THE VOICE OF EVANGELICAL RELIGION booms out ever more loudly in public policy debate in the U.S. Here are some highlights from our coverage of the evangelical movement.
The hot Gospel played a major part in the making of America.... But upper-crust Christians tend to regard the sweaty urgency of evangelistic Christianity as frequently hypocritical and always in bad taste. Billy Graham is different.
From The New Evangelist
Oct. 25, 1954
Jesus is alive and well and living in the radical spiritual fervor of a growing number of young Americans who have proclaimed an extraordinary religious revolution in his name.
From The New Rebel Cry: Jesus Is Coming!
Jun. 21, 1971
It is easier to see signs of Evangelical life than to define exactly what an Evangelical is. The movement cuts across many denominational lines and includes a number of distinct subgroups.
From Back to that Oldtime Religion
Dec. 26, 1977
Falwell is the most effective--and maybe because of his tremendous impact, the most unnerving--of the nation's video preachers.
From Jerry Falwell Spreads the Word
By Robert Ajemian
Sep. 2, 1985
Preachers like Robertson command audiences that form, if not a true Moral Majority, at least several potent and readily mobilized minorities.
From Power, Glory --and Politics
By Richard N. Ostling
Feb. 17, 1986
Evangelical Protestantism, America's great folk faith, is usually as plain and decent as a clapboard chapel, but on occasion it can turn as raucous and disorderly as a frontier camp meeting.
From TV's Unholy Row
By Richard N. Ostling
Apr. 6, 1987
TIME's examination revealed a continuing pattern. In case after case, the basic management problem that gave birth to the PTL scandal was glaringly evident in other evangelical organizations: a lack of effective accountability.
From Enterprising Evangelism
By Richard N. Ostling
Aug. 3, 1987
Moral authorities have come and gone, but Graham has endured.... From the start, Graham presented to skeptics and believers alike a raucous, muscular Christianity, full of fire and free of doubt.
From God's Billy Pulpit
By Nancy Gibbs and Richard N. Ostling
Nov. 15, 1993
As executive director of the Christian Coalition, Reed is master of a much more powerful and effective machine than is almost any presidential candidate.
From The Gospel According to Ralph
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
May. 15, 1995
If Billy [Graham] was the ultimate preacher, then Franklin made a run at being the ultimate Preacher's kid: fighting, taunting the police of Montreat into high-speed car chases and cultivating a fascination for firearms and rock music and a taste for hard liquor.
From In the Name of the Father
By David Van Biema
May. 13, 1996
The Promise Keepers are intent on carving God's masculine face back onto the spiritual tableau where they believe the model of divine fatherhood has eroded.
From God of Our Fathers
By Ron Stodghill II
Oct. 6, 1997
James Dobson, the country's most powerful representative of conservative Christianity.... a psychologist and radio host who heads Focus on the Family, threatened earlier this year to abandon the Republican Party and form his own organization, taking with him some of the 28 million people who follow his broadcasts every week....Keeping Dobson and other Christian-right leaders happy has become the central preoccupation of Republican lawmakers.
From The G.O.P. Mantra: Keep Dobson Happy
By James Carney
May 11, 1998
Jakes ... is a man of vivid particulars living in an age suspicious of the phrase 'common ground.' Some Americans might find him too black. Some Christians would consider him too Pentecostal, and even some Pentecostals question aspects of his theology.
From Spirit Raiser
By David Van Biema
Sep. 17, 2001
American Movie stars and political leaders aren't the only ones turning to [Rick] Warren for spiritual guidance. Over the past 17 months, 15 million copies of The Purpose-Driven Life have been sold.
From The Man With The Purpose
By Sonja Steptoe
Mar. 29, 2004
It's only natural that a country founded by pilgrims would never let its politics wander far from its faith. As voters weigh the faith-based presidency of George W. Bush, they should note that his is hardly the first of its kind.
From The Faith Factor
By Nancy Gibbs
Jun. 21, 2004
Evangelicals -- especially the new generation of pastors and young people -- are deserting the Religious Right in droves.
From The Religious Right's Era Is Over
By Jim Wallis
Feb. 16, 2007
In the end, what is required in teaching about the Bible in our public schools is patriotism: a belief that we live in a nation that understands the wisdom of its Constitution clearly enough to allow the most important book in its history to remain vibrantly accessible for everyone.
From The Case for Teaching The Bible
By David Van Biema
Mar. 22, 2007
Graham was hardly the first preacher to have a White House pass; but he was the first to have one in 11 consecutive administrations, Democratic and Republican, led by men very different from each other who all somehow felt the need to have him by their side.
From Billy Graham: "A Spiritual Gift to All"
By Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy
May 31, 2007
Find more articles about Evangelicals in the TIME Archive.
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