unChristian

Zack Exley is devoting the next year to living on the road and blogging about the Christian Right on his blog, Revolution in Jesusland. He's already digging up some very interesting data on christian and evangelical youth:

HOWEVER, one thing really stood out, and subtly became the main focus of the evening forum. Apparently, all the anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives and other anti-gay campaigning have really been ravaging the perception of Christianity among the general public, and even among young Christians. He showed one graph that showed favorability ratings over the past several decades for gays shooting up from low single digits to 33% today. (That might have been just among young people, I can’t remember.)

Meanwhile, right along with that, the favorability rating for “evangelicals” among the same group plummeted from high numbers to 3%! David didn’t argue for a direct correlation between those two numbers. But he talked about how today most young people know openly gay people, and they are having a hard time reconciling what their church says and their valued relationships.

He gave an anecdote from the research of one person who said he was sitting in church, with a gay friend who they had brought, and the pastor was preaching that “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”

This topic requires a long, in-depth article, not a blog post. But you could hear a pin drop at moments last night, as the audience (a couple thousand strong) wrestled with the results. Shane and Rick gently danced around a different—more loving—way of relating to gays. But they weren’t arguing that homosexuality was Biblical. Looking around the audience, some people looked thrilled and enthusiastic about what Shane and Rick were saying. Others looked troubled.

Acceptance of GLBT rights is up around 60% among 18-24 year olds, and this appears to be a generational acceptance that is occurring on the left and right (though to be sure it is happening more on the left than the right). Judging by his blogging, Exley is witnessing the effects of that shift his travels. He doesn't go so far as to say that these people are supporters of gay rights, but something is clearly happening.

Regardless of the reasons, Exley's piece also hits on another important point. It appears that this is a shift that does not sit well with a huge chunk of the evangelical community. This is important because it is just one of a number of potential schisms within the community that have made their way into the news this past week. The other two involved the abandonment of Bush and the Republican Party by young evangelicals, and grumblings among the leaders of the Christian Right about the 2008 candidates. Support for the President has dropped over 40% in the last 4 years, and a 15% decline in support for the Republican Party in general over that time period among young voters, and unhappiness with the GOP among the leadership spilled over into the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times this week when James Dobson, head of Focus on Family, penned an editorial threatening Republicans with the loss of support from his organization if Rudy Giuliani, a pro-choice Republican, was nominated to the GOP ticket.

Dobson's piece is likely little more than saber-rattling. The Christian Right, like all GOP coalition members, is pragmatic. When faced with a choice between a Democrat or Republican, they know where their bread is buttered and they fall into line. But it is another indication that all is not well in Jesusland. What was once regarded as a rock solid base - morally and as an organizing force - is showing some cracks. If the right pressure is applied, might it be possible to chip away parts of this core constituency?