Tim LaHaye, Religious Right Founder, and Best-Selling Author of Apocalyptic Novels, Dead at 90
Bill Berkowitz printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Fri Jul 29, 2016 at 09:49:01 AM EST
On July 25, despite their being no signs of The Rapture, the Rev. Tim LaHaye slipped off this mortal coil, just days after suffering a stroke. Long before LaHaye, and his writing partner, Jerry Jenkins, teamed up to write the Left Behind series of mega-best-selling apocalyptic novels - which took The Rapture and apocalypticism to the mainstream -- LaHaye was a major figure in the founding and nurturing of the Religious Right.

In 1989, the Unification Church-owned Washington Times newspaper described him as "one of the lightning-rod clergy of the Religious Right." In 2005, Time magazine declared LaHaye as one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America. At the same time, Time named LaHaye and his wife Beverly -- who founded the conservative Christian Concerned Women for America in 1979 - "The Christian Power Couple."
LaHaye had a long history of involvement in Religious Right organizations and activities. The Reagan-Bush campaign assigned LaHaye "to coordinate Christian Right voter registration projects," Sara Diamond wrote in her book Roads to Dominion. Out of that project came the American Coalition for Tradition Values, which was "largely funded by television preachers."

"In 1987, he was honorary national co-chairman of Representative Jack Kemp's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, but quit after publish