US Christian leader Jerry Falwell dead at 73

WASHINGTON - Jerry Falwell, the conservative evangelical Christian leader whose Moral Majority became a potent US political force in the 1980s, died Tuesday, an official of Falwell's Liberty University said.
Falwell, 73, had a history of heart problems, and was found unconscious in his hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, the university's executive vice-president Ronald Godwin told a press conference.
Over a long career as a conservative firebrand, his Christian movement's alliance with Republican conservatives was key to helping elect Ronald Regan to the presidency twice in the 1980s.
But his reputation was also marked by inflammatory statements against blacks, Muslims, Jews, civil and women's rights activists as well as liberals in general.

05/15/2007 18:03 GMT