Jerry Laymon Falwell (August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) was an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and politically conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded Lynchburg Christian Academy, later renamed Liberty Christian Academy, in 1967, founded Liberty University in 1971, and co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979.
Falwell and his twin brother Gene were born in the Fairview Heights area of Lynchburg, Virginia, on August 11, 1933, the sons of Helen Virginia (née Beasley) and Carey Hezekiah Falwell. His father was an entrepreneur and one-time bootlegger who was agnostic. His father shot and killed his brother Garland and died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1948 at the age of 55. His paternal grandfather was a staunch atheist. Jerry Falwell was a member of a group in Fairview Heights known to the police as "the Wall Gang" because they sat on a low concrete wall at the Pickeral Café. Falwell met Macel Pate on his first visit to Park Avenue Baptist Church in 1949; Macel was a pianist there. They married on April 12, 1958. The couple had two sons, Jerry Jr. (a lawyer who succeeded Jerry Sr. as president of Liberty University until 2020) and Jonathan (who succeeded Jerry Sr. as senior pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church, and became chancellor of Liberty University in 2023), and a daughter, Jeannie (a surgeon).
Falwell and his wife had a close relationship, and she supported him throughout his career. The Falwells often appeared together in public, and did not shy away from showing physical affection. Of his marriage, Falwell jokingly said: "Macel and I have never considered divorce. Murder maybe, but never divorce." Macel appreciated her husband's non-combative, affable nature, writing in her book that he "hated confrontation and didn't want strife in our home ... he did everything in his power to make me happy." The Falwells had been married for nearly 50 years when Jerry died.
Falwell graduated from Brookville High School in Lynchburg, and from then-unaccredited Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, in 1956. He enrolled there to subvert Pate's relationship with her fiancé, who was a student there. Falwell was later awarded three honorary doctorates: Doctor of Divinity (1968) from Tennessee Temple Theological Seminary, Doctor of Letters from California Graduate School of Theology, and Doctor of Laws from Central University in Seoul, South Korea.
In 1956, aged 22, Falwell founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church. Originally at 701 Thomas Road in Lynchburg, with 35 members, it became a megachurch. Also in 1956, Falwell began The Old-Time Gospel Hour, a nationally syndicated radio and television ministry. When Falwell died, his son Jonathan inherited his father's ministry, and took over as the church's senior pastor. The weekly program's name was then changed to Thomas Road Live.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Falwell spoke and campaigned against the civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. and the racial desegregation of public school systems by the federal government. Liberty Christian Academy (LCA, founded as Lynchburg Christian Academy) is a Christian school in Lynchburg that the Lynchburg News in 1966 called "a private school for white students".
Falwell opened The Lynchburg Christian Academy in 1967 as a segregation academy and a ministry of Thomas Road Baptist Church.
The Liberty Christian Academy is recognized as an educational facility by the Commonwealth of Virginia through the Virginia State Board of Education, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and the Association of Christian Schools International.
In 1971, Falwell co-founded Liberty University with Elmer L. Towns. Liberty University offers over 350 accredited programs of study, with approximately 16,000 students on-campus and 100,000 online.
During the 1980s, the Moral Majority became one of the largest political lobbies for evangelical Christians in the U.S. According to Falwell's autobiography, the Moral Majority was promoted as "pro-life, pro-traditional family, pro-moral, and pro-American" and was credited with delivering two-thirds of the white evangelical vote to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election. According to Jimmy Carter, "that autumn a group headed by Jerry Falwell purchased $10 million in commercials on southern radio and TV to brand me as a traitor to the South and no longer a Christian." As head of the Moral Majority, Falwell consistently supported Republican candidates and conservative politics. This led Billy Graham to criticize him for "sermonizing" about political issues that lacked a moral element. At the time of Falwell's death, Graham said: "We did not always agree on everything, but I knew him to be a man of God. His accomplishments went beyond most clergy of his generation."
In March 1987, Pentecostal televangelist Jim Bakker came under media scrutiny when it was revealed that he had a sexual encounter with, and allegedly raped, Jessica Hahn, and had paid for her silence. Bakker believed that fellow Pentecostal pastor Jimmy Swaggart was attempting to take over his ministry because he had initiated a church investigation into allegations of his sexual misconduct. To avoid the takeover, Bakker resigned on March 19 and appointed Falwell to succeed him as head of his PTL ministry, which included the PTL Satellite Network, television program The PTL Club and the Christian-themed amusement park Heritage USA.
Bakker believed Falwell would lead the ministry temporarily, until the scandal died down, but Falwell barred Bakker from returning to PTL on April 28, calling him "probably the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history". Later that summer, as donations to the ministry declined in the wake of Bakker's scandal and resignation, Falwell raised $20 million to keep PTL solvent and delivered on a promise to ride the water slide at Heritage USA. Despite this, Falwell was unable to save the ministry from bankruptcy, and he resigned in October 1987.
Falwell advocated beliefs and practices influenced by his version of biblical teachings.
In 1989, he told Liberty University employees that membership in his church and tithing were mandatory.
Falwell felt the Vietnam War was being fought with "limited political objectives" when it should have been an all-out war against the North. In general, Falwell held that the president "as a minister of God" has the right to use arms to "bring wrath upon those who would do evil."
On his evangelist program The Old-Time Gospel Hour in the mid-1960s, Falwell regularly featured segregationist politicians like governors Lester Maddox and George Wallace. Of Martin Luther King Jr., he said: "I do question the sincerity and nonviolent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. James Farmer, and others, who are known to have left-wing associations."
Of Brown v. Board of Education, he said in 1958:
If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God's word and had desired to do the Lord's will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never have been made. The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line.