By Geoff Raker

A militant movement based on ancient Middle Eastern religious texts threatens to change the way Americans live -- and it's not radical Islam. Christian fundamentalism is a force every bit as revolutionary as Islamic fundamentalism, and it's much closer to taking power.

The man with his finger on the nuclear trigger technically isn't part of the evangelical movement. He's a Methodist, one of the more stodgy mainline Protestant denominations.

But what matters is that evangelicals have embraced George W. Bush as God's instrument in a wicked age. Many analyses point to that fact as the very reason he'll be inaugurated for a second term on Thursday.

The voting power of the Family Values Movement -- also known as the Moral Values Movement and the Traditional Values Movement -- is subject to debate. Much has been made of an exit poll in the recent presidential election that asked voters if they cast their ballots chiefly out of concern about the war, the economy or moral values.

Surprise! A lot of people said moral values mattered most. The phrasing was exquisitely oblique, akin to asking whether you'd like an ice cream cone, a day at the beach or going to heaven.

What's shocking isn't that 27 percent chose moral values; it's the fact that 73 percent didn't. Does that make the great multitude of us irreligious louts or savvy test-takers?

If, as conservatives inevitably claim, the 2004 election were a referendum on moral values, they have reason to be afraid. Bush's 3 percent margin of victory bespeaks vulnerability, not ascendancy.

It's undeniable, however, that Christian fundamentalism has growing political clout, whether it's measured in FCC fines for sexual content, clever new ways to sidestep Roe vs. Wade or efforts to banish the theory of evolution from public school textbooks.

Some goals of the religious right seem to have nothing to do with religion. The Christian Coalition of America's 19-point agenda for 2005 includes the usual blather about protecting the flag from desecration -- a revealing term in itself -- and opposing gay rights. But it also calls for privatization of social security and preservation of Bush's 2001 tax cuts.

Anyone who thinks the fundamentalists are above class warfare hasn't read the fine print.

A certain sense of victimization obtains to much of the fundamentalist movement; its leaders speak of a way of life under attack. The villains Hollywood, academia, lawyers -- even the United Nations. To hear conservative columnist Walter L. Williams tell it, the Values Movement is anything but victorious.

"I'm not sure how we should respond to the ongoing attack on Christianity and American values, but we'd better do something quickly," he wrote, and that was after the election.

Comparisons of current events to mythic events in the Book of Revelation lead to realpolitik consequences, such as the religious right's fervid support of Israeli policies. If judges favored by the fundamentalists take over the Supreme Court, legal abortion will become a thing of the past.

Some of the people who decide how to spend federal funds for scientific research -- that is, members of Congress -- believe the earth is only about 6,000 years old. They say the Bible tells them so. They also serve under a president who wants the federal government to fund faith-based programs.

The fundamentalist claim to mastery of Scripture is ultimately as shaky as their sense of history. Evangelicals like to point to George Washington kneeling in prayer in the snows at Valley Forge as proof of the Founding Fathers' sanctimony. But they ignore American revolutionaries such as Thomas Paine, who wrote, "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church or by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church."

In a sense, the current conflict between the political aims of fundamentalists and progressives harks back to some of the founding principles of the revolution: Shall we be governed by the state religion or shall we do as we choose?

In seeking political power, fundamentalism aims at nothing less than changing how we live. It's worth remembering that its adherents yearn for an era when homosexuality was a crime. So was oral sex between husband and wife, in most states. So was much of what now passes for mainstream entertainment.

If you don't think the Values Movement affects you, ask whether you want your daughter to be a chemist or an engineer. If so, do you want the science teacher to tell her God made the world in six days? When your son becomes sexually active, do you want him to know what condoms are and be allowed to buy them? Such long-settled phenomena of modernity are suddenly up for debate.

What follows is a sampling of the political, religious and social thinking of contemporary American evangelicals, whose flocks are flexing their political muscles.

Like any political force, fundamentalism is not a monolith; it has a multitude of variations in belief and practice. The terms "evangelical" and "fundamentalist" are not synonymous, but their political aspirations often are.

Have you heard the theory that Prince William of England is the antichrist? And if you have, do you have a nice summary rebuttal to it? The theory has gotten a hold on one of the young people I counsel and I would like to gently lead him out of this belief.

International Bible Society (IBS) mobilized to reach out with God's Word to people affected by the Dec. 26 earthquake/tsunami disaster in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Approximately 100,000 When Your World Changes booklets will be distributed to relief agencies in these countries. The booklet includes Scripture passages and devotional content that share hope, truth and counsel in a month's worth of Bible-based readings.

