Water To Wine: Some of My Story

by Brian Zahnd

When I began my pastoral ministry during the rise of the Religious Right, conservative Christians were ready to “take back America for God.” Evangelicalism was about to become a voting block. The Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, and Focus on the Family would all become nationally known organizations galvanizing evangelicals as a political force. “Christian Voter Guides” would be distributed in evangelical churches across the country. The central issue that initially energized the movement was abortion. Since the Republican Party shared the evangelical view on abortion, evangelicals bought into the entire Republican platform. Eventually, support of gun rights, capital punishment, mandatory sentencing, welfare cuts, increased military spending, covert action in Latin America, and the invasion of Iraq came to be regarded as the “Christian position.”