A Jerry-Built Coalition Regroups

By Richard N. Ostling

The name was catchy, bold and more than a trifle arrogant. Moral Majority. Rarely has an organization set so many teeth on edge so rapidly. The man who founded this multifaith right-wing organization in 1979 was a Fundamentalist of modest renown who was fast on his feet and firm in his convictions. Within a year, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, riding the Reagan tide, had become the most prominent spokesman for the loose coalition known as the Religious Right.

Last week, with the Reagan presidency in deepened shadows, the house that Jerry built was entering a twilight of its own. Falwell abruptly announced that he was resigning as president of Moral Majority and the related Liberty Federation. He expects to continue sounding off on politics, but will shun the organizing and lobbying of the past eight years. Henceforth, declared Falwell, it is "back to preaching, back to winning souls."

A year ago Falwell stated that it was time for him to de-emphasize politics and stick closer to his base in Lynchburg, Va. That intention was deflected when he became emergency overlord of the scandal-pocked PTL ministry, only to quit in frustration last month. Now he will concentrate on building a new $30 million, 11,000-seat home for his Baptist church, increasing enrollment from 8,000 to 12,000 at his Liberty University and reinvigorating support for his troubled TV program.

The exit of Falwell plainly ends the initial era of the Religious Right and quickens speculation on its prospects in the next phase. Even as Pat Robertson escalates his evangelically inspired presidential bid, recent tidings seem to amount to a threnody of waning influence for the movement. Television ministries have had a particularly rocky time. The Contribute or Else I Die campaign of Oral Roberts disgusted many Americans as well as his own church, which ruled last month that Roberts' status is not, and never has been, that of a United Methodist clergyman. Above all, the horrendous PTL scandal has harmed the image of TV preachers. And still, PTL's dethroned and defrocked founder, Jim Bakker, struggles to stay onscreen. Last week he was forced to cancel a 19-city Farewell for Now tour after ticket sales proved nonexistent.

Nor have political events lifted spirits. The 1986 Senate elections were disastrous for the Moral Majority's preferred candidates. Last month's defeat of Robert Bork, an ideal Supreme Court nominee from the movement's standpoint, further suggested a loss of clout. As for issues like abortion and school prayer, Moral Majority spent millions "without achieving one piece of legislation," observes Evangelical Theologian Carl F.H. Henry. Fundamentalists this year also lost three significant court cases dealing with curriculum grievances against public schools.

Is the interment of Moral Majority next? Falwell stoutly pronounces the organization in sound shape, with annual revenues of $8.4 million and a mailing list of 6 million names. But it is not likely to be as visible a part of the landscape under Falwell's anointed successor, Atlanta Entrepreneur Jerry Nims. Says Robert Skolrood, director of the National Legal Foundation: "We have passed through our strident period."

Activists like Skolrood believe that the Religious Right, far from fizzling, will now be "more sophisticated and more encompassing." There are compelling signs of a quieter political competence. Sociologist Nancy Ammerman of Emory University points to "grass-roots organizations all over the place putting the conservative agenda in place -- locally, not nationally. Now they walk through the halls of capitols and do horse trading." In a parallel development, Fundamentalists have been steadily consolidating control of the nation's largest Protestant denomination, the 14.6 million-member Southern Baptist Convention. One indicator of their impact was last month's resignation of the moderate president at Southeastern Baptist seminary in North Carolina following a Fundamentalist takeover of his board.

Meanwhile, the presidential campaign of Pat Robertson makes him the movement's new "undisputed leader," in the estimation of Political Analyst Kevin Phillips, who adds, "That's what he's running for." Robertson would dispute that. He calculates that winning the Republican nomination is "almost a done deal," in the words of an aide. A more plausible scenario, considering Robertson's stupendous negative ratings in some polls, is that he could capture just enough delegate strength to be a power broker between George Bush and Robert Dole.

Barring a major stumble, though, Robertson promises to emerge with durable political influence. For the moment, he is pointedly keeping the Religious Right at arm's length to broaden his appeal, and in talks refers to his previous vocation as "businessman," not "evangelist." He has quit the Southern Baptist clergy and ceded control of his Christian Broadcasting Network to Son Timothy. But his organization of volunteers and financial supporters draws heavily upon the Christian Right and is one of the most substantial political infrastructures ever built in the U.S. on a religious base. It should carry Robertson and his smoothly polished message into the 1990s.

Robertson's ascendancy and the Religious Right's new grass-roots savvy only partly answer the question of where the movement will go, however. The end of the Falwell era should inspire a sweeping re-examination of the way conservative Christians separate church and state. As it happens, one vision is already being forcefully argued by Charles Colson, the Watergate felon turned prison evangelist, in his articulate new book Kingdoms in Conflict (Morrow/Zondervan; $15.95). Colson's criticisms of the Religious Right are especially noteworthy, coming as they do from a biblically conservative Southern Baptist who joins with the movement in decrying America's continued drift toward dangerous immorality and secularism.

Colson favors Christian activism by individuals and special-purpose groups but believes that because modern America is a pluralistic society, it is "not only wrong but unwise" to try to make doctrine the basis for public policy. He is wary of official political stands by religious groups, except in the case of such manifest evils as slavery and Nazism. Though against rigid church-state separation, Colson argues that each institution has a distinct, God-given role. Churches should emphasize spirituality and avoid the corrupting enticements of political power. Similarly, he opposes government- organized school prayers, insisting that "propagating moral vision" should be the job of the church, not the state.

Colson's warnings echo a concern that religious conservatives would be reckless to ignore. "Americans are suspicious now of linking 'thus saith the Lord' with political specifics," says Richard Mouw of California's Fuller Theological Seminary. Evangelical Theologian Henry counsels, "You shouldn't say that the Bible requires every legislative position you take. Christians should use reasons that the secular community uses, such as appealing to the greater good for the greater number." Even Falwell agrees that change is nigh. He has always enjoyed having the last word, and once more he has it: "Never again will there be a Ronald Reagan-Jerry Falwell dual view for the Religious Right. It is now a sophisticated movement with many leaders who are issues-oriented. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the Moral Majority is dead. It is no longer one person."

With reporting by Laurence I. Barrett/Washington and Joseph J. Kane/Atlanta