Jim Wallis has an announcement to make.

In an article in Time magazine, the author of the popular book God's Politics: Why the Religious Right is Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, declares: The Religious Right's Era Is Over.

And what evidence does he have for this remarkably sunny assertion?

Well, none.

After many false starts, the video game based on Tim LaHaye's best selling "Left Behind" novels, has finally hit the shelves. The game is now for sale in thousands of stores -- just in time for the Christmas shopping season. How it will be received, of course, remains to be seen.

But it is worth reminding ourselves that this is but one of a number of strong currents in American religious culture promoting an ideology of religious warfare.

In posts here and at Talk to Action, my colleagues Jonathan Hutson and Chip Berlet and I (among others) have been writing about Left Behind:  Eternal Forces for months.  I don't want to reprise all that we have had to say, but I have included some links on the flip.

Ever since the Foley scandal -- in which top GOP House leaders covered up the pedophilic activities of Rep.Mark Foley (R-FL), the Christian Right has been trying to change the subejct.  And like the Vatican, when faced with a similar situation a few years ago, they are trying to blame it on homosexuality, and shift the focus away from those those who evidently enabled  and covered-up for those who abused children under their care.

Senator Barack Obama's big speech at an event sponsored by Call to Renewal, a group headed by Jim Wallis, author of God's Politics: Why the Religious Right Gets it Wrong, and Why the Left Doesn't Get It -- has received very mixed reviews and is the buzz of the blogosphere. There is much in Obama's speech that hits the right notes regarding the role of religion in a democratic pluralist society, but the speech is indelibly marred by propagating one of the central frames of the religious right.

Having a difficult time making sense of the religious right? It is alien territory for many Americans in terms of the religious, political and public policy aspects. If we are going to be able to have conversations about the politics of the Christian right, it helps to have some foundational knowledge.

Yesterday, I did a round-up of some of the best and most important blog posts about the religious right from the past week. And as I did, it occurred to me that even as most people find it difficult to learn about the religious right, let alone have a thoughtful conversation about it, it is also hard to figure out how to learn the things that are most important to know. Blogs are helpful, but it is hard to get a foundation of knowledge from blogs alone.

Over the next little while, I will do a series of posts that can be your own personal home school curriculum on the subject. To start, here are five basic books (among many on the subject) that, taken together, provide a good foundation of knowledge that will be helpful in the run-up to this year's elections, as well as the elections of 2008. This foundation will also help to make sense of ongoing news reporting and blog posts you may encounter, and to provide some common knowledge and language among people who share your concerns about this powerful political movement.

The religious right has been growing as a political movement for decades. It remains poorly understood by most of those most affected by its growing power and influence at all levels of society.

That's a shame, since anytime one has a formidable opponent, whether it's in sports, business, or the military, it's good to have some, well, strategic intelligence about the capacities of the opposition. Their strengths and weaknesses. I daresay most people reading this have more to say about the capacities of the Iraqi insurgents than the capacity of the domestic religious right.

Whatever happens in Iraq; whatever happens in the midterm elections; whatever happens in the '08 elections -- the religious right as an organized and powerful political movement will still be with us. Based on over twenty years of experience in studying and writing about the religous right in the U.S. -- my message to anyone who has read this far, is that the religious right in most of its manifestations will be a powerful force for the rest of your life, so if you don't already -- you might as well get to know it.

Every once in awhile, I am going to pop-up with a sampler of some of the more interesting posts at Talk to Action. It's the only place in the world where you can come to learn and talk about the religious right and what to do about it: and only that. As narrow as that may sound, we cover a lot of ground.  

Some of this stuff is not for the uninitiated in thinking and discussing the religious right. The three writers I mention below are worth taking the time to understand, and to consider in formulating your views about the politics of the future.

"Blurring the line between church and state threatens civil liberties and privacy, says former President Jimmy Carter. That's the case he makes in his new book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, which draws on Carter's experiences as a president and a Christian."