Other "Thinking Drafts" and writing by Keith Drury -- http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday .

It's been more than 20 years since the Evangelical coup' in American religion. What lessons should we have learned from these two decades of events?

1976
Newsweek declares 1976 the Year of the Evangelical' as born-againer, Jimmy Carter, prepares to take office and Chuck Colson's book Born Again' sells a half-million copies.

1977
Anita Bryant launches an anti-gay movement and loses her job promoting Florida orange juice. Charismatic televangelist Pat Robertson starts a new school to be called CBN University.

1978
Jesus festivals grab the media spotlight when more than 50,000 teens show up at Jesus 78 in Meadowlands New Jersey spawning more than a hundred similar festivals in the next few years, energizing the growth of the Contemporary Christian Music industry.

1979
Evangelicals decide they are no longer an across-the-tracks minority when Pollster George Gallup announces the number of U.S. evangelicals had grown from 40 million to 70 million since 1946. Evangelicals increasingly go mainstream as the main line' denominations worry about becoming side line' churches.

1980
Evangelicals help send Ronald Reagan to the White House and national revival and reform begins to compete with personal conversion as the evangelical church's number one passion.

1981
Faith healer Oral Roberts launches his City of Faith hospital in Tulsa.

1982
Many evangelical followers of Ronald Reagan level harsh criticism at Billy Graham for his visit to the Soviet Union. Jerry Falwell, however, defends Graham with the retort, I'd preach in Hell if I could get back.'

1983
Time magazine names the computer as their Machine of the year' but most evangelicals pooh-pooh the development. Nevertheless, evangelicals are the quickest to adopt the computer, and later the Internet as a ministry tool. Within five years the personal computer would be as common in local churches as mimeograph machines once were.

1984
The pro-life movement turns to violence which causes division among evangelicals about means and ends.

1985
The Super church' is now the model church and the Church Growth movement' reigns supreme among evangelical publishing and conferences. The seeker movement' and Bill Hybels are rising to prominence. Amy Grant releases her Unguarded album blazing a trail for other Christian artists to go mainstream, or become crossover artists, aiming their music toward the secular market. Some make a connection between all of these streams.

1986
Evangelicals are on a roll. Main line churches are losing members wholesale while evangelical churches are booming, especially large ones. The church growth movement is such a dominant force it is hard to imagine any movement ever displacing it. Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness' accomplishes several things besides bringing back the Christian novel among publishers.

1987
Evangelicals take big hits. The media reports daily the unraveling PTL scandal as Jim Bakker's empire crumbles. Oral Roberts announces that God would take him home if he didn't get $8 million for his hospital. In spite of the crumbling image of evangelicals and charismatics, televangelist Pat Robertson declares a run for the White House.

1988
As evidence piles up, Jimmy Swaggart confesses publicly to unspecific personal sins attempting to retain control of his television ministry and his credentials with the Assemblies. The AG kicks him out when he refuses to step down and accept discipline. NASA scientist Edgar Whisenaut's publishes 88 Reasons why the Rapture will Occur in 1988.' The booklet sells more than 4 million copies in a few months and dominates private evangelical discussions several months until the October 11 date comes and goes with no apparent rapture.

1989
The Berlin wall collapses ushering in a new world order. Evangelicals lose Communism as a their primary enemy and start adopting Islam as the new prime enemy #1. The pro-life/anti-abortion/Rescue movement reaches its high water mark and Randall Terry dominates the news. An increasing number of evangelicals abandon national-political-action tactics and opt for a personal-individual-moral-persuasion approach to the issue abortion, sticking on a different style of bumper stickers.

1990
Almost all evangelical youth leave the U.S. to evangelize Russia. All get wiser by the experience. Some of the wiser ones stay.

1991
American evangelicals watch their army blast the Iraqi army into eternity, then chase the army home to Saddam Hussein. The victory is universally declared as ensuring the re-election of George Bush, an Episcopal evangelical.'

1992
George Bush is bounced out of the White House and Bill Clinton moves in, crushing the evangelical's national-political-revival-reform hopes brining on a more reflective period. The anti-abortion movement loses still more steam and moves increasingly outside the church. An increasing number of evangelicals crushed by the election, entertain each other by spreading innuendo about Hillary Clinton.

1993
The media discovers the three year old Promise Keepers rallies when more than 50,000 men gather at the University of Colorado stadium for a gigantic PK rally.

1994
Promise Keepers explodes across the landscape displacing the church growth movement as the dominant influence among evangelicals. South African blacks vote for the first time as a new order is established without revolution in that country to the surprise of most American evangelicals.

1995
The Toronto Blessing" emerges and Holy laughter' seems likely to sweep the world raising alarm bells among some leaders. Promise Keepers now is the totally dominating force in establishing the agenda, music, worship patterns, and values of the evangelical church. However, nobody knows what an evangelical' means. Doctrinal and denominational distinctiveness go into meltdown. A new alliance begins to emerge including spiritually oriented Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Mainline, and Evangelical Christians but no term emerges to label this new movement other than Christian.'

1996
PK reschedules its million-man march to an off-election year but hold on to its influence through the rallies. Christians-formerly-known-as-evangelicals watch unemotionally as Bob Dole loses the election and Bill Clinton enters a second term with the economy booming. Evangelical music begins a swing from the 1980's praise-alone themes toward commitment-decision-cleansing themes.

1997
???
____________________
History teaches if we listen. What lessons spring from these two decades since the Year of the Evangelical?'

So what do you think?

To contribute to the thinking on this issue e-mail your response to Tuesday@indwes.edu