Called Back to Duty

As the fight between John McCain and George W. Bush grew more heated, Jerry Falwell began to feel restless. He was irked by the personal nature of McCain's attacks against him and Pat Robertson. What's more, he feared that even if Bush, his candidate, prevailed, he would be weakened going into the general election.

At the same time, some of the titans of the religious right came to Falwell with similar concerns and a message: we need to mobilize like we haven't since the heyday of the Moral Majority. Falwell would not name names, but one well-placed source says advocates of a new mobilization included Richard Viguerie, the conservative direct-mail expert, and Paul Weyrich, head of the Free Congress Foundation (who recently had been urging Christians to withdraw from politics).

Falwell himself didn't take much convincing. "We've got to do it now, quickly," he says. "Another four years of Clinton-Gore would devastate this country."

While the details are still taking shape, it is looking as if Falwell's effort will dwarf anything he's done since the apex of his influence in the 1980s.

"He was called back to duty," says Armstrong Williams, a political commentator, Beliefnet columnist, and Falwell friend.

In an interview Friday, Falwell told Beliefnet he will raise between $10 million and $15 million to send direct mail to "several million" homes between now and Election Day, hoping to persuade conservatives to register and vote. The effort, called People of Faith 2000, will include using his network of 200,000 ministers and Christian leaders and a direct-mail campaign to sign up new voters.

He's shooting for 10 million registered voters--and, he hopes, a victory for Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

"It's Moral Majority Two," said John Green, a scholar of the religious right. "A lot of these original players of the religious right want to get back in the game."

Continued on page 2: »