Talking Points Memo's TPMcafe is hosting a great book club on EJ Dionne's "Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right." If you're looking for an insightful discussion of the state of religion in American politics (and I have a hunch that you do), it's well worth a read.

EJ's introductory post captures the moment in religion and politics:

Souled Out insists that religious faith does not lead ineluctably to conservative political convictions. It argues that the era of the religious Right is over. Its collapse is part of a larger decline of a certain style of ideological conservatism that reached high points in 1980 and 1994 but suffered a series of decisive--and I believe fatal--setbacks during George W. Bush’s second term.

Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good director Alexia Kelley introduces an aptly named counterweight to the Religious Right culture warrior:

We could call these religious Americans -- the new “Gospel Voters” – people of faith guided by biblical admonitions to side with the weak over the strong and to love our neighbors as ourselves. These voters are increasingly outspoken about the scandalous gap between rich and poor (the largest since 1929), the shame of 47 million Americans without health care and an unjust war in Iraq that is a humanitarian disaster.

Brian McLaren uses cultural and historical context to chart the way forward:

Both conservatives and progressives, Dionne concludes, “need each other more than they know,” and therefore should respect one another in dynamic solidarity – not turn on one another in the rhetoric of culture wars. Evangelical Christians could have opted for this solidarity and balance nearly thirty years ago, but we didn’t. Perhaps it’s not too late. Perhaps beyond religious right and secular (or religious) left, there is a new synthesis of dynamic solidarity waiting to be created.

The discussion is well worth reading as it continues throughout the week.