Falwell Merges Moral Majority Into New Group

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, complaining that the press has “bloodied and beaten” the name of his Moral Majority, said today he is starting a new group with a different name and broader goals.

Although the Moral Majority will stay in existence, he said at a news conference, it will be merely be a subsidiary of the new Liberty Federation.

Through the federation, Falwell said he plans to expand efforts supporting national defense and budget-balancing--subjects many people don’t consider moral issues--and put more emphasis on fighting communism overseas.

The new federation will have an annual budget of $12 million, Falwell said, up from the Moral Majority’s $7 million, and Moral Majority members are being asked to join it through a mass mailing this month.

The television evangelist also wants to run 200 new conservative Christians for state and local office this year and get 20 million voters from the religious right to participate in the 1988 presidential elections.

The group will launch its program with a “national summit” in Washington on Jan. 23-24 featuring Vice President George Bush, whom Falwell supports for President in 1988.

Many details of the move to a new umbrella organization, with the Moral Majority as a subsidiary, were spelled out in a Falwell publication being mailed to supporters.

“The press for six years has bloodied and beaten the name ‘Moral Majority,’ ” Falwell has said in that publication, Liberty Report, which replaces the Moral Majority Report.