1. POLITICS AS A NOBLE CALLING
SELF EXPRESSION
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2. A GENERATION OF SELF EXPRESSION
• Ralph Reed the youngest executive director of the
Christian Coalition, a political group founded by Pat
Robertson, is illustrative of the rise of the Religious
Right to political power in the United States.
• By 1990 it was clear to Ralph Reed that in three short
decades America had experienced nothing less than a
psychological revolution. Public education and popular
culture had turned from the traditional religious vision
of morality and had embraced the new morality of self-
expression rather than the inherited ethic of self-
denial, rooted in the teaching of the Bible. The slogans
of the 70’s and 80’s “You must be yourself”, “Let it all
hang out.”
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3. SHIFTING ALIGNMENT OF CHURCHES
• The mainstream denominations were heavily impacted
during this age of the expressive self. Their numbers
dwindled, because people perceived them as symbols
of the old, established but irrelevant past.
Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, United
Church of Christ, Lutheran bodies, all looked to the
federal government as a guarantor of the inalienable
rights of the expressive self.
• In sharp contrast conservative Protestants, including
evangelical, fundamentalist, charismatic, and
Pentecostal church groups were in general flourishing.
They reflected the imprint of the “Age of Self”, they
retained their faith in the life above and preached it. 3

4. AGE OF SELF
• The most shocking feature of the Age of self was
the growing number of Americans who accepted
the designation “no religious preference.” By
1980, 61 million Americans had no church
affiliation. By 1990s over 78 million were so
called “believers but not belongers.”
• This spreading secular mindset created problems
for evangelism and growth of the American
churches. Millions concocted their own recipes of
religion they picked up from the spiritual super
market as a quick fix for morality.
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5. THE RISE OF THE AGE OF SELF
• How did the Age of Self arise? Two developments
stand out: 1. The popular acceptance of psychology. 2.
The pervasive use of television.
• As early as 1959, social critics Philip Rieff surveyed the
cultural landscape and discovered that its symbolic
center was no longer the church building or the
legislative hall but the hospital.
• During boomer years (1946-1964) ethic self denial,
including concepts of duty, postponed gratification,
and self restraint, were no longer virtues. The
liberation ideal had caused self expressive Americans
to treat every commitment from marriage and work to
politics and religion not as moral obligations, but as
mere instruments of personal happiness.
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6. TELEVISION’S IMPACT
• Television was a new popular medium designed
to appeal primarily to feelings. Television has led
to a decline in the image and prestige of political
leaders, it has demystified adults for children, and
demystified men and women for each other.
• Television fed the demand that all information
whatever its source or form be accessible to the
average person. Leaders in business, politics, and
religion were force to espouse a public
commitment to “openness” in order to appear
trustworthy. Once authorities in the society gave
away their information, the more their status
dissolved. The consumer became king.
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7. DIVIDED NATION
• Traditionalists: looked at America with the
easement of divorce laws, the legalization of
abortion, the ending of censorship, and
homosexuality as moral decadence, social
degeneration, and national decline.
Traditionalists argued it is “the truth” that sets
men and women free, the truth handed down in
Judeo-Christian traditions, beliefs, and books.
• Liberationists: looked at America and saw easy
divorce, abortion, the ending of censorship, and
homosexuality as advances for human freedom
and dignity. Men and women can now create
their own moral code. Whatever is legal is your
business, just do it.
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8. THE RISE OF THE NEW RELIGIOUS
RIGHT
• Christians responded to the cultural shift in two ways:
some chose to resist the changes; other decided to
adapt to the changes. Jerry Falwell became the first
spokesman for the so called Religious Right. His group
was called the Moral Majority.
• The passion of the Religious Right lay in the perception
that the U.S. was falling under the influence of secular
humanism. They marched against abortion, Equal
Rights Amendment, homosexuality, pornography, and
increased government involvement in education and
welfare. Not all Christians joined the movement others
put down the gospel message and became seeker
friendly churches. 8

9. RISE OF THE MEGACHURCH
• These large churches grew, at least in part because they
shed the negative image of denominational Christianity and
appealed to more popular religious tastes.
• First these congregations seldom carried a denominational
label. The name was a symbol of their openness to people
with diverse backgrounds and problems.
• Second the worship in these large congregations was
marked by fast paced and enthusiastic, popular, religious
music.
• Third mega church is built around the attractive ministry of
a magnetic preacher who possessed a winsome personality.
• Fourth these large churches have the best money can buy.
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10. THE PRIVATE LIFE
• In the world of private choices Americans were
slow to discover how many people were
desperately lonely. We seek more privacy, and
feel more and more alienated and lonely when
we get it.
• The emerging church has been birthed out of this
individualistic church movement. Emerging
Churches are intent upon emphasizing feelings
and affections rather than rationality and linear
thought, on personal experience over
propositional truths, on inclusion rather than
exclusion, and on participation in corporate
worship in contrast to lost in the crowd , mega
church individualism.
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