The 11:30 a.m. service at Grace Tabernacle Christian Center in Brooklyn seemed like most others there. Sunday school had just let out, and the parade of white-brimmed hats began to fill the pews. The artificial shrubs were dusted off and the maroon recliners moved into place. The cymbals crashed, and the churchgoers began to dance and sing enthusiastically.

But as the breakneck tempos built, three voices were noticeably missing. One was that of the Rev. Timothy D. Wright, the church?s founding pastor and an award-winning gospel singer, who lay in a hospital bed more than 150 miles away after being critically injured in a car crash on Friday. His wife and co-pastor at the church, Betty, 58, was killed in the accident, the authorities said. The couple?s 14-year-old grandson, D. J. Wright, who was also in the car during the accident, died on Saturday night.

Hundreds of church and community members came to Grace Tabernacle in Crown Heights on Sunday to pray for their pastor and pay tribute to Betty Wright and D. J.

Despite the absence of Pastor Wright, 61, and his wife, the service went on. Hundreds of admirers streamed into the church all day; many cheered, ?He is not dead!? And, they spoke of the day when he would again walk past the pews and take charge of the pulpit.

They reflected solemnly on Betty Wright?s death, saying that her impromptu humor and sweet smile gave a sense of belonging to members of the church, which is affiliated with the Church of God in Christ.
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As a vice president of the Moral Majority from 1980 to 1985, I witnessed the rise of this movement from the inside. It had its positives, including a focus on “moral issues,” such as abortion, same-sex marriage, a strong national defense and the cultural decline of the nation and the registering of many previously inactive people to participate in the political life of their nation. All of these remain hot-button issues.

The movement also had its downside, because it tended to detract from a Christian’s primary responsibility of telling people the “good news” that redemption comes only through Jesus Christ. At times, this central message seemed to be replaced by one suggesting that a shortcut to moral renewal might come through Washington and the Republican Party.

Mainstream media loved the story of Christian conservatives coming out of the political catacombs, because it created controversy.
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It was the high court’s 1973 abortion ruling, however, that became the tipping point for religious conservatives.
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The flaw in the movement was the perception that the church had become an appendage to the Republican Party and one more special interest group to be pampered. If one examines the results of the Moral Majority’s agenda, little was accomplished in the political arena and much was lost in the spiritual realm, as many came to believe that to be a Christian meant you also must be “converted” to the Republican Party and adopt the GOP agenda and its tactics.

One had only to look at the history of the religious left to see the danger in a shotgun marriage between church and state. Most liberal theologians long ago gave up preaching about another king and another kingdom in favor of baptizing the earthly agenda of the Democratic Party. That too many conservative Christians followed their liberal opposites into the same error was to their shame and demonstrated they had missed an important lesson.
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Jerry liked to say that when he passed away, they’d put “and the beggar died” on his tombstone because he was constantly asking for money. That won’t happen. His legacy will be his university. He once said he wanted it to be like Harvard. All of the rest is “wood, hay and stubble.”