John King: Falwell had many sides -- some surprising

Story Highlights

• Falwell led religious conservatives to become a political force
• He founded Lynchburg Bible College -- now Liberty University -- in 1971
• CNN's King covered Falwell as far back as the 1980s for The Associated Press

John King
CNN Chief National Correspondent

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In our Behind the Scenes series, CNN correspondents share their experiences in covering news around the world. John King, CNN's chief national correspondent, writes about his experience covering The Rev. Jerry Falwell from Columbia, South Carolina, where he is covering the debate between Republican presidential candidates.

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- A conversation with the Rev. Jerry Falwell was always a colorful journey through the intersections of religion and politics.

A little more than a year ago, in an interview at his Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, the self-described "old warrior" of the Moral Majority was openly relishing a chance to get back into the arena of presidential politics.

He had made peace with Sen. John McCain -- who in Campaign 2000 had labeled Falwell among the "agents of intolerance" in American politics -- and said he looked forward to traveling and otherwise helping McCain deal with opposition and reservations among many social conservative leaders.

"I think he is a great man. He is an American hero, could be our next president and I could support him," Falwell said of McCain in the April 2006 conversation.

Why was he so eager to make peace with a man who had delivered such a strongly worded rebuke?

"John is just as human as the rest of us," Falwell said.

Plus, as always, Falwell had made a political calculation.

"For those of us social conservatives, he at this moment by far is the strongest candidate we could field against Hillary Clinton," Falwell said of McCain. "There is no question in my mind Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic candidate."

In conversations dating back to the late 1980s, when I covered the so-called Religious Right extensively in my old job as The Associated Press chief political correspondent, he was always colorful and, at times, quite combative and controversial when discussing his views of homosexuality and other social and cultural issues.

So I was struck in the conversation a year ago when he showed another side: As president of Liberty University, he said, one of his proudest accomplishments was assembling a stronger athletic program and he smiled profusely and talked warmly of the progress made by the school's women's basketball team.

He called himself an "old softie, I guess," and said being around so many young students on campus -- where most students called him Dr. Falwell but some would enthusiastically yell out, "Hi, Jerry!" -- was helping to keep him young and invigorated.

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