools, homes for unwed mothers and a home for alcoholics.

Falwell initially opposed mixing religion and politics but he changed that view and in 1979 founded the Moral Majority. The political lobbying organisation grew to 6.5 million members and raised $69 million as it supported conservative politicians and campaigned against abortion, homosexuality, pornography and bans on school prayer.

Falwell’s legacy, and the continuing influence of the Religious Right, is profound. Today an evangelical president sits in the White House, “values” are a major campaign theme for both parties and Rudy Giuliani, the Republican presidential frontrunner and the only Republican candidate who supports abortion rights, could well see his candidacy destroyed because of the issue.

Within an hour of Falwell’s death, Mr McCain, the Arizona senator, issued a statement. “Dr Falwell was a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country,” he said.

Douglas Brinkley, a leading presidential historian, said: “His influence in politics was very real because he helped politicise evangelicals and other religious groups, the right side of the Southern Baptist Convention, so he was able to become a major political force.” Although a Falwell endorsement - and now one from his two sons who take over Liberty University - was still being sought by the 2008 Republican candidates, he had been eclipsed by other groups. The Christian right has diversified in recent years with modern evangelicals, concerned with issues such as global warming and global poverty, outnumbering the fundamentalists like Falwell and their narrow platform against gay rights and abortion.

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