A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.

I was raised in (an) era, the 1940s as a child and the 1950s as a teenager, which I remember with great affection. During this era, love of God, family and country abounded. Men were men and women were women and there was no mistaking which was which. Both were proud of their individual roles. Homosexuality was very queer and a despicable act, an abomination. ... Parents could allow their children to go to a movie without having to screen it first because good guys always wore the white hats. There was no question who the "Good Guy" was. Even the "Bad Guy" in the movie didn't use foul language.

How did those huge dinosaurs fit on the Ark? Although there are about 668 names of dinosaurs, there are perhaps only 55 different "kinds" of dinosaurs. Furthermore, not all dinosaurs were huge like the Brachiosaurus, and even those dinosaurs on the Ark were probably "teenagers" or young adults. ... According to Genesis 6:15, the Ark measured 300 x 50 x 30 cubits, which is about 460 x 75 x 44 feet, with a volume of 1.54 million cubic feet. Researchers have shown that this is the equivalent volume of 522 standard railroad stock cars (U.S.), each of which can hold 240 sheep. By the way, only 11 percent of all land animals are larger than a sheep.

Without getting into all the math, the 16,000-plus animals would have occupied much less than half the space in the Ark (even allowing them some moving-around space).

Many social evils -- such as alcohol, drug, gambling or credit card abuse, pornography, sexual libertinism, spousal or child sexual abuse, easy divorce, abortion on demand -- represent the abandonment of responsibility or the violation of trust by family members, and they seriously impair the ability of family members to function in society. These evils must be viewed not only as matters of individual sin and dysfunction but also as violations of family integrity. Because the family is so important to society, violations of its integrity threaten public order.

We must seek not to dominate, but to participate. Our goal must not be power, but protection -- of our homes, our families and the liberty we all cherish. We must seek not to rule, but to serve. The spark of our movement can be found in the belief of an essentially religious, conservative people that they can no longer afford not to be involved in politics. Why? Because for 30 years the government has waged war on social pathologies, and the social pathologies are winning.

As the vice-regents of God, we are to bring his truth and his will to bear on every sphere of our world and our society. We are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and institution of human society.

Compared to heterosexual men, males who engage in homosexual behavior are:

· 727 percent more likely to have suffered bipolar disorders at some point in their lives;

· 620 percent more likely to have suffered obsessive-compulsive disorder;

· 454 percent more likely to have suffered agoraphobia (fear of leaving home or being in public);

· 421 percent more likely to have suffered "panic disorder;"

· 229 percent more likely to have suffered "social phobia;"

· 361 percent more likely to have suffered simple phobia;

· 311 percent more likely to have suffered mood disorders;

· 267 percent more likely to have suffered anxiety disorders;

· 270 percent more likely to have suffered two or more psychiatric disorders; and

· 235 percent more likely to have suffered major depression.

In your re-election, God has graciously granted America -- though she doesn't deserve it -- a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. ... You have been given a mandate. ... Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ.

Many social conservative groups have launched a protest against the White House inauguration committee's decision to invite Kid Rock to perform Jan. 18 at the Washington, D.C., Armory in a concert hosted by Bush daughters Jenna and Barbara. Among those who are lobbying the committee to drop Kid Rock from the entertainment lineup: the American Family Association, the Campaign for Children and Families and Concerned Women For America.

I applaud them. Some "South Park conservative" types are ridiculing the protesters. "Lighten up," they say. But I'm with the family groups on this. The inaugural celebrations should highlight the best the GOP has to offer. A guy who, as WorldNet Daily points out, "dedicated his first album to songs about oral sex and who was voted the Sluttiest Male Celebrity at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards" and who titles songs "F--- U Blind" and "F--- Off" doesn't belong there, even if he is a rare celebrity Bush supporter.

To win this war, it's going to be necessary to get our hands dirty. It is going to require extreme sacrifice and gut-checking commitment. We're going to have to do things in this war that you don't do at Georgetown cocktail parties. ... Here's what I can tell you with certainty as someone with a few contacts on the front lines of this war: Since the Abu Ghraib scandal -- that tempest in a teapot -- U.S. interrogators have gotten next to nothing out of prisoners in Iraq.

