The leaders included the masterminds behind employing mass media to spread the gospel, mobilising Christian voters to be a political force, and supporting the ministry of the world’s most recognisable evangelist.
The following is a list of some of the great American Christian leaders who died in 2007:
The Rev Jerry Falwell
1933-2007
Jerry Falwell will probably best be remembered for founding the Moral Majority in 1979 – a political organization with an evangelical Christian agenda that helped elect Ronald Regan to the White House.
He organised conservative Christian voters around the issues of abortion, gay rights, pornography and school prayers. Falwell is also credited with founding Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, one of the nation’s first megachurches, and founding Liberty University, one of the largest evangelical Christian colleges in the world.
Yet Falwell will also be remembered as a controversial figure who blamed the September 11 attacks on America’s moral decline, pointing to gays, lesbians, abortion providers and feminists. He also denounced the “Teletubbies” children’s TV programme for promoting homosexuality and warned parents that the show was morally damaging to children.
Nonetheless, Falwell’s influence on American Christianity and politics remain undeniable.
Ruth Bell Graham
1920-2007
Ruth Bell Graham is best known as the wife of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham. But many close to her will remember her as the “anchor of faith” and ministry partner to her husband, who many consider the greatest evangelist in history.
Graham grew up in China and what is now North Korea as the daughter of Presbyterian medical missionaries. She gave up her own dreams of serving as a missionary to marry the Rev Billy Graham and raise their five children.
Family and friends describe her as independent, humorous, kind and faithful.
