“George Gallup Jr. famously declared 1976 the “Year of the Evangelical.” Subsequent commentators often pluralized “evangelical.” They might have done the same for “year,” too. In many years hence—1980, say, or 2004—it was 1976 all over again, to judge from the headlines. Those election years highlighted the Christian Right, a force that was not on Gallup’s radar screen back when Jimmy Carter was the prototypical evangelical.”

Long before Sarah Palin met CPAC and the Duck Dynasty clan discovered A&E, George Gallup Jr. famously declared 1976 the “Year of the Evangelical.” Subsequent commentators often pluralized “evangelical.” They might have done the same for “year,” too. In many years hence—1980, say, or 2004—it was 1976 all over again, to judge from the headlines. Those election years highlighted the Christian Right, a force that was not on Gallup’s radar screen back when Jimmy Carter was the prototypical evangelical in public life.

The years of the evangelicals were not only about campaign politics, however. For a generation of observers across the cultural spectrum, evangelicalism was a sign of the postmodern times. The megachurch was the new civil society, while Habitat for Humanity was the tie that bound.

Unquestionably, though, politics powered the evangelical meme. Even in 2008, by which time the Christian Right seemed to have peaked, the narrative of religious politics read as the narrative of evangelical politics. Could John McCain keep white evangelicals in the GOP fold—or would Obama woo enough of them to seal victory?

If 2008 was the year of the “Obamagelicals,” then 2012 was the year of another Obama-leaning bloc: the religiously unaffiliated nones. Their share of the population, if not the electorate, resembled that of conventionally defined white evangelicals (around one-fifth). Even without an anointed figurehead like Jerry Falwell, the nones may soon receive the status of honorary silent majority, never mind their lack of an actual majority.

Now, the story is one of evangelical decline as a whole. Perhaps Dean Kelley’s famous argument in Why Conservative Churches Are Growing (1972) has run its course.

There is good reason to be skeptical about any thesis of closure. For many, Billy Graham’s postwar revivals were the last gasp of the old-time gospel. Upon further reflection, they were the opening act of a broader evangelical renaissance. After 1988, in the ashes of Pat Robertson’s failed presidential campaign, the Christian Right was labeled a one-hit wonder (the hit being Ronald Reagan). Yet in popular culture, evangelicalism retains the spectacle quality of Chick-fil-A “buycotts” and Rick Warren CNN interviews (not to mention TED talks).

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