What I'm saying is, the fundies are winning. Democratic leaders like former Senator Bob Kerrey are finally saying such things openly - that the republican party has been infiltrated by interests who have no desire to maintain the separation of church and state.

I could wax really paranoid, about how deeply fundamentalist christian thought has often been bound up with racist movements, but really, my better nature prefers to think that it Still Can't Happen Here. Or can it? During the height of the invasion of Afghanistan, a general in uniform was speaking at evangelical churches all over the nation, framing our fight with Islamic fundamentalism as a religious war - on our end, too.

I am sure someone who harbors this scheme of beliefs will take me for a godless, anti-christian heathen for saying any of this, maybe even one of those demonic liberals, but I assure you I'm not.

I just remember a day when the republican party wasn't completely in the thrall of evangelicals. When the oh-so-nebulous and broad term "morals and values" was all very good, but how well can the candidate govern? See, a great number of people polled who said they would vote for Dubya felt he'd be better at protecting and projecting "morals and values." Gee, I thought you went to see your preacher for that. When did the Commander-in-Chief become the preacher-in-chief? Why do I feel Barry Goldwater would have thought this was hilarious? Even Reagan, as gracious and seemingly accomodating as he was to the likes of Jerry Falwell, governed a White House that took it's cue from the Constitution when making decisions, however bad they were.

But now we've re-elected a president who proudly proclaims his status as a born-again christian. I even share membership with him in the United Methodist Church. Not that Methodists are even all that scary a denomination - to the contrary, compared to the Assembly of God churches or the Church of Christ, we Methodists are real weak sauce, almost liberal.

Does anyone who answered that "morals and values" question realize that this war Dubya has pursued was begun by people who found our "morals and values" so at odds with theirs that we, as we'd say down south, "needed killin'"?

I'm worried. I truly will try to stay optimistic - I mean, for all I know, next time I'm at a Methodist Church Dubya could even pop in to sing "Bringing in the Sheaves" with me. I might even enjoy it.