Charles Stanley, an influential Baptist pastor who for more than 50 years preached a conservative message from his Atlanta megachurch, through an extensive network of television and radio stations, and in many books, died on Tuesday at his home in Atlanta.
In Touch Ministries, Dr. Stanley’s nonprofit organization, announced his death but did not state a cause.
As the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Dr. Stanley was known as one of the leading American preachers of his time, alongside figures like the Rev.
He was also a board member of the Moral Majority, the right-wing religious organization, and a close friend of its founder, the Rev.
“Evangelicals just loved him,” Barry Hankins, a professor of history at Baylor University who, with Thomas Kidd, wrote “Baptists in America” (2015), said in a phone interview.