Why? Because those prisoners, many of them hardened terrorists with information about future attacks on our troops, maybe even on U.S. civilians, know the interrogators are playing with one hand tied behind their back. The rules on grilling have gotten much tougher. We have to be nice to the prisoners now -- even if it means getting nothing out of them and losing more American lives as a result.

Now, I don't know about you, but I think that's wrong. I think that's stupid.

The Disney film Mulan is considered by some Christian film critics to be occultic, promoting Eastern mysticism. Dove ruled that the animated film was merely presenting Eastern Religion in the context of the historical background of the story. On a similar note, Dove did not approve a G-rated animated film, Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest, because, in the judgment of our review committee, it openly declared the New Age belief that Mother Earth is the center of all life and truth.

BarlowGirl, a chart-topping Christian Pop-Rock band of three sisters, speaks to the issues of modesty, purity, surrender, trust and not dating -- values that are becoming obsolete.

I believe that the major decline in voter strength among evangelicals is the result of eschatology, the belief of millions of Christians that we are living in the last days.

It is our great desire to raise up an army of prayer warriors committed to fervent prayer -- and to know that any time, day or night, precious team members are lifting America to God in prayer. This is where we need your help. We're looking for volunteers to pray for our leaders, our nation and our mission at the Center for Reclaiming America.

All we ask is that you commit to prayer -- for five minutes, 15 minutes, an hour, whatever works for you -- at least once a week.

To be a part of this 24/7 National Prayer Force, just click the button below.

The question that begs an answer is not why so many Americans believe in Main Street values and are comfortable with the moral and ethical imperatives inherent in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The unanswered question is: Why does a sizable minority, firmly entrenched in academia, Hollywood and the "chattering classes" so thoroughly reject, despise and disdain the values of average Americans? Why have so many on the left come to hate the country of their birth, regularly comparing it to Nazi Germany, at the very time that real fascists have already attacked our homeland once and desperately are trying to do so again? ... The mystery is what sustains these radicals who hate America and hate their fellow citizens.

The Anti-Christian Liberties Union (ACLU) continues its war against the Boy Scouts. It has succeeded in forcing the Pentagon to issue a warning to military bases around the world to avoid sponsoring Boy Scout troops. This is a victory of humanistic fascism over religious freedom and the right of private organizations to set their own membership standards.

Is money utilized in heaven? It is very unlikely that there is a money-based financial system in the eternal realm. In Heaven, God will meet the needs of all of his children, freely giving them riches that go beyond all their wildest imaginings. They will be in want of nothing.

The Bible clearly condemns all sexual behaviors outside of marriage between one man and one woman. Homosexual behavior is explicitly condemned in both the Old and New Testaments as an abomination and a violation of God's standards for sexuality. We oppose the normalization of sodomy as well as cross-dressing and other deviant sexual behaviors in our culture.

Mary did not engage in premarital sex. Her circumstances, to say the least, were unique (Luke 1:26-28). Many young girls got married as teenagers.

· An edict from the centralized Roman government forced Joseph and Mary to spend valuable resources of money and time to return to their place of birth to register for a tax (Luke 2:1-7). Joseph's business was shut down while he took his very pregnant wife on a wild goose chase concocted by the Roman Empire.

· Typical of governments that make laws without considering the consequences, there was not enough housing for the great influx of traveling citizens and subjects who complied with the governmental decree (Luke 2:1).

· Mary and Joseph had enough money to pay for lodging. The problem was inadequate housing. The fact that "there was no room in the inn" (Luke 2:7) did not make them homeless. If we follow liberal logic, an oxymoron if there ever was one, any family that takes a trip is by definition homeless.

Christians for Kerry/Edwards is a faith-based, independent resource providing educational materials and action tools in support of the Kerry/Edwards campaign. We invite you to explore our Web site and discover why voting for John Kerry is theologically sound and politically wise.

A few years ago a well-prepared group, intent on destroying family values, presented to the UN a sizable listing of people who supported their position. It gave the impression that they represented the majority of the citizens of the world, even though they were a small minority. A huge number of delegates believed that this group's philosophy was the new approach to progress and modernization. As a result, families worldwide are now at risk. The silent majority -- those of us who value our families -- can no longer afford to remain silent. The time for action is now.

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PRESIDENT BUSH will be inaugurated for a second term at noon Thursday in Washington, D.C. Several groups plan protests, including Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (www.internationalanswer.org). From 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday the UC Anti-War Committee holds a counter-inauguration festival in the Great Hall at the Tangeman University Center, featuring music, art and speakers.