Thoughts and prayers go out to the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s family. He is believed to have suffered from a heart ailment. Falwell was 73.

UPDATE — 4:05 p.m.: Reactions to Falwell’s death are pouring into my inbox. Ryan Sager has the comments of presidential candidates. Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation’s Ed Feulner offered this statement:

A man of deep faith, the Rev. Dr. Jerry Falwell was an unapologetic spokesman for the Judeo-Christian values on which America is based.

He was steadfast in his religious beliefs, and steadfast in his view that every American owes it to future generations to get involved in the public arena. Yet this steadfast man was always willing to listen and to learn — and, where appropriate, to humbly confess error.

In the political realm, he will be most remembered for his role in founding the Moral Majority—the organization that galvanized evangelicals into political action in the late 1970s and helped Ronald Reagan win a landslide victory in the 1980 election.

A founding father of The Religious Right, his success in encouraging millions of Americans to engage in political action will be a major part of his legacy.