A VISIONARY GIANT — MY FRIEND, JERRY FALWELL — HAS DIED

By Howard Phillips

My friend, Dr. Jerry Falwell, died today (May 15).

I met Jerry in 1977 when, together with Ed McAteer, Field Director of The Conservative Caucus, I drove at high speed from Vienna, Virginia to Lynchburg, so as not to be late for what was to have been a 15- or 20-minute meeting with Dr. Falwell. It turned into a three-hour discussion in which we persuaded Jerry to mount a pro-active defense against those who were attacking Christian principles, Christian values, and public policies based on Biblical law.

During a series of meetings, I proposed that the name of a new organization which Jerry would lead be the “Moral Majority”. In this, I was supported by several of Dr. Falwell’s colleagues, including Arthur DeMoss (head of the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company).

Jerry and I worked closely on a great many projects.

In 1978, The Conservative Caucus (TCC) was about to unleash a 2 million piece mailing to help line up votes against the Jimmy Carter-Howard Baker Panama Canal Treaties. The only problem was the printer had produced the contents of the mailing in such a manner that they could not be inserted by machine in the outer envelopes.

I mentioned the problem to Dr. Falwell, and he immediately offered to make available 200 of his volunteers to handstuff the envelopes. They promptly did so and we got out the mailing on time.

In 1980, Dr. Falwell and I were part of a small group that met with Ronald Reagan on the day when he would choose his Vice Presidential running mate. Dr. Falwell was pushing Jack Kemp. I was promoting Jesse Helms, but before we left the meeting I realized that, under pressure from Nancy Reagan and Jim Baker, the GOP nominee had already decided to select George H. W. Bush.

In 1981, at a meeting of the Council for National Policy, Jerry pulled me aside and told me he had decided to support Vice President Bush to be Reagan’s successor at the 1988 Presidential Nominating Convention. I protested, saying that Bush stood for a great many things with which both Jerry and I profoundly disagreed. Jerry replied that, by backing Vice President Bush early on, he would gain his confidence and have greater influence over his policies.

In 1983, when my friend, Congressman Lawrence Patton McDonald, was murdered by the Soviet Union in their shootdown of the Korean Airliner 007, I ran a memorial service at Constitution Hall at which Dr. Falwell was a major speaker. He made available his jet to transport me and McDonald’s widow to the memorial service.

In 1986, shortly after I returned from leading a group of American conservatives to South Africa, several South African individuals turned up on my doorstep wanting to tell their story about Communist terrorism in their native land. One was a woman who had been disfigured by an African National Congress bomb in a railway station. Others were John and Cindy Leontsenis, leaders of a group called Victims Against Terrorism. They had fled Chile when Salvadore Allende was on the verge of turning that country over to Fidel Castro. The visitor with the most anguished experience was a woman whose husband and two sons had been necklaced (in other words burned to death with tires around their necks) by Nelson Mandela’s thugs.

I brought their accounts to the attention of Ted Koppel, who was running “Nightline” and with whom, at that point, I had a cordial relationship.

Our visit to Koppel’s Green Room was on the same day when there were soccer riots in Belgium, and Koppel refused to pay any heed to the accounts of my guests, indicating that their stories of terrorism did not comport with his personal priorities.

I then contacted Dr. Falwell and his able associate, Ron Godwin, and, immediately, Jerry invited my visitors to speak that Sunday at a taping of his “Old Time Gospel Hour”. He also arranged for them to be interviewed on the local ABC TV affiliate in Lynchburg. In every way he was extraordinarily gracious.

In subsequent years, I had a number of excellent discussions and meetings with Dr. Falwell.

Just a few days before his death, Jerry had an extended conversation with my oldest son, Doug, and had agreed to be the keynote speaker at Doug’s Jamestown celebration during the second week of June. He even said he would bring several hundred students from Liberty University to participate in the celebration.

Jerry Falwell was a terrific family man, a wonderful preacher, a great visionary, and a successful administrator.

His Thomas Road Baptist Church, which I have visited on several occasions, now has 24,000-plus members. Liberty University has about 15,000 students on campus and another 15,000 people who participate in a long-distance learning program.

This is just a small bit of what Dr. Falwell did with his time and his energy. My condolences go out to his wife, Macel, and his three children — one of whom, Jonathan, is now executive pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church. His daughter, Jeannie, is a physician and his son, Jerry, Jr., is a successful attorney and realtor.