There are two very common reactions to fundamentalists in politics in the United States. Both of these reactions are non-helpful ones. By non-helpful I mean that they are to the advantage of the fundamentalists and to the disadvantage of those who seek to fight their influence in politics. The two reactions are to overestimate them, or to underestimate them.

Many people, particularly on the hard Left, overestimate the Christian fundamentalists. They inflate their numbers far beyond reality. I have read estimates with percentages as high as 40% of Americans being listed as fundamentalists. Let us think here, Roman Catholicism, by far the largest single faith in the US (and a NON-fundamentalist one) is about 70,000,000 (seventy million), or approximately 20% of the US population. The largest Protestant faith is the Southern Baptist Church. The Southern Baptists are generally, although not universally, fundamentalist. According to Organizational reporting; National Survey of Religious Identification ((NSRI; Kosmin, et al); Gallup data; Deseret News 2001-2002 Church Almanac. Deseret News: Salt Lake City, UT (2000) there are 15,800,000 (fifteen million eight hundred thousand) Southern Baptists or about 5.7% of the population. (Furthermore, according to their own internal publication Research Report: Comparison of Changes in Population, Southern Baptist Churches and Resident Members by Region and State, 1990-2000 by Richie C. Stanley, p. iii "Southern Baptists lost "market share" of the population between 1990 and 2000; The church planting and evangelism goals set by the North American Mission Board are indeed God-sized goals and will not be attained without divine intervention.") Other reports show that the Assemblies of God (largest of the Right wing Pentecostal Churches) has about 2,575,000 (two million five hundred seventy-five thousand) members (Hartford Institute Study released on March 13, 2001) and the "Magachurches" taken as a whole have another 1,800,000 (one million eight hundred thousand) attendees (according to John N. Vaughn Church Growth Today). Even adding in non-denominational churches, which have another 2,000,000 (two million) attendees; (according to the Hartford Institute study already cited above), and assuming another 4,000,000 (four million) people in the various smaller denominations that support the agenda of the religious Right but have had no studies done on them; you only have a total of 26,175,000 (twenty-six million one hundred and seventy five thousand) persons, generously we might consider this 10% of the total American populace. So... where are the 40% of Americans that are being attributed as fundamentalists? Well the reality is that the statistic is a misapplication, as far as I can tell, of the total number of Americans who claim to be "born again." That number is about 44% -- but, as the study itself (Gallup Poll, August 2000) says, that 44% is composed of self-identified individuals including Catholics and Protestants. Many of these people therefore believe themselves to be born again, but are not fundamentalists, nor even interested in fundamentalism. That difference must be accepted if we are to understand the plurality that is American religious life.

At the same time, a significant number of people, particularly mainstream liberals and moderates, greatly underestimate the Christian fundamentalists. They discard the claims of fundamentalist organizations and openly declare -- despite glaringly evident facts to the contrary -- that fundamentalism has no real effect on American politics, and never will; that fundamentalists are completely marginalized and cannot gain traction in a manner allowing them to effect the electorate; and that fundamentalism is a shell for (insert special interest group here). Reality belies them. While the fundamentalist movement (as opposed to the evangelical movement with which it is often confused) is apparently not really growing and may even be shrinking, it is a steady and solid contingent that is wielded like a weapon in the Republican primaries in a number of states, giving the fundamentalist groups control of the GOP in close to, or possibly even more than, half of the states in the Union. Likewise, while most GOP money continues to come from the same old conservative establishment elites that it always has, the foot soldiers of the party are now provided in large part by fundamentalist churches and Right wing religious organizations. The fundamentalist Right has come to occupy the same space in the Republican party that organized Labor occupies in the Democratic one -- except that the fundamentalist Right plays hardball with its own party organization in ways that Labor never has.

Part of the reason for this is the influence on the religious Right wielded by two numerically insignificant groups: The practitioners of "dominion theology" (the postmillennialists mentioned on the hopes page) and the various organizations that seem to be connected, directly or indirectly with the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church (known years ago to most Americans as "the Moonies.") The influence of these two groups on the political activity of the religious Right cannot be overstated.

While for an in depth understanding of the influence of these two groups, the author strongly suggests that the reader take time to obtain and study Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy by Frederick Clarkson, published by Common Courage Books in 1997; I will also attempt to give you a very brief overview.

On the hopes page, I have already explained that postmillennialists desire to establish the "thousand year reign of Christ," using the Church as an instrument. They believe that this is necessary for the second coming of Christ. The leading proponents of this system of belief are from Orthodox Presbyterian and similar churches (though Reconstructionism certainly has no single denominational home) and wield influence through positions in organizations like the Coalition on Revival (COR) and so forth.

The Coalition on Revival (founded 1982) provides a wonderful snapshot of the extent of the influence on the Christian Right, and even on the secular Right, that Reconstructionism wields at this point in time. Clarkson points out in his book, on Pages 97 and 98 -- who the members of the Coalition on Revival were at the time of formation. Those members included: John Whitehead, Michael Farris, Randall Terry (Operation Rescue anti-abortion group), Franky Schaeffer (Francis Schaeffer's son from Eagle Forum), Don Wildmon (American Family Association), Beverly LaHaye (Concerned Women for America), Connaught Marshner (Free Congress Foundation), Dr. Stephen Hotze (Houston GOP), Robert Dugan (National Association of Evangelicals), former Representative Bill Dannemeyer (R- California), Timothy LaHaye (televangelist), Ron Haus (televangelist), D. James Kennedy (televangelist), and the following: R.J. Rushdoony, Gary North, Joseph Morecraft, David Chilton, Gary DeMar, Rus Walton and the Reverend Raymond Joseph.

