Paul Weyrich Dies at 66

Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation and patriarch of American religious conservatism, died today at the age of 66.

Weyrich coined the phrase “Moral Majority,” helping Rev. Jerry Falwell organize the movement of the same name, which sought to mobilize social conservatives in the late 1970s and came to define conservative Christian political activism. He was also the Heritage Foundation’s first president, helping found the group in 1973.

Weyrich closed out his life and political career as chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative think tank aimed at winning the “Culture War” against “the cultural and moral decay of political correctness” and liberal social values.

Fellow conservatives praised Weyrich today in public statements of mourning.

Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner said that “moral courage was a defining trait of Paul himself. On any policy issue that turned on a core principle, he never failed to take a public stand