This week in Christian history: ‘Pastor’s Pastor’ born, Jerry Falwell Sr., Revolutionary sermon

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Twitter

Jerry Falwell Sr. dies – May 15, 2007

This week marks the anniversary of when the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., notable leader in the Religious Right and father of Jerry Falwell Jr., the head of Liberty University, died of heart failure.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell looks around the inside of an auxiliary sanctuary at the new Thomas Road Baptist Church on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., June 20, 2006.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell looks around the inside of an auxiliary sanctuary at the new Thomas Road Baptist Church on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., June 20, 2006. | AP/Steve Helber

A native of Lynchburg, Virginia, Falwell founded the Moral Majority, a major conservative Christian political coalition, and became prominent in American politics during the 1980s.

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Falwell also established Thomas Road Baptist Church, Liberty University, and a few nonprofit organizations centered on helping alcoholics and unwed mothers.

“The rise of Christian conservatism — and the Moral Majority's full-throated condemnation of homosexuality, abortion and pornography — made Falwell perhaps the most recognizable figure on the evangelical right, and one of the most controversial ones,” noted CBS News at the time of his death.

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