The following responses come from the column outlined the major events since the Evangelical coup in American religion in 197. We asked readers what lessons they thought should be learned from these two decades. Some interesting selected responses:

From: Richard Perkins It seems that the "main thing" that evangelicals have been stressing all this time (namely, the Gospel) isn't the "main thing" after all.

I have--for the past 5 years--been asking my students what "the Gospel" is in their minds--and have asked them to write out a brief synopsis. The overwhelming percentage of these papers state just what you would expect them to state--that Jesus came to earth to die for our sins, and that belief in this constitutes a response which will insure our personal salvation in heaven.

Almost no one mentions anything other than this assemblage of ideas. Certainly no one has ever mentioned what seems to be The Gospel according to The Gospels: namely that Christ came to proclaim that [1] the Messiah has finally arrived, and [2] that God's Kingdom is at hand.

That appears to be the Gospel...not all that stuff about death, resurrection, and eternal life in Heaven.

Indeed, the apostles were sent out to preach the gospel well before they were even told about Christ's death and resurrection. Furthermore, when they finally were told about all this stuff, they didn't understand it. And Jesus had little to say about "heaven," but a great deal to say about what "The Kingdom" is all about. Just about every parable is all about what the Kingdom is all about.

The Kingdom of God is in your midst...it is among you right now. That's what Jesus said to the leaders of his day...but most evangelicals prefer to render it "the kingdom is within you" (as if Jesus could have said THAT to the Pharisees--the sons of Satan!) As if the Kingdom is a "heart condition," and not a state of existence between a community of followers...as was the case with Jesus and his disciples...and later in Jerusalem after Pentecost.

No, evangelicals (and just about all other brands of Christians) have done a pretty good job of losing sight of "the main thing" all along--namely, that The Kingdom of God is near, and that we should give up everything in order to get it. "It" (the Kingdom) consists of the loving and vital relationships which we share with others who are called according to His purpose. If we believed this, then we would do all we could to build this sort of relationship right now...and not wait until Jesus does it for us in the bye and bye.

All the rest (death, resurrection, heaven) is vital to us as believers...but it is NOT "The Gospel."

Too bad we've missed the main thing. So, in its absence, what else is there but fads and endless rounds of going off to church to spend a few hours with each other before getting back to what is really number 1 in our lives--our private lives.<BR