A Culture War Treaty

" 'These are fine issues, but they're not our issues,' " Hunter recalls being told. He says this without bitterness and insisted in an interview that liberals and conservative evangelicals could work together where they agree without compromising their core principles.

"We don't all have to fit in a label," he says. "God does not see the world in terms of liberals or conservatives."

A fine sentiment, but how can progressives and conservative evangelicals work together on issues such as abortion and gay rights? Here, Hunter gets very specific.

"I am pro-life, and since I believe that what is in the womb is a baby, I would be excited if Roe v. Wade were overturned," he says. "But that is not what I spend my time on. What if we could save babies who would be aborted . . . if we gave help to low-income women who want to carry their babies to term? They really don't have a choice. The old ways of encouraging the reduction of abortion, the strident ways, aren't productive."

Hunter is opposed to gay marriage yet he believes that "honoring human dignity and protecting committed relationships" requires recognition of "the basic human rights" of gay and lesbian couples. That doesn't settle the gay-marriage issue, but it would lead to a more -- dare one use the word? -- Christian approach to a matter that has bred so much anger.

I'm not sure Laser will get her wish about ending the culture wars. But Americans are so tired of being on a political and cultural road to nowhere that her hope seems almost realistic.

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