Religion: Jerry Falwell Spreads the Word

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Besides his church base and political legion, Falwell during the past 14 years has created a Fundamentalist college, Liberty University, that teaches 6,500 students on a lush, wooded 4,400-acre campus in Lynchburg. Each year Liberty sends out some 300 graduates to churches around the country, a growing network of supporters ready to serve Falwell's Fundamentalist causes. Thus far, 700 of them are pastors of their own churches in the U.S.

Falwell himself marches into the secular world with his chin outthrust. Unlike the many electronic ministers who flee direct questioning, Falwell challenges hostile outsiders. He travels 8,000 miles a week, lashing out at abortion, pornography and homosexuality. He has been to Harvard to duel with jeering students who spilled over into three auditoriums to hear him, and to Oxford to debate Prime Minister David Lange of New Zealand about nuclear weapons. He dares Scientist Carl Sagan to debate creationism; Sagan has declined the challenge. He has a private session with South Africa's President P.W. Botha and sides publicly with his white government.

Falwell these days, however, is less the bullying, backwater figure that he used to be. Gone are the polyester suits, half boots and swept-back hairdo of his early ministry. A cruel streak used to show up in his arguments then. Today the belligerency is more concealed, although last week's attack on Bishop Desmond Tutu demonstrates that the streak runs deep. Falwell used to rail that homosexuals would spend an eternity in hell. He still condemns homosexuality but now expresses sympathy for those who practice it. Abortionists are not routinely labeled murderers. The less obnoxious Falwell of today draws far fewer protesters. "The liberal establishment has lost its fire," he says.

But the street fighter in Falwell still shows through. Six feet tall, a big man with a waistline that rides over his belt, he walks right up to anti- Falwell demonstrators and pumps their hands. He usually wears dark suits and shoes and always carries a Bible. His deep, booming voice dominates all encounters. Up every morning at 6 after only five hours' sleep, he reads from Scripture for about an hour. Falwell does no exercise, watches little television except for boxing and TV news and spends hours on the phone. He has a surface knowledge of history, philosophy and even the current affairs on which he makes pronouncements.