'Head-Snapping' Moment

LANDOVER, Md. – The evangelical movement is at a “head-snapping” generational change with younger evangelicals “revolting” against the tone of the Christian Right, says a prominent religious scholar.

Across the nation, young evangelicals are naming Rick Warren or Bono as their role model for social engagement, rather than a Christian Right leader, says Michael Gerson, senior research fellow in the Center on Faith & International Affairs at the Institute for Global Engagement.

“We are seeing a head-snapping generational change,” contends Gerson, who was a top aide and former speech writer to President George W. Bush. “The model of social engagement of the religious right is increasingly exhausted.”