The Religious Right's (imminent? proceeding? mythical? overblown?) demise has now driven religion-and-politics news for consecutive weeks, and as stumping, endorsements, gaffes and polling continue, we can rest assured that somehow or another the narrative will continue to dominate until something huge and faithy happens to a Democrat.

The best article I've seen on the Evangelical Crackup, as it was dubbed in David Kirkpatrick's agenda-setting New York Times Magazine piece, was a Dallas Morning News editorial comparing it to the transformation of labor's role in politics. The editors could have made a more persuasive case, but the comparison itself was observant, and hopefully prescient:

A generation ago, one of the most dependable voting blocs in American politics – the labor movement – began to fracture. Union leaders bitterly opposed the presidential candidacy of Ronald Reagan, but a funny thing happened on the way to the voting booth: Many in the union rank-and-file voted for the Republican...We may be seeing the same thing happening today with the religious right, which, like organized labor used to be for the Democrats, has for nearly 30 years been a solid base for the GOP.

If you haven't, read the whole thing. It's rather insightful.

This week's episode of The EC brings a new angle: competing endorsements. Does Paul Weyrich endorsing Mitt Romney, Patrick Lunatic Robertson getting behind Rudy Giuliani, Sam Brownback backing John McCain, and today Donald Wildmon lining up with Huckabee
mean the Religious Right is crumbling? Even if James Dobson comes out for Fred Thompson next week, (which he probably won't) I'd say this is a pretty mild symptom.

Judging from the broadening evangelical agenda, the generational shift in leadership, the ascendancy of megachurches over parachurch organizations, and the distance between the power brokers and the people in the pews, I'm inclined to believe the Religious Right as we know it really is dying, but that doesn't mean there will no longer be millions of religious people on the right. For now though, I'm going to sit and watch how the primaries shake out before I call the undertaker.