Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. (1933-2007) was a prominent American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative political activist. Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, he founded the Thomas Road Baptist Church in 1956, which grew into a megachurch, and launched the Old-Time Gospel Hour radio and television program shortly thereafter to broadcast his sermons nationwide. Falwell established the Lynchburg Christian Academy in 1967 and Liberty University (originally Liberty Baptist College) in 1971, institutions that became central to his evangelical empire. In 1979, he co-founded the Moral Majority, a political organization that mobilized conservative Christians to influence American politics, particularly supporting the Republican Party and candidates like Ronald Reagan. Falwell was a staunch supporter of Israel and traditional family values, but his career was marked by controversies, including early segregationist stances, inflammatory remarks blaming societal ills on homosexuals and feminists, and public statements linking the 9/11 attacks to American moral decay. His influence peaked in the 1980s as the Moral Majority helped shape the Religious Right's role in U.S. politics, though the group disbanded in 1989 amid criticisms of mixing religion and politics. In 2004, he founded the Faith and Values Coalition as a successor organization. He faced legal challenges, notably a high-profile libel lawsuit against Hustler magazine in 1983, which he lost in a landmark 1988 Supreme Court decision protecting parody under the First Amendment. Falwell's legacy includes building a vast media and educational network, but he was widely criticized for promoting intolerance, with accusations of racism in his early ministry (he opposed civil rights legislation in the 1960s) and homophobia. He remained a key figure for Republican campaigns until his death from a heart attack in 2007 at age 73.