Religious Right leaders no doubt enjoy such lightheadedness on the part of their political opponents and reporters who ought to know better. At the same time, one can also hear Jackson's resentment in not being taken seriously. The Religious Right has long taken effective advantage of being underestimated, even while the disdain with which they have been held by others, further spins the constellation of resentments that animates much (but certainly not all) of the politics of the movement.  

Ever since the formation of the religious Right in the late 1970s, there have been rumors of its demise. The birth of the Moral Majority helped pull the Right from obscurity. Its leaders determined that they would not shy away from controversy, nor would they yield to criticism; they would work with others to restore the moral foundations of the nation. In a short time the new movement became highly influential in American politics. Its commitment to nonnegotiable, explicitly moral and biblical values caused it to be revered and ridiculed, embraced and eschewed, loved and loathed. But there was one thing few politicians could afford to do: ignore it.

The movement was most unwelcome by the Left, and from the start the media and liberal Christians busied themselves writing the religious Right's obituary. With almost predictable regularity, like the paper they were written on, headlines were recycled heralding the so-called waning influence of evangelicals and their splintering unity. With each election cycle, hope sprung anew in editorial rooms and political back offices that this would be the year the religious Right's strength would begin to fade. Some observers even had the audacity to actively explore what American politics would look like once the religious Right was gone.

Jackson and Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council (probably the premier Religious Right lobby in DC)  have coauthored a book, Personal Faith, Public Policy that seeks to chart a course for the Religious Right, taking into account recent changes in evangelicalism, and no doubt, positioning themselves as leaders of the future, as the founding generation of Religious Right leaders passes from the scene.  

In a post at the Family Research Council web site, Tony Perkins quotes from the book description.

Jackson and Perkins write that the religious Right has experienced significant growth in recent years, becoming more diverse in a number of important ways, from race to age to political affiliation; however, they conclude that unifying these coalitions has been and will continue to be a challenge to the religious Right.

In an effort to unite these diverse coalitions, Jackson and Perkins advocate building upon the pro-life, pro-family issues that have been the mainstay of the religious Right. They intend to expand the religious Right's influence into immigration policy, poverty and social justice, racial reconciliation, and global warming.

"While some argue that evangelicals lose influence when they fail to vote as a bloc for a particular political party, the ability to seed both parties and operate as a political 'free agent' could prove to have a much greater impact on actual public policy. As a result of the broadening of the evangelical movement, both political parties will increasingly have to compete for support of evangelicals to succeed. This, we believe, will ultimately result in policies that are more faith-friendly," write Jackson and Perkins.

The Religious Right is clearly very busy reinventing itself. Exactly what shapes it will take, or how successful it will be, of course remains to be seen. But seeing is the point: It will be worth paying attention to what actually happens, and avoid buying into narratives about the supposed death, decline or irrelevance of the Religious Right -- all  of which are based, at the moment, on little more than wishful thinking.

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