FOURTH PLACE, BUT GAINING FAST :

Following God Abroad (NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, May 21, 2002, NY Times)

The old religious right led by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, trying to battle Satan with school prayers and right-to-life amendments, is on the ropes. It is being succeeded by evangelicals who are using their growing clout to skewer China and North Korea, to support Israel, to fight sexual trafficking in Eastern Europe and slavery in Sudan, and, increasingly, to battle AIDS in Africa.

Evangelicals are usually regarded by snooty, college-educated bicoastal elitists (not that any read this newspaper) as dangerous Neanderthals. But while the old religious right was destructive when it launched the cultural wars, the new internationalists are saving lives in some of the most forgotten parts of the world.

"The American electorate was split right down the middle on these cultural wars, and nobody was going to win them," said Richard Cizik, Washington director of the National Association of Evangelicals, explaining the shift to international issues. The new international efforts, he says, are "going gangbusters."

The evangelical movement encompasses one-quarter of Americans and is growing quickly. One measure of its increasing influence is that a newsstand in the United Nations has carried the "Left Behind" series of religious novels by Tim LaHaye. These books, which have sold 50 million copies so far, describe the battles that precede the Second Coming, and there is indeed a United Nations connection: In the novels, the Antichrist is the secretary general.

Evangelicals are fast growing. They're now influencing even foreign policy. They're making common cause with Jews on issues like Israel and cloning. The Culture War has turned into an actual shooting war between Christianity and Islam. The Political Correctness crowd has been cowed into silence. An Evangelical president is two Court seats away from overturning Roe v. Wade. If the GOP can retake the Senate we may well get school choice, which means schools with prayers. And Mr. Kristof thinks the religious right is on the ropes? Is this just a feeble bid to overtake Dowd, Rich, & Krugman in the "worst columnist at the Times" contest? Posted by Orrin Judd at May 21, 2002 11:42 AM