Intolerance, lust for political power masquerading as love of God, thump-a-Bible self-righteousness — these are the qualities that American secularists ascribe to Christian fundamentalists. Perhaps no single fundamentalist conforms to their stereotype as much as the Reverend Jerry Falwell. His stewardship of the Moral Majority, his prominent role in the rise of the religious Right, as well as his periodic assaults on the liberal media, have made him the object of secular fear and loathing. Then there is his enduring and often strange obsession with gay people. Falwell has accused the founder of the PTL television ministry, Jim Bakker, of being a homosexual. He has accused the Teletubby Tinky Winky of being a homosexual role model. He has blamed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on rampant American homosexuality (among other national vices). But Falwell is by no means the most extreme or hateful of antigay Christian conservatives.