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With such fellow believers as President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft in office, religious conservatives have never had more friends in high places.

But a growing sense of frustration is enveloping the leadership of the political movement that began nearly 25 years ago when the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority burst onto the national scene. A generation later, most Americans don't stand with what is commonly referred to as the Christian Right. Its big agenda items have fizzled.

And as the impact of last month's sweeping Supreme Court ruling on gay rights sinks in, the movement is at a soul-searching crossroads.

"Obviously, in some ways Christians are losing the culture war, certainly on this issue (gay rights)," said the Rev. D. James Kennedy, head of Coral Ridge Ministries in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and a religious broadcaster with a national following. "The time has come for us to re-examine the situation we're in."

Some see opportunity in a new battle arising from the June ruling—gay marriage. Handled correctly, strategists say, it could re-energize religious conservatives, putting them in a posture of defending heterosexual marriage instead of attacking the rights of gays.

There appears to be a growing consensus that the movement must find a way out of its current predicament: being dissatisfied with the status quo, but reluctant to criticize it because allies control the White House and Congress.

"They're at a moment where they have to reinvigorate themselves or reinvent themselves or they'll just slowly fade away," said John Green, a professor at the University of Akron and co-editor of a new book, The Christian Right in American Politics.

Most social movements do better rallying against enemies than helping allies govern, Green said. Many religious conservative organizations thrived when Bill Clinton was in the White House.

With gay rights marching on, abortion an established right, no return to teacher-led school prayer in sight and public vouchers for private schools a messy proposition at best, religious conservative activists have learned over time that it's easier to fulminate than to legislate. Even when laws are passed, the courts can and do overturn them.

Some see history repeating itself, as when President Reagan spoke the language of religious conservatives but wasn't able or willing to deliver on key policy goals.

A handful of national leaders, such as outgoing Family Research Council President Ken Connor, advocate a more demanding tone, even if it means criticizing Bush for not doing enough.

That appears unlikely, however, because Bush remains immensely popular among the white evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics that make up the movement. It's a constituency that makes up as much as 18 percent of the entire electorate, according to surveys, but it has no realistic place to go outside the GOP.

(In a dozen Gallup surveys over the last five years, the share of Americans identifying themselves as "born-again" or "evangelical" ranged between 41 and 49 percent. That grouping is much larger than the Christian Right because it includes blacks, who vote strongly Democratic, as well as some Catholics, mainline Protestants and non-voters who may identify with those spiritual terms.)

Connor, who left the Family Research Council Monday for unspecified "professional and personal reasons," says fellow leaders of the conservative Christian political movement have been used, accepting rhetoric instead of results and confusing access with influence.

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July (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47