The question is, will the true believers’ faith in these wedge issues be rocked to the point of defection away from that of their congregational or organizational leaderships endorsements. Imagine the disillusionment that will have to be felt when the most prominent issue of the last thirty years for Evangelicals, abortion, is cast aside by the movement leadership purely and obviously for political reasons. Your everyday Evangelical or pro-life Christian will be faced with the prospect of turning their back on their faith, exposing their hypocrisy, in favor of politics. That’s something I’m not sure most are willing to do.

Your dead right about this being about authority though. Pat Robertsons’ shift from abortion as the #1 issue to national security (and subsequent Giuliani endorsement) is tantamount to an admission that the great issue of the future to see his political gains isn’t going to be abortion, but terrorism. It’s obvious that abortion (the gift that just keeps giving) isn’t going to be overturned by Republicans and just for that reason, it’s the gift that keeps giving. Perhaps Robertson knows that the ruse is up on abortion and has decided that now is the time to move on. The test is now whether or not the true believers will realize that they’ve had the wool pulled over their eyes this whole time…..but stick to their guns (and principles) anyway.