G. Frink's

The culture wars lost the election, we learn from a post-election poll published Nov. 14; the politics of the common good won.

Less than 20% of the "values voters" support the culture war's narrow, anti-abortion/anti-gay agenda, according to a Nov. 5-7 poll by Public Religion Research.

Instead a majority of both evangelicals and Catholics support a broad public-interest agenda which includes "fighting poverty, protecting the environment and ending the war in Iraq."

In fact, among "values voters" culture war issues tended to fall off the table, according to the poll sponsored by Faith in Public Life in partnership with Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Sojourners.

The poll found that:

Among white evangelical voters, 32% say the economy was the most important issue, and approximately 1-in-5 (21%) say abortion was the most important issue. Only 3% of evangelical voters say same-sex marriage ranks as the most important issue. Catholic voting priorities are similar to the all voter's priorities. A majority (54%) of Catholics say the economy is the most important issue in the election. Only 12% of Catholics cite abortion and none cite same-sex marriage as the most important issue in the election.

A look straight at criminalization of abortion, the battle cry of the culture wars, found few followers. It was rejected in favor of a common ground approach:

The vast majority (83%) of voters, including white evangelicals (86%) and Catholics (81%), believe elected leaders should work together to find ways to reduce abortions by helping prevent unwanted pregnancies, expanding adoption, and increasing economic support for women who want to carry their pregnancies to term.

This is not the year of intolearance.

Attempts to paint Democrats as anti-religious backfired nationwide. Obama triumphed over campaign attempts to paint him as a Muslim, as the anti-Christ and as otherwise somehow unfriendly to religion and the Democreatic Party emerged as more religion-friendly than before the election:

Fifty-four percent of voters see Obama as friendly to religion, and a similar percentage see McCain as "friendly" to religion (58%). While McCain's numbers are similar to those Pew found in August 2008 for Republican Party ?friendliness? to religion (52%), Obama's numbers represent a 16-point improvement over his party's numbers (38%) and a 5-point increase from Faith in Public Life?s pre-election findings among the general public (49%).

The poll was cautionary for televangelists and others who mix of religion and politics:

While 6-in-10 voters say religious leaders should stay out of politics, a majority (53%) of voters think religious leaders should speak out on important issues in the election. Most voters, however, are wary of religious leaders getting entangled with candidates. Majorities of voters do not want religious leaders endorsing candidates (56%) or holding candidates accountable for misleading attacks (52%).

While fundamentalists who made themselves right-wing shock troops continue to rail and some fracture their denominations, most Americans, and "values voters" in particular, have set out to rebuild their country together.