Yesterday was a significant moment in the history of religion and politics. John McCain rejected the endorsements of Pastor John Hagee and Rev. Rod Parsley. The impact of the GOP candidate for the presidency publicly disavowing two major figures among politically-active Evangelicals may create a new relationship between Republicans and the Religious Right. (Parsley, it should be noted, is from Ohio, a state McCain must win to beat Barack Obama.

Yesterday, no doubt, changes the fundamental dynamics between many religious conservatives and the McCain campaign. It may, in time, change the dynamics between religiously-active voters and the GOP. This isn't a case where these voters will be particularly upset with McCain for dumping Hagee and Parsley, it will be more subtle, a final acceptance of the distance that already exists between themselves and the culture of the McCain campaign.

McCain is not to blame for this turn of events -- what he did yesterday was politically necessary. Hagee's apology to Bill Donohue had begun to silence his liberal critics, but the Hitler comment could not be absorbed into a presidential campaign. The leftists had been attempting to make Parsley into McCain's Jeremiah Wright when they realized Hagee didn't fit the bill. McCain evidently decided to add the Parsley denunciation to yesterday's news cycle with the hope both stories would blow over together.

McCain's rejection of the endorsements, added to his already well-known reticence toward religious activists, places a marker in the political landscape that will last into November and perhaps afterward.

There will be those who applaud McCain for distancing himself from the "fanatics" on the "Religious Right" -- they will argue that McCain will gain moderate support as a result. Maybe. Much more important, however, is the message this sends to the religiously conservative voters who have given the GOP its winning edge for nearly thirty years.

Ronald Reagan won their support with his famous "I endorse you" line at a 1980 rally with Evangelicals in Dallas. McCain explicitly reversed that line yesterday to do what he had to do, but it does not bode well for a candidate who needs those voters in the months to come. It's not the moderate voters who will raise money, register voters, print and pass out voter guides, call their neighbors, and drive people to the polls.

Right now those kind of voters are wondering just what they are going to do.