Gerson's Kingmaker

» Newsweek: The Kingmaker's New Subject (Michael Gerson)

It's ironic that Gerson would use this column to reference David Kirkpatrick's recent NYT Magazine article, "The Evangelical Crackup," Ironic because I think Gerson displays some of what is currently being turned away from. He identifies three roles being played out in politics among politically conservative Christians:

1. The Prophet - which Gerson identifies as James Dobson. "He rails against compromise on social-conservative issues and seems continually poised to storm out of the Republican Party in protest, threatening to carry his millions of listeners with him."

2. The Priest - which Gerson identifies as Billy Graham. "His commitment to preaching the simple, undiluted Gospel has been total, but his approach to politics has sometimes been naive ..."

3. The Kingmaker - which Gerson identifies as Pat Roberson. "... as the son of a senator, he has generally taken a pragmatic approach to politics, with the goal of being a player rather than a prophet."

What Gerson gets horrendously wrong in this column is his quote that "Graham's priestly role in American politics is gradually passing." In and of itself, that's beyond dispute since Graham has retired. But in flattering the likes of Dobson and Robertson for their own political involvement, Gerson misses the fact that numerous younger pastors have grown in the role Gerson reserves solely for the retired Graham. Gerson's conclusion is yet another case in point of how to include just enough correct intel yet end up emphatically missing the point.

Evangelicals are not retreating from politics, but they are moving beyond the religious right. The form that engagement will take is still uncertain--but it is likely to see politics as a means to social justice, not an end in itself, and to agree with the final line of Fanny Crosby's hymn: "Power and glory unto the Lord belong."

Depending on what you believe from the 2000 and 2004 elections - namely, where there really millions of potential evangelical voters left on the table from 2000 that Karl Rove effectively drove out to vote in 2004? - it will remain to be seen whe