FALWELL ISN'T EVEN WORM FOOD YET AND EVANGELICALS ARE ALREADY HEADING TOWARDS ENLIGHTENMENT

The so-called “God gap”-- the 20-point advantage Republicans have held for a decade among Americans who attend religious services once a week or more-- has been virtually cut in half, down from 22 points in 2004 to 12 points in 2006, according to the National Election Pool (NEP) exit polls covering U.S. House races nationwide. This shrinking Republican advantage among weekly religious attendees is a sharp reversal of a 14-year trend and returns support levels among this group to the pre-Bush era. Democrats seem to have won quite a few seats in Congress last November because of that.

This week Christianity Today published some eye-popping statistics that shows tremendous progress among evangelicals in the last twenty years. In 1987 73% of American evangelicals said school boards should have the right to fire homosexual teachers. Today that figure has dropped to 42%. Back then evangelicals were more bigoted and more delusional and overwhelmingly (60%) feeling that AIDS might be a punishment from God for immoral sexual behavior. Today that's dropped now to 38%. Back in 1987 only 20% of evangelicals said they "completely disagreed" that women should return to their traditional roles in society while today more than double that percentage of evangelicals (42%) feel that way.

I was satisfied with all the Democratic candidates for president today vowing to support hate crime legislation and ending Don't Ask Don't Tell. It contrasts hideously with the 14 homophobic, reactionary faux Democrats who voted against the Hate Crimes bill, a bill supported by most grass roots Republicans, by most conservatives, and by frequent most churchgoers.