KEY WEST, Fla. - Hardly a day passes without Americans being reminded of the debt President George W. Bush owes religious conservatives for their role in his re-election. Evangelical Christians - about 26 million of them - turned out in droves and are ready for payback, we keep hearing.

The only problem is, Bush isn't the president of just one constituency, as he noted in his first press conference following the election. Nor is Bush the culture warrior some insist he is.

Bush didn't make abortion an issue in his campaign except in condemning partial-birth abortion - a position most Americans share. He would have preferred to avoid the same-sex marriage issue, but the Massachusetts Supreme Court forced his hand. And it was John Kerry, not Bush, who made stem-cell research a political issue.

It may be true that religious conservatives helped Bush win re-election. And while some evangelical leaders have expressed their expectation that Bush will act promptly on some of their pet issues, others have been more temperate.

Those who call for dramatic action, of course, make better copy and get more ink. You're more likely to read about evangelical leaders who talk colorfully about Satan than you are about cooler heads who call for patience and tolerance. Prison Fellowship leader Charles Colson, for example, wrote Bush after the election to say that Christians shouldn't be another political-pressure group. He told Bush that he voted for him not because of what he would do, but because of the kind of man he is.

The bland truth is that Bush is unlikely to deliver on religious conservatives' expectations in any dramatic or immediate way simply because it isn't his style. As Michael Gerson - Bush speechwriter and policy adviser - puts it, Bush is an "incrementalist." And as such is misunderstood by both his allies and enemies.

Gerson was in Key West this week to speak to a group of journalists about religion, politics and public life. In conversation following dinner one evening, he explained to me that while Bush is firm in his conviction that every human life should be welcome and legally protected, he is also firm in his belief that social consensus must precede change.

Neither Bush's personality nor his ideology meshes with the profile of dogmatic social engineer. On stem-cell research, for example, Bush basically split the baby down the middle, funding research on existing stem-cell lines, but withholding funding for new research that would destroy human embryos.

On same-sex marriage, Bush supports a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman, but supports some form of civil union to extend legal protections to same-sex couples. Continued...