Shadows of Success

Will history look back and see him as a politician or as a churchman? And then how will they judge him. The postmortems have become and one of the most incisive is provided by Alan Wolfe in Salon.

Wolfe suggests that Falwell's religious legacy is minimal -- he made little contribution to America's religious life. Instead, it is to politics that Falwell's contribution has been most pronounced, and even here his success has been mixed. The Moral Majority was his creation and it did draw conservative Christians out of the shadows of separatism to engaging the political world. Indeed, he broke barriers by drawing in conservative Catholics, Mormons, and Jews into his web of opposition to all things "immoral." But the Moral Majority would collapse, and it would be the Ralph Reeds and the Karl Roves who would most effectively brought conservative religion and conservative politics into the same orbit....

As for why Falwell gained such fame, Wolfe suggests that it was cable TV -- where Falwell's bombastic style fit well the Fox News need for the off the wall statement. In a previous generation he would have been easily ignored and forgotten and yet here we are discussing his legacy. Wolfe suggests, however, that there really is no legacy.

[via Ponderings on a Faith Journey]