Falwell Launches 'Faith and Values Coalition' to Maintain Post-election 'Evangelical Revolution'
Dr. Jerry Falwell, founder of Liberty University, launches a national organization designed to resurrect the Moral Majority.
Hoping to use the momentum of the November 2 elections in which “values voters” re-elected President Bush, Dr. Jerry Falwell announced the formation of The Faith and Values Coalition, a national organization designed to keep up the “evangelical revolution of voters who will continue to go to the polls and ‘vote Christian.’”
With 71-year-old Falwell serving as the national chairman for the next four years, the group plans to seek to confirm pro-life judicial nominees, pass a constitutional Federal Marriage Amendment, and elect another conservative president in the 2008 elections.
“Essentially, TFVC is a 21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority,” Falwell said in a press release.
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Alongside Falwell, Mathew Staver, founder, president and general counsel of the Orlando, Florida-based Liberty Counsel, will serve as vice-chairman and Falwell's son, Jonathan Falwell, will serve as executive director. Renowned author and theologian Dr. Tim LaHaye will serve as the Coalition's board chairman.
"One of our primary commitments is to help make President Bush"s second term the most successful in American history," said Falwell. "He will certainly need the consistent prayer and support of the evangelical community as he continues to spearhead the international war on terror and the effort to safeguard America."
According to Falwell, the organization will have three platforms:
1. The confirmation of pro-life, strict constructionist U.S. Supreme Court justices and other federal judges
2. The passage of a constitutional Federal Marriage Amendment
3. The election of another socially- fiscally- and politically-conservative president in 2008, along with other state and national candidates.
He said his new leadership role in TFVC reminded him of a similar commitment he made when he found and began leading an organization called Moral Majority in April 1979.
“At that time, God burdened my heart to mobilize religious conservatives around a pro-life, pro-family, strong national defense and pro-Israel platform, designed to return America to her Judeo-Christian heritage,” Falwell recalled.
Falwell noted that during Moral Majority"s heyday, "we registered millions of new voters and re-activated millions more. More than 100,000 pastors, priests and rabbis and nearly seven million families joined hands and hearts to reclaim America for God. Many historians believe the result was the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and the genesis of what the media calls the 'Religious Right.'"
After ten years of leadership, Falwell disbanded the organization to focus on the expansion of Liberty University.
But he said he distinctively feels that burden again.
“Our nation simply cannot continue as we know it if we allow out-of-control lawmakers and radical judges -- working at the whims of society -- to alter the moral foundations of America,” said Falwell.
He pointed to what he saw as indisputable election results which were “a mandate on marriage and morality.”
“President Bush was reelected. Eleven family initiatives passed overwhelmingly in favor of traditional marriage, and opposing same-sex marriage. Unprecedented victories in the Senate and the House strengthened the President’s hand for future congressional action,” said Falwell.
He continued, "Tom Daschle, the Senate Minority Leader who had consistently obstructed President Bush's efforts to appoint constructionist judges, was defeated. His defeat should serve as a powerful indicator that we have the power to effectively take on politicians who are under the spell of the potent abortion-rights organizations across this nation.”
Adding that he “shed tears of joy” when he saw the return of his work, he stated, “Nearly 116 million Americans voted. More than 30 million were evangelical Christians who, according to the pollsters, voted their moral convictions. I proudly say... they voted Christian!"
Falwell attributes election victory to several evangelical leaders, including Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, Dr. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association, Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, Dr. John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, and the many national leaders of the Arlington Group, the upstart alternative Internet news sites and more than 225,000 evangelical pastors.
Falwell said he is now “lending my influence to help send out at least 40 million evangelical voters in 2008” and to finish what he started a quarter of a century ago.
Said Falwell, “With more than seven decades now in the rear view mirror, I can honestly say that I feel the leading of the Holy Spirit to answer that call and to once again mobilize people of faith to reclaim this great country as 'one nation under God.'”
Although he said is fulfilling his “light of the world” calling by continuing to serve as pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church and chancellor of Liberty University, he is “praying for the strength and wisdom to also successfully complete my 'salt of the earth' ministry.”
“America is worth saving. Our children and children"s children will hold us accountable if we fail."
He said the TFVC will task of bringing this nation back to the moral values of faith and family on which it was founded be organizing in all 50 states and "enlisting and training millions of Americans to become partners in this exciting."
Falwell said his National Liberty Journal newspaper will serve as a springboard for the TFVC effort.
He concluded, “I urge my friends around the country to immediately get involved and join me in this four-year commitment, which is really an investment in America, in our children and in our children's children.”
