Background
Tommy Fallot was born on 4 October 1844 in Fouday, Bas-Rhin.
Tommy Fallot was born on 4 October 1844 in Fouday, Bas-Rhin.
Fallot earn a doctorate in theology in Strasbourg in 1872. His thesis was on "The Poor and the Gospel". He spent four years as Lutheran pastor of Wildersbach, near the Ban de la Roche.
From there he led a program of evangelization among the working people.
He was influenced by the work of the English clergyman Robert Whitaker McAll, who held "moral conferences" to carry the message of the Gospel to the poorest people. This followed the Réveil movement that had earlier swept 19th century Europe.
Fallot founded the French League for the Rehabilitation of Public Morality (Ligue pour le relèvement de la moralité publique), which gained widespread support in Paris and the provinces. By 1878 the future feminist Jeanne Schmahl had become active in Fallot"s League, which was mainly concerned with abolition of alcohol and pornography.
From 1882 Fallot also addressed the issue of prostitution.
This was the outcome of a meeting with Josephine Butler (1828–1906), who was undertaking a campaign in England against this scourge. Fallot founded the Cercle socialiste de la libre pensée chrétienne, which in 1882 became the Société d’aide fraternelle et d’études sociales. The association considered the social impact of industrialization from the perspective of liberal economics.
lieutenant took the view that these impacts were unavoidable and had to be treated on a case by case basis.
Fallot"s was concerned with the future of the church. He spent the last ten years of his life as pastor of Sainte-Croix, and then Aouste, near Crest in the Drôme department.
Tommy Fallot died in Mirabel-et-Blacons, Drôme on 3 September 1904.
Fallot began to adhere to socialist ideas, although condemning class warfare preached by leaders who "dream of revenge and conquest".