David, thanks for the welcome! I think you and I are probably in agreement that it’s a good thing that the influence of the religious right is on the wane. I don’t think a group of self-appointed Christian leaders can really say they speak for all of us. We all have a different take on politics, on what we think is important. They focus on morality, I’m focused on fiscal responsibility and abortion. It’s good for the Christian community to understand that individuals should decide who best presents there views, not be convinced to vote for someone because a Christian leader influenced their vote. Each of us bears the responsibility to be wise with our choice.
As to Mark DeMoss, I agree that one speech probably wouldn’t normally change the dynamics of a race but Huckabee’s speech must have done something because Matthew Anderson, Joe Carter (who was a Thompson supporter) and Justin Taylor have all endorsed Huckabee this week.
From their joint post endorsing Huckabee:

For several months we have admired the scrappy campaign of Gov. Huckabee but believed it would be a wasted effort to support him with our time, energy, and finances. We bought into the notion that he could never get the GOP nomination since conservative voters would not support him. And the reason we were told conservative voters would never support him is because he could not get the nomination. To quote John Piper (from a different context), “It’s like the army being defeated because there aren’t enough troops, and the troops won’t sign up because the army’s being defeated.”

I guess it sounds like he motivated them when he said, “If all the people who say they like me but don’t think I’m viable would support me, I’d be viable.”