The Fall of the Evangelical Nation

If McCain wins this election, the Religious Right and Sarah Palin will take the credit. The Religious Right's hold on the Republican Party will be even stronger, and the party will be pulled deeper into an extremism that serves only a small minority of Americans.

Glory, glory, they agreed that gay and lesbian partners should have the rights of other citizens. Partners should be counted as family in work benefits and hospital visits. If you're over 40, you probably never thought you'd see such agreement in an election.

The Christian kingmakers forced McCain to pass up more experienced candidates. They won and, heady with their victory, the faithful rushed back into the Republican fold, and they'll get nothing again as a result.

Palin is sending a strange message on abstinence-only sex education; it clearly didn't work for her daughter. Indeed a lot of women are angry about that message and panicked over the enthusiasm Palin seems to be inspiring. Let me offer four reasons to calm down.

Obama shouldn't have to protect Bristol Palin. Her mother, who is said to have known about her daughter's pregnancy before she accepted McCain's offer, should have done that.

The best laugh in this selection is that McCain thinks he can snag the Hillary refuseniks with a female and appease the Religious Right with Palin's anti-abortion rights stance. He's going to lose on both counts.

For the first time in two decades, the born-again vote (a key segment of the evangelical vote) is moving toward Democrats instead of Republicans. These Americans give Obama a 12-point lead, 43 percent to 31 percent.

Fact is, evangelical women make up one out of every five women having abortions. And the true number is certainly higher than that because many evangelicals aren't going to claim their faith on abortion clinic forms.

Pastor Rick Warren's forum with McCain and Obama tomorrow could be the most exciting event of the political season. Why? Because the pastor of Saddleback Church isn't a member of the press, and maybe he won't act like one.

Neither McCain nor Obama is the good guy in this election. If they were, we'd have real reason to be afraid. Jesus is a good guy, and he would be a disastrous president. Dangerous even. Don't vote for him.

How does a transvestite go to the toilet? I don't mean anatomically. I mean locationally, as in to which bathroom? I never thought about it until Focus on the Family began battling Colorado's new anti-discrimination bill.

One out of four Americans identifies as evangelical. A recent Pew survey of their opinions, however, found a diversity that should give political pundits pause and fuel Obama's efforts to woo them.