Frank Rich on Giuliani & Kirkpatrick on the Evangelicals

Todays New York Times has a piece by Frank Rich, Rudy, the Values Slayer and the Magazine has a fascinating piece by David Kirkpatrick, "The Evangelical Crack-Up." What happened in the Southern Baptists is happening on a larger scale:-

In June of last year, in one of the few upsets since conservatives consolidated their hold on the denomination 20 years ago, the establishment’s hand-picked candidates — well-known national figures in the convention — lost the internal election for the convention’s presidency. The winner, Frank Page of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., campaigned on a promise to loosen up the conservatives’ tight control. He told convention delegates that Southern Baptists had become known too much for what they were against (abortion, evolution, homosexuality) instead of what they stand for (the Gospel). “I believe in the word of God,” he said after his election, “I am just not mad about it.” (It’s a formulation that comes up a lot in evangelical circles these days.)