May 19, 2005

It\’s nothing less than a revolution; in states across the country, an empowered Christian right is changing laws, rewriting textbooks, transforming the judiciary and even redefining science.

The nation\’s culture wars have taken another leap in intensity. Since the 2004 elections, empowered religious conservatives have become more organized, more energized and — critics say — more extreme. They want action on their key issues, and heaven help politicians who defy them.

And the Jewish community, with a lot at stake, has been restrained in response. The growing entanglement of religious conservatism and partisan politics scares Jewish groups worried about keeping their tax-exempt status; so does the threat of losing new supporters of Israel and access to the political high and mighty.

But Jewish voters aren\’t so ambivalent, which is why the long-predicted Jewish partisan realignment remains fiction, not fact.