“For those of us who came to Manhattan precisely because you’re guaranteed never to meet anyone who has read the Left Behind series, America’s much-celebrated spiritual revival can have its trying moments.” But even the jaded and secular Tina Brown has to admit that Catholicism has made itself look awfully alluring over the weeks since the death of Pope John Paul II. But the election of Cardinal Ratzinger has sent what remains of the ‘religious left’ scurrying right back into hiding. “Secularists, humanists and quiet worshipers of an unpoliticized God have felt beleaguered, frustrated and unfairly disrespected. There’s no energy on the non-zealot side of the cultural debate. There’s no Voltaire, no Clarence Darrow, not even a Lenny Bruce to balance the stifling, censorious religiosity.”