It was not so long ago that I regularly spent a portion of my morning sending reporters compilations of news articles demonstrating evangelical activism agenda around issues such as climate change, global AIDS, Darfur, and immigration, to make the case that evangelicals are not in fact monolithic. Alan Cooperman’s Washington Post story, “Evangelicals Broaden Their Moral Agenda” (October 16, 2006), signaled a shift, but it was a seen a break with conventional wisdom.

The coverage of evangelicalism following Rev. Jerry Falwell’s passing has convinced me that my morning routine is no longer necessary. The old conventional wisdom about evangelicals – that they care only about abortion and same-sex marriage – is out. And the new conventional wisdom – that evangelicals are not monolithic and care about a broad range of compassion issues – is in.

AP, Rachel Zoll: Even before his death, religious right had been looking beyond Falwell for new leaders

Many conservative Christians active in politics today believe that the way Falwell confronted political foes made evangelicals seem hateful. The younger leaders also have been pressing for a broader policy agenda beyond abortion and traditional marriage by trying to include AIDS care, environmental protection and education.

New York Times, Michael Luo and Laurie Goodstein: Emphasis Shifts for New Breed of Evangelicals

The evangelical Christian movement, which has been pivotal in reshaping the country’s political landscape since the 1980s, has shifted in potentially momentous ways in recent years, broadening its agenda and exposing new fissures.

The death of the Rev. Jerry Falwell last week highlighted the fact that many of the movement’s fiery old guard who helped lead conservative Christians into the embrace of the Republican Party are aging and slowly receding from the scene. In their stead, a new generation of leaders who have mostly avoided the openly partisan and confrontational approach of their forebears have become increasingly influential.

Typified by megachurch pastors like the Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., and the Rev. Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago, the new breed of evangelical leaders — often to the dismay of those who came before them — are more likely to speak out about more liberal causes like AIDS, Darfur, poverty and global warming than controversial social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.

NPR, Barbara Bradley Haggerty: Evangelical Voters May Be Up for Grabs in '08

But change is afoot in the evangelical world. Comments from high-profile evangelical leaders like Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson are no longer taken as gospel truth.

To get an idea of how far some evangelicals have traveled since Falwell's heyday, I visited Joel Hunter at his mega-church in Orlando, Fla. Hunter's vision of the "correct" evangelical view of the environment seems to come from a different continent — or a different God.

TIME Magazine, Nancy Gibbs: The Movement that Left Falwell Behind

Today's young evangelicals on campus still have their heroes and their causes, but it's less likely to be Falwell and James Dobson fighting abortion and gay marriage than Bono and Rick Warren leading the way on addressing poverty and "creation care" and AIDS in Africa. … It is only partly wishful thinking when a progressive evangelical counterforce to Falwell like Jim Wallis declares, "The Evangelicals have left the Right. They now reside with Jesus."

In reality, [Falwell, Robertson and Dobson] represent a small fraction of evangelicals, and a fraction that is dying out.

CNN, American Morning: Delia Gallagher, CNN Correspondent:

However, if you think of somebody like Rick Warren today, you know, he is somebody that we think of who has the face of the evangelical movement today, and his issues, they are still those of Jerry Falwell, but they are also poverty, AIDS, the environment.

So there is a change now. There's a generational change and there is a small shift in what the evangelical movement is embracing. But the movement itself isn't defined by just one person as maybe it was in 1979.

CNN's Anderson Cooper 360:

Conventional wisdom is not an easy thing to shift. But shift it has. Welcome to the new CW.