You can tell a lot about a political or religious faction by its leaders. That is why it is so interesting, and concerning, that the rightwing Episcopalians that are busy breaking away from the American church are joining the Anglican faction led by Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria.  

Indeed, Akinola may soon be better known as a notorious persecutor of gays and lesbians than for his role in fomenting schism in the Episcopal Church in the U.S.  He is a prominent advocate for a bill that The New York Times recently called a "poisonous piece of legislation" that would criminalize all "amorous" same sex relationships and ban political organizing on behalf of gay rights: all subject to 5 years imprisonment. One probable side effect would be to undermine efforts to curb the spread of AIDS.

The religious right has been growing as a political movement for decades. It remains poorly understood by most of those most affected by its growing power and influence at all levels of society.

That's a shame, since anytime one has a formidable opponent, whether it's in sports, business, or the military, it's good to have some, well, strategic intelligence about the capacities of the opposition. Their strengths and weaknesses. I daresay most people reading this have more to say about the capacities of the Iraqi insurgents than the capacity of the domestic religious right.

Whatever happens in Iraq; whatever happens in the midterm elections; whatever happens in the '08 elections -- the religious right as an organized and powerful political movement will still be with us. Based on over twenty years of experience in studying and writing about the religous right in the U.S. -- my message to anyone who has read this far, is that the religious right in most of its manifestations will be a powerful force for the rest of your life, so if you don't already -- you might as well get to know it.

The Washington Window, the newspaper of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington has joined a growing number of publications inside and outside mainline Christianity to publish exposes of the efforts of rightist agencies to destabilize the historic mainline Protestant churches in the U.S.  

The two-part series by former Washington Post and New York Times reporter James Naughton examines, according to a press release, the network of conservative groups, "their donors and the strategy that has allowed them to destabilize the Episcopal Church.... The groups represent a small minority of church members, but relationships with wealthy American donors and powerful African bishops have made them key players in the fight for the future of the Anglican Communion "to warn deputies that they must repent of their liberal attitudes on homosexuality or face a possible schism."