This is my surprised face.

A few years back, when I had long since abandoned political conservatism but still considered myself a Christian, one of my persistent frustrations was the profoundly flawed ideological litmus tests the Christian right applied to political figures. Having married themselves to the Republican party in exchange for token gestures on pro-life issues, the Christian right accepted the assumption that Democrats (with a few exceptions) were agnostics, atheists, and anti-religious. Conservative Republicans, on the other hand, supported “family values” and were considered good Christians.

This narrative can still be heard today in the chatter of the pundit class, the bleating of talk radio, and — depressingly enough — the pulpits and fellowship halls of many churches. This, despite the fact that the vast majority of political figures, from both parties, are self-professed Christians. This, despite the fact that the last three Presidents who regularly attended church were all Democrats. This, despite the fact that many of the good Christian Conservatives in public office had years of history opposing social conservatism until it became politically expedient to do jump onto the bandwagon.

Over the past several years, the “they’re our people, we need to support them” approach led to disastrous results for Evangelicals and the rest of the country. Mega-churches held rallies under the cover of flags and big-screen projections of F-15s. Church leaders came out to say that invading another country was God’s will. And Christians were told, time and time again, that we should back good conservative Republicans, who spoke our language and knew our faith.

As I’ve said before, though, this narrative never had anything to do with the facts on the ground. It was pure political tribalism, and even one of the architects of the meme, Franky Schaeffer, now deeply regrets his own work in promoting it.

And yet, today we find ourself in a funny position: the Republican candidate for president is John McCain, a cantankerous political street-fighter who’s been at odds with religious conservatives many times. Both democratic candidates, on the other hand, have been actively involved with their own churches and speak frequently about the influence that their religious beliefs have on their policies and positions.

That’s right. After decades of Evangelical leaders telling the faithful voters in the pews that they should cast ballots based on flowery displays of piousness from a handful of Republicans, things aren’t going so well. Somehow, Democratic candidates are suddenly the religious ones! Now they’re seizing the moral high ground, talking about favorite Bible verses, and explaining what God has done in their lives.

And how do Evangelical leaders respond?…

The statement, called “An Evangelical Manifesto,” condemns Christians on the right and left for using faith to express political views without regard to the truth of the Bible, according to a draft of the document obtained Friday by The Associated Press…

See this? This is my surprised face.