The Evangelical Shift

David Kuo sees it as a spiritual, not political realignment:

I have been saying for the last year and see no reason to stop saying that the change that is occurring among evangelicals is most fundamentally a spiritual shift. Evangelicals have been part of the Great Sellout for the last eight years - worshipping at the altar of George W. Bush. They have seen what happens when Jesus is sold out for politics. I don't see them rushing back anytime soon.

If evangelicals begin to realize what a poisoned chalice Christianism is, and how Christianity requires a far less partisan, strident and exclusionary spirit, there is great cause for hope. The Gospels have been abused and trashed by those seeking to use them for political gain for so long. The next struggle may well be to avoid a counter-reaction on the religious left, instead of listening to the transcendent message of the Gospels, which know no political party, and teach us to renounce earthly power, rather than to seize it. (Meanwhile, Jeff Sharlet disputes the entire Kirkpatrick thesis as a media perennial. Here's hoping he's wrong.)