Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 3
In describing 1980 (Carter vs. Reagan) and the rise of the Moral Majority, Dan talks about evangelicals “tasting the power” and developing a “taste for influence”; what does this reveal about what we believe God can or cannot accomplish without our access to leverage, and where do you see that same “taste” in today’s church?
Another way to ask: What does the Moral Majority story show about whether we think God needs our political power to get things done? Where do you see that same desire for influence in the church today?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Dan’s story suggests the “taste for influence” reveals a belief that moral outcomes require political leverage—almost as if God’s agenda needs our access to power structures to succeed. He sees the same dynamic today in Christians becoming “politically amped up” and being pulled into hypercharged partisan conflict.
- Dan describes the Moral Majority mobilizing conservative Christians to help elect Reagan, and says they “tasted the power of that moment… and the influence of that moment.”
- He calls it a “taste for influence” that modern evangelicalism developed.
- He observes his own family, “like a lot of evangelical Christians,” has moved into “a more radical, politically amped up… perspective on faith and politics.”
- He says there is “a lot of pressure on our community to become politically involved,” and that politicians see the plain community as “an awful lot of votes.”
- He connects this impulse to Satan’s “deal” in the temptation story: the promise that “things will go right if… you just be a part of the power structures.”