Good research reports are invaluable when studying the religious right and figuring out what to do about it. So it is worth highlighting the good ones when they appear. Last week, the People For the American Way Foundation, the NAACP, and the African American Ministers Leadership Council released a report, The Patriot Pastors' Electoral War Against the `Hordes of Hell' that, according to the press release, "documents how this new generation of Religious Right leaders is turning churches into political machines for far-right Republican candidates."  

This is the best single overview to date, summarizing the role of the Patriot Pastors in Ohio and the nationwide movement for which it is serving as a pilot project. Everyone concerned should read it carefully, and take it seriously as the new wave of the religious right organizes for this year's elections and beyond.

Highlights on the flip:

Last February, the Internal Revenue Service finally drew the line in the sand. After years of controversy, as the Christian Right sought to build a church-based electoral movement, bending and breaking the rules governing the activities of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organzations, the IRS announced a major education and enforcement program in the run up to the 2006 elections.  

The IRS sought to make the matter as plain and simple as possible:  

"...all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office."

The issue of tax abuse by tax exempt organizations, particularly churches promises to be a signficant issue over the next few elections. Ground zero in the battle is Ohio, where the Patriot Pastors project has been overtly backing Ohio Sectretary of State Ken Blackwell for governor in 2006. A group of non-Christian right clergy in Ohio have filed complaints about World Harvest Church and Fairfield Christian Church two churches centrally involved in the Ohio Patriot Pastors project, that they felt had way overstepped.

But that was just the beginning.