"Is Christianism Peaking?"

From Andrew Sullivan's "Daily Dish."


.....there are clearly signs that American evangelicals - especially in the younger generations - do not share the conflation of faith and partisanship of the Falwell era. In this, of course, they are returning to the historical evangelical norm - and Falwell's harsh, exclusionary and condemnatory Republicanism is the real exception. Abortion remains non-negotiable, and I understand why. But I sense that more and more Christians realize that speaking out about the moral enormity of abortion, and attempting to restrain and decrease its prevalence, is not indistinguishable from legal prohibition in all cases. People's moral views on this are changed in the heart and soul, not by political power. And the depth of Christianity's rejection of earthly power is so great the temptations of Christianism can be resisted in the long run.


.....it was striking to me that same-sex marriage was not on the radar screen in the first two GOP debates. Is this battle over? On an intellectual level, it seems to me that only a handful of stragglers are clinging on. When the best argument against same-sex marriage is the recitation of a dictionary definition of heterosexual marriage, then you know they don't have much ammo left. The continuing drops in hetero divorce rates in the era of same-sex marriage doesn't bolster the case of the alarmists either. And the next generation of Christians have come to know gay people - and gay Christians - as their peers and fellow pilgrims. The demonization of the past is waning. But again, I wouldn't be too complacent. Maybe the attempt to roll back marriage rights in Massachusetts will galvanize the issue again in 2008. Or maybe the base really is exhausted from hysteria about gay couples who merely want to be treated equally under the law. I certainly hope so.


I echo Sullivan's call to avoid complacency and hope that the trend continues where more people are accepting GLBT equality on not only an intellectual level but a spiritual one as well.