From the Moral Majority to a Moral Meltdown
The title of today’s column is the same as the title of my homily last Sunday, May 25, 2025. On this day, my wife and I—along with our local Liberty Fellowship family—commemorated the 50th anniversary of my ordination into the ministry. My message was a brief reflection of what I have seen and experienced in the last half-century. This column will be the same.
I began last Sunday’s message with my boyhood, but I’ll begin this column from the time I was 27 years old (four years into the ministry) and had accepted a leadership position in the newly formed Moral Majority.
The Moral Majority
At the personal invitation of Dr. Jerry Falwell, I was the Executive Director of the Florida Moral Majority from 1979 – 1989. During my years with the Moral Majority, I met most of the leaders of the Religious Right. I couldn’t count the number of meetings I attended in Washington, D.C. I had personal audiences with President Ronald Reagan and then Vice President George H.W. Bush—and met Pat Buchanan for the first time. He later came and spoke at our church in Florida to a packed-out auditorium.
I travelled with Jerry on his jet on multiple trips (I didn’t know then that the jet was a gift from the State of Israel). I traveled with him overseas on two separate occasions; he featured me in his National Liberty Journal; I had a guest appearance on his national television program, the Old Time Gospel Hour; I spoke at the school, and Jerry spoke at my church several times.
I say all of that to simply let all of you know my background.
Most of the grassroots pastors in the Moral Majority were good, decent, honest men who truly wanted to do what was right for God and country. I later discovered, however, that some of the national leadership—and I’m not here pointing the finger at Jerry—seemed to have visions of political power and financial reward.
Remember, I was only 27 when I began this journey.
I remember a press conference with the Religious Right’s national leaders in Washington, D.C., in which a reporter asked the men on stage, “What is it that you really want?”
When I heard the question, I thought to myself, “What a perfect question. What a great opportunity to give the nation a truncated but descriptive summary of what we were all about.”
I was shocked when I heard one of the men (not Jerry Falwell) say, “All we want is a seat at the table.”
The answer stunned me. I remember thinking to myself, “What? All of this effort, expense, energy—blood sweat and tears—was so some of us could have a seat at the king’s table?” I later discovered that that was exactly what some of them seemed to want.
I can honestly say that much good came about due to the work of the Moral Majority, especially at many State and local levels—and even at the national level to some degree.
However, the ultimate (and persisting) result of those years was not so good. I’m talking about the political marriage between evangelical Christians and the Republican Party. To this day, that marriage remains intact.
Throughout America, evangelical pastors and Christians will turn their backs on spiritual friendships, courageous, truth-telling pastors (pastor-friends), spiritually minded family members or anyone else in deference to a Republican politician—especially a Republican president. And it doesn’t matter one whit how immora
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LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
