I read an interesting article in today's Washington Post by Michelle Boorstein, "Survey: Culture War Truce on the Horizon" http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/08/culture_wars.html?hpid=topnews as to whether current trends indicate a reversal in some of the trends among people of faith which were behind the culture wars in the United States. The article focuses on a new poll commissioned by the group Faith in Public Life that concludes that younger Americans generally, and younger Americans of faith as well, are less conservative on some of the hot button issues like abortion and same-sex relationships. For example, the poll shows that a majority of white evangelicals, aged 18-34, favor either same-sex marriage or civil unions, which contrasts with a majority of older evangelicals who favor no legal recognition at all. The article also points out that 60% of young Catholics support the legality of abortion in all or most cases. The article indicates that religious individuals who are younger may be a bridge between older people of faith and the more secular viewpoints in the larger society.

Although I found the article interesting, I think the author left out of the article's statistics an important segment of the young population, young people who are not Christians, or who are not followers of any religious faith. That is a big oversight. The article makes some good points, but I think the conclusion is flawed. I don't believe that the cultural wars will ever end. I just think that the battle fronts and the issues will change. Throughout history you have had culture wars, from the culture war against alcohol as embodied in the temperance movement, the abolitionists' culture war against slavery, to the culture wars in the society over gay rights today. While I don't think gay rights or abortion will necessarily be the most prominent cultural issues of the future, there will always be disputes in the culture over which values or policies should be promoted. I think that the future culture wars will center on individual rights issues, individual's privacy versus government regulation, issues related to genetics or biotechnology, and perhaps other issues that are not even on the radar screen today. In my opinion there is a yin and yang and there will always be liberals and conservatives in the society.