The Moral Majority and Jerry Falwell, Segregation Academies, Coors Beer
In the late 20th century, the intersection of religion and politics took a formidable shape through figures like Jerry Falwell, who coined the Moral Majority, a movement that sought to mobilize conservative Christians in the United States. Amidst the civil rights movement, many private religious schools in the South, often referred to as segregation academies, resisted admitting Black students, reflecting a broader societal reluctance to embrace racial equality. This climate of exclusion was compounded by the financial and ideological support from influential figures like Paul Weyrich, Edwin Feulner, and Joseph Coors, who co-founded The Heritage Foundation in 1973. This think tank aimed to promote conservative policies, particularly in opposition to liberal social reforms, further entrenching the alliances between religious conservatism and racial segregation.
Jerry Falwell and Segregation Academies
Project 2025 wants to reform higher education to prevent education institutions, particularly faith-based institutions from adopting diversity, equity, and inclusion policies (DEI). This isn’t the first time this has happened. During the 1950s and 1960s, Jerry Falwell, the founder of Liberty Christian Academy, opened his school in 1967 as a segregation academy and as a ministry of Thomas Road Baptist Church. During this time, he campaigned against the civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. and the racial desegregation of public school systems by the US federal government.
Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend desegregated public schools. They were founded between 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional (Brown vs. Board of Education), and 1976, when the court ruled similarly about private schools (Runyon v. McCrary).
Equal in his Sight
In 1958, four years after Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Jerry Falwell preached a sermon entitled “Segregation or Integration: Which?”, where he then says “We have left God out of decisions altogether. If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God’s Word and had desired to do the Lord’s will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never have been made” (Equal in his Sight, pg. 11)
Falwell used Bible passages to justify the segregation of races, including Deuteronomy 32:8 and Genesis 9:18-27 (The Sons of Noah after the flood).
Falwell continued, “If we persist in tearing down God’s barriers, God must punish us for it. The theory of communism is social equality—but there is no such thing. Souls are of equal value and importance, but that is as far as we can go. The true negro does not want integration. He realizes his potential is far better among his own race. Who then is propagating this terrible thing?… Finally, we see the Devil himself behind it. What will integration of the races do to us? It will destroy our race eventually” (Equal in his Sight, pg 12)
Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1982
On July 10, 1970, the Internal Revenue Service announced it could "no longer legally justify allowing tax-exempt status to private schools which practice racial discrimination."[20] For a school to get or keep its tax-exempt status, it would have to publish a policy of non-discrimination and not practice overt discrimination. Many schools simply refused to comply. In the 1980s, Southern Republican Members of Congress such as Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond began to pressure the Reagan administration to halt revocation of tax-exempt status from segregation academies. In 1982, during congressional debate on the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1982, the administration considered support for such a policy, leading to what one of its aides called "our worst public-relations and political disaster yet."
The Moral Majority
Jerry Falwell also founded Liberty University, which failed to disclose crime data, including sexual assaults, bomb threats, and gas leaks.
Jerry Falwell also founded the Moral Majority (a phrase coined by Paul Weyrich, who co-founded the Heritage Foundation), which mobilized Christians to vote for Republicans based on social issues
The Moral Majority was predominately a Southern-oriented organization of the Christian Right, although its state chapters and political activity extended beyond the South.
The Moral Majority campaigned on several key issues, including the promotion of traditional family values and opposition to media outlets deemed anti-family. They opposed the Equal Rights Amendment and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, as well as any state recognition of homosexual acts. The group advocated for a prohibition on abortion in all cases, including incest and rape, supported Christian prayers in schools, and sought to proselytize Jews and other non-Christians for conversion to Christianity.
The Creation of the Heritage Foundation
In 1966, Paul Weyrich took on the role of press secretary for Republican U.S. Senator Gordon L. Allott of Colorado. During his time there, he met Jack Wilson, an aide to Joseph Coors, head of the Coors brewing family. Feeling dissatisfied with the existing public policy research, they established Analysis and Research Inc. in 1971, though the organization struggled to gain momentum.
In 1973, with financial backing from Joseph Coors, Paul Weyrich and Edwin Feulner co-founded The Heritage Foundation as a think tank aimed at countering liberal perspectives on taxation and regulation, which they viewed as anti-business. Initially, the organization had minimal influence, but it eventually grew into one of the world's largest public policy research institutes and played a significant role in promoting conservative policies. The following year, in 1976, again with Coors' support, Weyrich established the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (CSFC).
The pro-nazi Arrow Cross Party
The Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (CSFC) became involved in Eastern European politics after the Cold War, with significant contributions from Laszlo Pasztor, Paul Weyrich's right-hand man. Pasztor, a former leader of the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party in Hungary, had collaborated with Hitler's regime and spent two years in prison for his activities. After moving to the United States, he played a key role in establishing the ethnic outreach arm of the Republican National Committee.
Series: Reagan White House Photographs, 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989 Collection: White House Photographic Collection, 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Shoes on the Danube is a memorial on the bank of the Danube River in Budapest. It honors the Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. The Jews were ordered to take off their shoes, they were then shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies would fall into the river and were carried away. It represents their shoes left behind on the riverbank.
