Church historian and author Darryl Hart will visit Kansas University tonight when he’ll discuss the movement of some evangelical Christians to the left of the political spectrum.

“I think there is a change under way,” said Hart, director of Partnered Projects for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. “They think that Jesus is compassionate. Jesus is loving. Jesus is caring, and they’d like to see government reflect those Christian concerns.”

Hart will deliver a lecture titled “The Last Dance: Why the Romance Between the Religious Right and Conservatism May Be Over” at 7:30 p.m. at the Dole Institute of Politics.

Hart said issues such as poverty, hunger, the Iraq war and concerns over the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have some evangelicals turning to the political left.

“The Democratic Party and its desire to be more open and more caring looks more attractive,” he said. “I think Bush initially, with his rhetoric of compassionate conservatism, was attractive to some of these evangelicals – especially if you factor in abortion and the culture of life. … If that looks hollow, the war in Iraq certainly created problems for this.”

Hart is the author of numerous books, including “Deconstructing Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism in the Era of Bill Graham” and “That Old-Time Religion in Modern America: Evangelical Protestantism in the Twentieth Century.”

The lecture is free and open to the public.