Little Hawk,

Having lived in the Bible Belt, the fear is justified. Too many can quote the bible but not the constitution and feel they are divinely authorized to re-shape their community, town, county or state into a fairly repressive theocracy. Anyone who's opposed these groups (and the Religious Right are just the shock troops) has a taste of their moral fervor. When they tried to take over the School Board in the county in North Florida I used to live in, those of us opposing them had our friends and family and (in some cases) our employers called by very sincere "Good Christian men and woman" wondering how our families tolerated us, our friends associated with us or our bosses could allow us to work for them.

At least one of our action committee was told by a local HVAC service that they wouldn't repair her air conditioner as they didn't "do business with your kind.". Three local print/copy shops refused to print our brochures. Not because they supported the other side. They were afraid they'd start harassing their customers.

Even after we more or less won, there were still constant 'attacks' through the individual schools, letters to the editor and the every popular talk-radio shows to push their agenda. Their agenda, btw, included mandatory school prayer, banning a whole list of books (including Little Red Riding Hood), review/approval of the type of music allowed at school functions, dress code and so on.

Regards John