Is the pendulum swinging?

This past Sunday, Messiah College (my alma mater) hosted the Compassion Forum (see videos here). The three major presidential candidates remaining were invited to discuss how issues of faith affect their lives and might impact their presidencies. Of the three, John McCain was the only one to decline. This fact was not lost on the press. I heard in several places the observation that the Democrats seemed to be reaching out to the Christian community, which formerly has been a treasure trove of Republican votes. I feel that they were at least in part correct. Both candidates seem to be more friendly in their disposition towards conservative Christianity than did their counterparts of the 1990s. I don't think though that this change is simply due to a Democratic willingness to reach out. I believe that there is a shift taking place within much of American Christianity. The warm, respectful reception that Obama and Clinton received at Messiah probably would not have happened when I was on campus 13 years ago. The reception, I feel, was demonstrative of more than just good manners. I believe many in the crowd were very interested in what these two had two say. I do not mean to announce the death of the "religious right." I just think that the days of most American protestants voting for whoever James Dobson tells them to are over. I am not exactly sure why this is. Perhaps it is because of the compassionate writings of Christian authors such as Tony Campolo, Fr. Brennan Manning, and Donald Miller. Perhaps that as we move further from the Cold War, it is becoming a bit less of a faux pas to demonstrate concern for the general welfare of scoiety. On this side of a pendulum swing, it is really too early to say. Nonetheless, the professions of Christian faith made by them on this night and others do not seem quite as unbelieveable as they might have a decade ago. Hopefully this change is more of a correction than a swing. It would be of little use for there to be an opposite knee-jerk bias of the one that used to exist. Perhaps this is a an indication that what we are seeing is growing concern for the relevance of the Christian message to life and others, rather than just the self.