By Robert Shortt, RTÉ Washington Correspondent
If you cross from Washington DC into the state of Virginia, it doesn’t take long to notice the prevalence of huge, industrial sized red brick buildings, distinguished from factories by peaked gables topped with crosses.
This is mega-church country and one of the titans of the movement, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, died this week at the age of 73.
A divisive figure, he was hailed as a pioneer for the religious right.
He also made outrageous claims and offensive comments about those he opposed.
Infamously, he once claimed AIDS 'was the wrath of a just God against homosexuals.'
He left behind the Thomas Road Baptist Church with 22,000 members, a university that has become a shrine for conservatives and a political clout that some believe may have peaked, but is nonetheless recognised by friends and foes alike.
The religious right, as a political movement, owes much to Jerry Falwell.
In 1956, he began preaching sermons over the radio and quickly moved to television, becoming part of the emerging phenomenon of what would become known as televangelism.
In 1971, he founded Liberty University on the principles of evangelical Christianity. He initially shunned politics during the civil rights struggle in the US.
But the Supreme Court decision known as Roe Vs. Wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion, galvanised Falwell and others like him who believed their values were under threat.
He forged a coalition with other evangelical Christians known as the Moral Majority, which was credited with helping elect Ronald Reagan to the White House in 1980.
Over the next decade it became a touchstone for a growing, morally conservative core within the Republican Party.
Falwell dissolved the Moral Majority in 1989, insisting it had completed its work.
However the organisation had lost some of its moral influence when one of its leading preachers, Jim Bakker, was caught up in a scandal.
But it was only a temporary setback. The Moral Majority had shown the way for other Christian-right groups and figures like Pat Robertson to become involved in politics.
And it was noted by the political parties too.
The election and re-election of George Bush owed a lot to the successful mobilisation of so-called ‘values-voters’.
The establishment of the White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was one way the Bush Administration gave political pay-back.
Appointing Supreme Court judges anointed with the imprimatur of senior Chrisitan-right leaders was another.
But what it couldn’t deliver, notably a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and the growing importance of other issues on the political agenda, namely the War in Iraq, may see the importance of the religious right diminished in the upcoming election.
The current leader of the Republican field of candidates for the White House, Rudy Giuliani, seems to be gambling on this with his right-to-choose stance on abortion.
Jerry Falwell may well be remembered for claiming the purple TeleTubby Tinky Winky was a gay character, unsuitable for children’s viewing, or that the Antichrist would probably take the form of a Jewish male.
But the preacher from Lynchburg Virginia also proved how seriously powerful a potent modern mix of TV, religion and populist politics could be.
This report will also appear on World Report, this saturday on RTÉ Radio 1.
