The Moral Majority was a conservative religious and political group founded by the Reverend Jerry Falwell and a group of Baptist pastors from large churches throughout the United States in 1979. The group’s stated goal was to create a “nonpartisan political organization to promote morality in public life and to combat legislation that favored the legalization of immorality.” It became visible on the national level when it supported Republican Party nominee Ronald W. Reagan’s bid for the 1980 presidential election. By 1981 the organization had chapters in each of the 50 states, local affiliates, and a Washington, D. C., office. The group claimed to represent the “Moral Majority” of the American people. Fundamentalist and evangelical Christians provided the base of support. Paul Weyrich, president of Free Congress Foundation, coined the name “Moral Majority” and helped formulate its strategy as part of his three-decade effort to transform social and religious conservatives into political activists as part of the New Right movement.
Falwell graduated in 1956 from the Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, and was ordained by the Baptist Bible fellowship. Returning to his hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, Falwell founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church, and soon after, began radio and television broadcasts of his popular “Old Time Gospel Hour.” Falwell founded Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971. The Moral Majority, Inc., was founded eight years later. In its 10-year existence, the Moral Majority lobbied for prayer and the teaching of creationism in public schools and opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, homosexual rights, abortion, and the U. S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties. As a political action group composed of conservative, fundamentalist Christians, the Moral Majority played a role in helping to defeat the ERA. Furthermore, the Moral Majority helped mobilize Christian Evangelicals to become involved in politics. For the most part, these voters were conservative, born-again Christians, and the movement played a significant role in the 1980 elections through its strong support of New Right candidates.
On June 11, 1989, Reverend Falwell announced, “Our mission is accomplished.” Falwell said that the Moral Majority would permanently close its doors on August 31. Contributing significantly to the movement’s demise was the downfall of disgraced televangelists Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker. Although Falwell himself was not engaged in the events that ruined Bakker and Swaggart, the fallout effects of the scandals dealt a hurtful blow to every national ministry, including Falwell’s. In its final year, Moral Majority’s annual revenue fell to barely $3 million from a peak of $11.1 million in 1984.
Many former supporters of the Moral Majority found other vehicles for conservative political expression in movements like the Christian Coalition. Although clearly not representing the “majority” of American opinion, the Moral Majority sparked animated controversy among liberals and was the catalyst that began the political activism of formerly inactive evangelical, fundamentalist Christians, who had begun to flex their political muscle and found they too could shape the legislative process.
See also conservative movement; religion;
Televangelism.
—Michele Rutledge
World History