A stunning array of leaders from across the religious and secular Right, together with a grossly disproportionate number of members of the Reconstructionist movement, the Coalition on Revival brokered theological compromises among fundamentalist groups and assisted in the emergence of a transdenominational theology for fundamentalist Christian churches. How influenced were the non-Reconstructionist members of the Coalition? The probable answer is very influenced. Everything we can see from the outside says that, despite the later drop out of a number of the premillennialist evangelical leaders -- under pressure from their own followers, COR went far toward establishing a doctrine calling for action by fundamentalists to "take back" and exercise "dominion over" the nation, and the world. Despite the fact that by its nature premillennialist theology denies the idea that "Christians" can take political dominion over the world, and even suggests by inference that becoming actively involved in such an attempt causes a person to become part of the false church that supports the anti-Christ (who after all, in premillennial thought is the only theologically recognizable figure to gain political dominion near the time of the end of the world), the natural appeal of power to human individuals trumps theological ideology and leads many premillennialist fundamentalists to the comfortable notion that they can wield power, even if only for a season.

According to many Reconstructionist leaders, such a time of "dominion" would include the execution (murder?) of those guilty of everything from homosexuality to repeated blasphemy (depending to some degree on what leader you are talking to, the exact offenses so punished vary). The most conservative counting that I have heard, say that at least some Reconstructionists want to kill about 50,000,000 (fifty million) Americans in order to eliminate the "unclean" from our midst. Additionally, due to a doctrine that allows lying to unbelievers without penalty or with lessened penalty (RJ Rushdoony has gone so far as to argue that "Christians" have a requirement to tell the truth under normal circumstances, but that this "does not apply to acts of war. Spying is legitimate, as are deceptive tactics in warfare." [Rushdoony, Rousas J.The Independent Republic: Studies in the Nature and Meaning of American History, Thornburg Press, 1978, p. 542-544]. Needless to say, many Reconstructionists, view the political battle in which they are engaged as warfare.) -- members of the Reconstructionist movement can, as far as I can discern, with the blessings of their faith, say that they oppose such "executions" when they actually support them -- so, while I caution people not to assume that every Reconstructionist wants to kill every person with whom s/he disagrees; I also caution people not to assume that any Reconstructionist may not so desire -- regardless of what they have said regarding the matter.

At the same time, the influence of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his organization on the American fundamentalist Right is even more startling at first glance. The Unification Church has rarely, if ever, had more than a few thousand American devotees, and given the position that most fundamentalist Churches have taken regarding Reverend Moon and his claim of being the perfection of the messiah - one would suppose that connections between the two movements would be non-existent. Reality is otherwise.

Of course, experts aver that there are a number of "front-groups" used by Reverend Moon to spread his influence throughout the Right in general. Such groups include the Women's Federation for World Peace, The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation; The World Medical Health Foundation, CAUSA and others. Likewise, it is contended that he has alliances of convenience with groups such as The World Anti-Communist League. Through these groups he has had significant influence on the secular Right for years, to the point where he was able to get both George I and Barbara Bush to speak at functions that he sponsored after the senior Bush's departure from the White House.

Still, the fundamentalist Right? How does he wield influence there? Well, people like Clarkson and some cult experts maintain that his influence is wielded through the application of money and power. Clarkson, in his excellent book reveals that at one time The Coalition for Religious Freedom (funded with Reverend Moon's money) had the following Board of Directors: Reverend Timothy LaHaye, Reverend Jerry Falwell, Reverend James Robison, Reverend Rex Humbard, Reverend Jimmy Draper, Reverend D. James Kennedy, Reverend Jimmy Swaggart, Reverend Don Wildmon, Reverend Greg Dixon and Marlin Maddoux. If that reads like a who's who of the leaders of the religious Right at the time, that's because it is. [Clarkson, Frederick, op cit, Page 65]. At various times Moon's organization has given money, directly or indirectly to the organizations of some of these men for the use of their ministries, and to other leaders of the religious Right as well, going so far as to keep one nearly bankrupt organization afloat until it could recover. The December 20, 2002 issue of the Executive Intelligence Review says in an article by Larry Hecht that "Moon now owns the religious right from Jerry Falwell to Gary Bauer."

So the goals of the fundamentalist Right seem to be ultimately those of suppression of dissent, establishment of theocracy in place of democracy, and continuity for as long as control can be maintained. Politically their tool is control of the Republican party at any cost, and the establishment of that party as the center of a one-party government, leading to the probable elimination of the right of franchise (ability to vote) for those who do not agree with them, and/or who are not, by their standards, Christians. Psychologically they depend on separation (through Christian academies and home-schooling) and indoctrination often considered a form of "brainwashing" to create new generations dedicated to those political goals. Many of their leaders and authors - particularly those of Reconstructionist bent - are extremely open about these goals.