One missed story missed by the press is not Obama or Ayers but how the religious right is not a factor in the election. Missing in this election cycle is the obligatory book or report on the menace of the religious right. What I find more befuddling is how both pundits on the right and left, from Christian politician to rabid atheist act as if the religious right is a political force to reckon with.
The truth is the zenith was for Religious Conservatives was around October 1997, when millions of men gathered to “Stand in the Gap” in Washington DC and many more participated in churches though this country including me. I remember the call that we would organize men to have similar rallies in all 50 state capitals on 1 January 2000. Instead of a mass meeting, our capitals were deserted on January 1st 2000. Perhaps the reason was fear of the Y2K bug, but more likely was the lack of substance of the emotional platitudes uttered of a gospel less revivalism of the Promise Keepers event. Still there where other signs that the religious right was decline Ralph Reed Left the Christian collation but more telling was the change I saw within the evangelical church.
It start for me in 1988, in a mega church in Long Beach, The pastor on the stage announce that thing will change in order to reach the community, out was piano and organ in was the worship celebration. It was my first exposure what was eventually referred to as the seeker sensitive or church growth movement. The movement is pragmatically driven by marketing, in order to make the church more accessible to the non church demographic. The movement banished to error of legalistic revivalism and replaced it with the error of therapeutic deietism. It was largely successful in bringing in a younger but more incline to be less conservative congregation. I also had seen this in the change of leadership figures from conservative like Dobson and Ralph reed to center left idea of Rick Warren of the Purpose Drive Church Fame especially at Christianity Today magazine and Web site.
What made thing worst was my party making immigration an issue in conservative circles. The result was a wedge between “rule of law” mantra and religious compassion for the downtrodden among the evangelical church. Moreover, many brothers and sisters in Christ legal or not came out of the Hispanic community. My political involvement was well known in church many times church members who voted for Bush in 2004 were voting Democrat in2006.
The chance for democrats to capture votes was due to both influx of new member under the seeker sensitive banner and the missteps of fellow republicans with immigration. I believe the church would be sympathetic to an Obama Administration but I would caution not to push their agenda onto the pulpit like the Equal Rights Amendment, less awakens a sleeping giant. For us Republican the road is much harder, we need to win back respect of the evangelical community. We can start by dropping populism.