The end of the Christian Right?

Michael Kazin

The New Republic

“The Christian Right is a fading force in American life,” said Michael Kazin. For more than two decades, conservative Christianity has had a powerful hold on the Republican Party, but this once-monolithic political movement is now “fighting a losing battle with the rest of the country.” Despite vehement opposition by evangelicals, public support for same-sex marriage now tops 50 percent in national polls. Two thirds of Americans have endorsed the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” A majority of Americans continue to support legal abortion in the early months of pregnancy, and it’s unlikely that a Republican president would ever sign a law “that could lead to the indictment of millions of women.”

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The old Christian coalition is now run by aging, largely faceless men whose Old Testament worldview has little appeal to the increasingly secular population under 30; even evangelicals under 30 care more about “hunger and poverty than abortion and homosexuality.” The Christian Right may still play a role in a handful of states, but the sun is setting on its national influence.