"There’s a new power in America – atheism"

Andrew writes in the London Times.  His analysis is perceptive and I feel like quoting the whole thing... Ok, a taste:

The problem was that the issues the evangelicals focused obsessively on – abortion, gays, stem cells, feeding tubes for those in permanent vegetative states – often came to seem warped to many others. Those who might once have passively called themselves Christian suddenly found the label toxic, if it meant identifying with such a specific political agenda. And so as evangelicalism rose, atheism and nonaffiliation emerged as a reaction.

But go read it all.