Being a son of the South, and having grown up a Southern Baptist, I was always intrigued by the role of religion in the region's politics. The South isn't unique in this, of course. But we do tend to overdo some things down here. For example: capital punishment.

One of the great debates in the South is over religion's proper role in the public sector. It's hard to criticize the Right, for example, on its determination to enforce "religious majoritarianism" on government today when that was essentially what MLK and the other religious leaders of the civil rights movement sought to achieve 40 years ago. (There are good arguments that define the differences, but that's another subject.)

To me, capital punishment became the religious watershed. It's an argument I'm sure many readers here will recognized: OK, if Christians want to assert their right to political ascendancy, how in the world do they justify their embrace of the very un-Jesus-like love affair with executing people. I'm from Florida, and I could never see how any Christian could reconcile his orher beliefs with the head-igniting barbecues in Raiford prison's death chamber. I witnessed Florida's last electrocution, where the guest of honor exploded, literally. He continued to moan and twitch, blood spurting allover the place, long after officials guaranteed he'd be dead. I can't see Jesus having a role in such a hideous spectacle.

Looking at capital punishment in the South in a series of articles, I discovered people such as far-right Baptist minister in Ringgold, Ga., named Don Boys. He's a Christian Reconstruction fellow-traveler (disagreeing on theological issues such as postmillennialism, but whole-heartedly favoring adoption of Old Testament law in this nation -- along with mass executions of gays, blasphemers, adulterers, etc. I also found the Reconstruction battalion -- R.J. Rushdoony, Gary North and, especially, Atlanta's Gary DeMar. Atlanta is, as I say in the MoJo article, ground zero for much of the Christian Right (hey, Ralph Reed is our native son) in general and for Reconstruction specificallly (DeMar). The patient network -- as I write in MoJo, Christianity married to Leninist tactics -- that grew from its roots in far-right politics (John Birch Society) and far-right religion, a network that eventually claimed the GOP as its own, has been the focus of much of my reporting for the last eight years.

Here's my dilemma today. In going through the day's reading, I find a well-argued essay on ending the war in Iraq. It was sent to me by a friend who had deleted the author's name. My friend asked if I thought I had common ground with the writer. I said, "Sure, I agree with his general thesis, disagree with many particulars, but find much I'd like to talk to him about."

My friend then gave me the author's name: Gary North. Yes, THAT Gary North, the First Apostle of Christian Reconstruction (or the Avignon antipope of the movement). ( North's article ) My friend chided: So you do agree with the Reconstructionists on something.

I'm still musing on that.

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