Jerry Falwell’s announcement that he is leaving the Moral Majority came as no particular surprise. Yet coupled with his recent severing of ties with Jim Bakker’s scandal-ridden PTL ministry, Falwell’s announcement takes on greater significance. Although he will not be totally removed from the political scene (what pastor or college chancellor can?), his withdrawal from the Moral Majority and PTL provides an opportunity to assess his accomplishments with each.
The Moral Majority
If simply getting the dust to fly were the criterion by which a movement like the Moral Majority can be graded, Falwell would get straight As. He has accomplished everything leaders of great movements have done: he mobilized the masses, used the media masterfully, and made enemies galore.
But just getting the dust to fly by having the guts to state an opinion honestly and uncompromisingly should not be the standard by which Christians judge movements. We demand that goals be worthwhile, means honorable, and motivations selfless. Yet, even measured against those goals, Falwell gets better than passing grades.
To be sure, the Moral Majority has not been a perfect model of Christian political involvement. Even though it disavowed being a strictly fundamentalist Protestant movement (it also includes Catholics, Jews, and anyone else concerned about the issues it supports), the vast majority of its supporters have been fundamentalist Protestants. Questions have also been raised about fund raising and partisan politics, some of which even now demand fuller answers:
- Are the Moral Majority’s accountability structures adequate to supervise the financing of such an enterprise? Indications point to Falwell making all major decisions. Should one person have that kind of control, given the massive amounts of money involved?
- Why has the Moral Majority allowed itself to become virtually identified with the Republican party? Falwell has seemed, at times, nothing more than a political bellwether for the current administration, too eagerly flying trial balloons on South Africa, Israel, and defense spending. Not all Christians, even grassroots, conservative Christians, agree on how to solve those problems. The Moral Majority’s potential for conscientious comment on these value-laden issues has been made somewhat sluggish by the necessities of partisan politics. Thus, it has occasionally been forced to trade ethical force for power and influence. Perhaps that is an inevitable result of getting involved in the political process. But it has a number of Christians less eager to endorse wholeheartedly the Moral Majority’s efforts, even though many of its causes are right on target.
- Should an organization of this scale even exist? Since most of the money needed to do the work of the Moral Majority comes from small donations, are local-church contributions diminished in any way? The Moral Majority’s protestations notwithstanding, most people regard it as simply an extension of Falwell’s overall ministry, a church in political clothing. Does that put it in competition with smaller, more personalized ministries?
On balance, though, the Moral Majority has done what it intended to do: give grassroots conservatives a voice. And it mobilized two million of these voters, giving them a chance to fight the encroaching relativism of our culture.
Perhaps Falwell’s greatest accomplishment, however, was getting Protestants, Catholics, and Jews to work together on common causes. The Moral Majority is a coalition of groups that heretofore had let theological differences stand in the way of coordinated activity on shared concerns like abortion and pornography. It stands as a model of ecumenicity of the best sort—an agreement to work together on issues without trying simply to gloss over theological differences.
That such a foray into the dangerous waters of ecumenical action should come from a fundamentalist pastor is remarkable. It took laudable courage for Falwell to disavow the strict separatism of his roots. Having the courage to speak prophetically is usually associated with someone espousing extremely divisive opinions rather than someone looking for the common ground that our Judeo-Christian heritage provides, and then working together with all who will support such action. Rarely is enough credit given to such consensus builders.
PTL
No case illustrates this better than Falwell’s audacious attempt to short-circuit Jim and Tammy Bakker’s commitment to self-destruction at Heritage Village. By placing himself squarely between the fundamentalist and Pentecostal camps, Falwell opened himself to public vilification by the Pentecostals, and to the risk of further alienating the strict separatists in his own camp who had never quite adjusted to the Moral Majority’s philosophy. It was a courageous position, yet one consistent with the scripturally mandated goal of unity in the body of Christ.
The space between one Christian’s truth and another Christian’s truth is a no man’s land, dangerous even if one continually shouts the agreed-upon truths of Scripture. We need some people willing to live life between the shifting tectonic plates of modern denominationalism—people willing to forge brave new alliances while resisting both uncharitable fanaticism and unfaithful liberalism. Falwell was willing to do that, and he paid a price for his effort.
The extent of the price is still to be determined. The “Old-Time Gospel Hour,” Falwell’s television ministry, recently announced that 50 stations were being dropped. Whether due to the more general public suspicion about television evangelism (all the major televangelists report cutbacks and reduced viewer support) or a realigning of Falwell’s audience in particular, it is too soon to tell.
What Jerry Learned
The lesson of Falwell’s PTL and Moral Majority involvement is a good one. We simply cannot make progress in discipleship and evangelism by being timid and withdrawn, by hardening positions that need less to be frozen than to be melted and recast. The world is a constantly shifting place. It demands the very best from the whole church, not just little pockets of isolated firefighters. Through the Moral Majority and his PTL adventure, Jerry Falwell has added a piece to the puzzle of how we can evangelize the bewilderingly diverse world we live in.
Perhaps Falwell himself evaluates his PTL experience best. Regarding the task, he felt progress was made: “We brought some semblance of order out of chaos.” But he also recognizes the personal effect on him: “By training, Baptists distrust Pentecostals. As time went on, we came to love and respect one another. I’ll never again be as tough on Pentecostal issues as I have been in the past.”
Add one more good thing. Jerry Falwell is not leaving PTL and cutting back on his Moral Majority involvement to start a new, bigger, better organization. He returns to the local church pastorate. That in itself gives us a clue to Falwell’s priorities. It also is a shot in the arm to all of us who think the local church will play a crucial role in fighting the secularism of the twenty-first century.
By Terry Muck.
