MSNBC's Rachel Maddow introduced religious right-wing evangelical pastor Lou Engle to the political nation last Wednesday, cutting into the Family Research Council's live "Prayercast." She described Engle as:

"the pastor calling for a second American civil war, for American Christians to be martyred against abortion - headlining tonight's anti-health care reform event, with two serving US Republican senators and two serving Republican members of Congress."

Lou Engle is the founder of TheCall, organizer of the mega antigay marriage event held last year at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego to urge passage of Proposition 8 in California. Interestingly, Engle’s son specializes in casting out "homosexual spirits," though there is no indication he was gay before he became an “ex-gay.”

Engle says one of the GOP senators at the Prayercast – Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback - was his roommate in a Washington DC condo for the better part of a year. (More on this later.)

Aside from the Prop 8 rally last year, Lou Engle organized a rally in 2000 that drew hundreds of thousands to Washington DC's national mall. But the Family Research Council's "Prayercast" Dec. 16 was Engle's real national coming-out party.

There’s more to the mainstreami