Paul Weyrich

Paul Michael Weyrich (/ˈwaɪrɪk/; October 7, 1942 – December 18, 2008) was an American conservative political activist and commentator associated with the New Right. He co-founded The Heritage Foundation, the Free Congress Foundation, National Empowerment Television, and the American Legislative Exchange Council, and coined the term "moral majority," co-founding an organization of the same name in 1979 with Jerry Falwell. He was also a Melkite Catholic deacon.

Weyrich was born in Racine, Wisconsin, to Virginia M. (née Wickstrom) and Ignatius A. Weyrich. His father was a German immigrant. Weyrich graduated from St. Catherine's High School in 1960 and attended the University of Wisconsin–Racine for two years.

He was active in the Racine County Young Republicans from 1961 to 1963 and in Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. He spent his early career in journalism as a political reporter for the Milwaukee Sentinel, as a political reporter and weekend anchor for WISN-TV in Milwaukee, in radio as a reporter for WAXO-FM in Kenosha, Wisconsin, WLIP-AM, and as news director of KQXI in Denver.

After the Second Vatican Council, Weyrich transferred from the Latin Church of the Catholic Church to the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and was ordained as a deacon for the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Newton.

In 1966, Weyrich became press secretary to Republican U.S. Senator Gordon L. Allott of Colorado. While serving in this capacity, he met Jack Wilson, an aide of Joseph Coors, patriarch of the Coors brewing family. Frustrated with the state of public policy research, they founded Analysis and Research Inc. in 1971, but the organization failed to gain traction.^{[citation needed]}

In 1973, persuading Joseph Coors to support it financially, Weyrich and Edwin Feulner co-founded The Heritage Foundation as a think tank to counter liberal views on taxation and regulation, which they considered to be anti-business. While the organization was at first only minimally influential, it grew into one of the world's largest public policy research institutes and has been hugely influential in advancing conservative policies. The following year, in 1976, again with support from Coors, Weyrich founded the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (CSFC).

CSFC "became active in eastern European politics after the Cold War. Figuring prominently in this effort was Weyrich's right-hand man, Laszlo Pasztor, a former leader of the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party in Hungary, which had collaborated with Hitler's Third Reich. After serving two years in prison for his Arrow Cross activities, Pasztor found his way to the United States, where he was instrumental in establishing the ethnic-outreach arm of the Republican national Committee," author Martin Lee wrote in 1997.

Under Weyrich, the CSFC proved highly innovative. It was among the first grassroots organizations to raise funds extensively through direct mail campaigns. It also was one of the first organizations to tap into evangelical Christian churches as places to recruit and cultivate activists and support for social conservative causes. In 1977, Weyrich co-founded Christian Voice with Robert Grant. Two years later, in 1979, he co-founded the Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell.