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Record ticket sales by the Traditional Values Coalition and other Christian groups to their January presidential inaugural ball reflect the enthusiasm and resolve of Christian conservatives to claim their piece of Washington, D.C. They want to know: What has victory wrought?

Conservative Christian leaders say their winning role in the November elections means that they have the most clout in a generation. Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Penn., co-head of a congressional caucus promoting values legislation, says, "We have an opportunity like we have never had before in my lifetime." Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, surveys the political map and sees "the best convergence of forces at least in a generation."

"We're on a roll," says Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals.

Three out of four white voters who described themselves as evangelicals or born-again Christians voted for Bush, according to 2004 election exit polls. Also, a number of evangelicals, like Senators-elect Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and John Thune, R-S.D., were newly elected to the Senate. They join Senate leaders such as Rick Santorum and Bill Frist, both staunch gop conservatives. The November outcome seems further confirmation of University of Chicago scholar Robert Fogel's claim that the nation is in a Fourth Great Awakening and that conservative Christians continue to accumulate political influence.

During extensive year-end interviews with leading Christian conservatives, I found that they have a wide-ranging agenda that seems to know no bounds. Indeed, some top evangelicals talk in terms of changing the world. For example, Cizik has been inspired by former Ambassador Mark Palmer's book Breaking the Real Axis of Evil. He says the National Association of Evangelicals is kicking off a new campaign to end dictatorships around the world by 2025. Christian conservatives also aim to end modern-day slavery and sex trafficking, and bring back premarital sexual abstinence and chastity as a social norm.

Conservative evangelicals see themselves as unstoppable. But their strength and unity will soon be tested in five areas: presidential appointments, the Federal Marriage Amendment, nominations to the Supreme Court, immigration policy, and the Middle East.

Before the end of 2004, the President had not appointed any evangelicals to the Cabinet. Cizik criticized Bush, arguing, "We must understand that 'people are policy,' and that priority number one is to ask for more substantive positions within the administration."

Yet leaders of many conservative Christian organizations are giving Bush leeway on his Cabinet appointments. A spokesman for Focus on the Family says his organization wants to avoid early clashes with the President. Land claims that it doesn't matter who Bush appoints. "All his appointments are part of the George W. Bush carrier force. This administration doesn't have any freelancers."

Still, the appointment of Mike Leavitt, who conservatives feel has tepid pro-life credentials, as secretary of health and human services caused ripples of worry. Land admitted, "He doesn't have a pro-life record." Insiders say Focus on the Family considered fighting that appointment. Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, says his organization felt "disappointment based on [Leavitt's] record."

Christian conservatives believe their lack of Cabinet appointments will be more than made up when Bush makes appointments to the Supreme Court.

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February 2005, Vol. 49, No. 2