'The evangelical crackup'

Here's the story by David Kirkpatrick from the New York Times, via MSNBC. It's a pretty interesting piece about the direction (or evolution as some might say) of the Evangelical movement and their political involvement in the US since the 2004 elections. Warning: it's a long piece.

What's really interesting is how much things have changed since the 2004 elections politically. As Kirkpatrick mentions:

"Just three years ago, the leaders of the conservative Christian political movement could almost see the Promised Land. White evangelical Protestants looked like perhaps the most potent voting bloc in America. They turned out for President George W. Bush in record numbers, supporting him for re-election by a ratio of four to one."

And now:

"The extraordinary evangelical love affair with Bush has ended, for many, in heartbreak over the Iraq war and what they see as his meager domestic accomplishments. That disappointment, in turn, has sharpened latent divisions within the evangelical world — over the evangelical alliance with the Republican Party, among approaches to ministry and theology, and between the generations."

I think one of the important issues to come out of the article (other than the potential fracturing of the Evangelical movement in modern politics) is the issue of complacency with bloc politics. I believe candidates from both parties need to continually seek support from their primary voting blocs regardless of how safe they appear to be. No voting bloc should ever be deemed as a lock. When they appear safe, there is a great potential for them to be taken advantage of and potentially lost.

Another interesting point that comes out of the piece is that in the Evangelical community, while abortion and gay-marriage are still important issues for them, subjects like the environment, global warming, and poverty are becoming more and more prominent in political discussions.

Like I said, it's a long read, but pretty interesting nonetheless.