I hate to burst your bubble... but Falwell was essentially a Southern-fried cult leader in all but name. No historically honest TL is going to meet what you would consider a "realistic" portrayal.
One man's cult is another's respected world religion. You are entitled to your opinion but as someone who is old enough to remember the years in question, it is
my opinion that the subject is a bit more complicated and
can be portrayed with more nuance. The wording used to describe Jerry Falwell and his church implies several biases that many share on this forum, i.e. that all religious people are ignorant, reactionary morons, and that all Southern Americans are unreconstructed racists. If one says that "some" religious people are ignorant, reactionary morons, and that "some" Southern Americans are unreconstructed racists one would, of course, be accurate. But to paint all religious people and Southern Americans (and Baptists for that matter) with this broad brush is, in my opinion, cartoonish.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell is described as "bombastic." That is the usual description of the typical cliché, racist Southern Protestant pastor. I would ask, has the author ever actually heard the Rev. Jerry Falwell speak? I am not a Baptist but I have access to Youtube and wanted to know how he actually sounded. His speaking delivery is very calm. He doesn't even speak with a Southern accent, which is what one would expect from a "bombastic" Southern preacher. There are preachers from many other denominations that can fairly be described as having a speaking style that is "bombastic." Jerry Falwell isn't one of them. Has the author listened to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr's classic speech "I have a dream?" It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest speeches of the Twentieth Century. The delivery style is that used by many Southern American ministers of many denominations of the period and isn't just restricted to African-American ministers. I'd say there is a bit of "bombast" in his delivery style. But one cannot deny that it is very inspiring. Jerry Falwell delivery style is very warm and reasonable, and, whether one agrees with the actual content of what he saying, you can see why he attracted the following that he did. But "bombastic" he ain't.
The author describes the founding membership of the Thomas Road Baptist Church as "thirty four other disaffected evangelicals." How does the author know this? What is his definition of "disaffected?" He implies the sole motivation for the founding of the church was racism. How does he know this? The conservatives of the time were clearly upset with more than just desegregation. They were concerned with the erosion of Biblical morality in a society that they perceived as abandoning God. I suspect the author has either a Catholic background or has some familiarity with Catholicism. He reveals this by having George Wallace address Rev. Falwell as "Father," which was something the anti-Catholic Protestant world abhorred. He would have more naturally addressed him as "Reverend" or "Pastor.
The dominant religion of the American South is Baptist even though so many of the attitudes and mores of many Southerners are inherited from their fighting Scots-Irish Calvinist Presbyterian ancestors. I will leave it to historians to debate the influence of New England Puritans on them. Incidentally, the author makes reference to the founding of New England calling the founders of the Plymouth Colony "Puritans." Many historians prefer the term "separatists" using the term "puritan" for the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the Great Migration that began a decade after the founding of Plymouth in 1620. My sense is the Pilgrims were more radical than the classic Puritans and wanted to separate themselves from the Anglican Church which they considered a lost cause, whereas the Puritans only wanted to purify it and only left because of opposition to their ideas by those in power.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. were both Baptists. The core doctrines of both men's faith were the same, yet Falwell is "bad" and is a "southern-fried cult leader," but Martin Luther King, Jr. is "good." As the grandfather of three African-American grandchildren (who are the smartest and best-looking children in town) I absolutely abhor Falwell's and Wallace's support for segregation. Making Jerry Falwell and George Wallace into cartoonish evil men moves the story along, but, like all of us, both men were much more complicated people living in times quite unlike our own. By the end of their lives, both men were singing a different tune regarding racism (whether sincerely or insincerely I do not know). Perhaps the author could bring them to an earlier sincere conversion to righteousness in this timeline?
