Jerry Falwell Describes the Goals of the “Moral Majority” (1980)

What do you think has caused the moral decadence as you see it? Well, a few years ago, about a generation ago, we were told that religion and politics don't mix and we accepted that without being told book chapter and verse. We were told politics is dirty business, you fellows run your churches and we'll run the government and they've done that right in the ground. And our country today, I didn't- I preached against what I'm doing 20 years ago, 15 years ago, because I never really believed that a Supreme Court of this country would legalize abortion on demand, which I've totally agree with the Roman Catholic Church is murder. It is and has resulted in seven to eight million murders of defenseless little babies since that time. That was the one catalyst that probably moved me into action more than anything else. I didn't know at the time what to do. I began preaching on my national television program about the atrocity of this genocide. Mormons began to rally beside me. Roman Catholics, Right to Life people began to come. And I began to realize that there is a coalition in this country of moralists.

They're not all evangelical by any means; moralists who share similar moral values. They're pro-life and pro-traditional family. Pro-moral meaning anti pornography anti drug scene pro-American, meaning strong superior national defense, pro Israel. And though we theologically have great differences, we we very much share those premises and are willing to fight together, not only on a theological basis. Moral Majority of which I am the head- it's not a religious organization. It is totally political, which allows us as citizens to sit down around these various high water marks in moral convictions and work together for moral change through the legislative process. Do you believe that if these folks do get organized, if you and others who are involved in this movement in a general way are able to get all of these folks you're talking about together and get them involved enough to vote in November that you could actually decide who the next president will be? Well I'm not saying that at all. We have registered approximately three million persons since January and we will probably conservatively register another one million between now November.

That is only scratching the surface because, as George Gallup indicated recently, there about 40 or 50 million of us and 45% of us were not registered at all as of last September, indicated by a poll that we paid for. So we have a mammoth job ahead of us, of registering our people, more than that getting them informed on the issues. We've been saying loud and clear at this conference, and everywhere we go, don't get tied to a candidate or a party. I am not a Reaganite. I am not a Republican in Virginia, one registers only as a voter fortunately. And although I am certainly conservative, not only in moral and theological issues, but as well in in the political realm. And most of our people are. We do not go so far as to think that one is not a Christian because he's a liberal or a liberal Democrat as somebody suggested the other night. But we do believe that there is a majority consensus out there that has been apathetic, asleep, uninvolved and that we have got to come to the forefront now and not for the purpose of control.

If there's anything we would fight against it's a Khomeini-type control by any religious rule. What we want is not control, it is influence, which we have not been exerted- exerting. We take the blame, we don't blame the politicians. Now we must stand up, be counted, get informed connect candidates and issues and we have 72,000 pastors, Roman Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, Mormon elders, fundamentalist, you name it, in Moral Majority over 2 million lay people. We have 50 states organized now, a state chairman, organizational groups that are principle-oriented that during 81, 82, 83, 84 and so on hopefully can make a tremendous difference in influencing this country back to moral sanity, back to a strong free enterprise system that is fast deteriorating, and back to superior national defense, which in my opinion is the best deterrent against war. Mr. Falwell. Charlayne?