The first protest rally since the Vietnam era took take place on Friday, March 8 outside the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). This time the focus was not on the subject of war but on the pervasive Christian Dominionist indoctrination within the Academy in particular, and the military in general. Over the decades, Colorado Springs - the home of the USAFA - has become ground zero for Dominionist Christianity. Perhaps there's something in the water. If not, it's most certainly in the air, for this is where Dominionist leaders the likes of James Dobson and the now-not-gay Ted Haggard cut their evangelising teeth with likely intent to Christianise our military.

Those who follow the increasing religious indoctrination within the armed forces wonder why the rest of the country isn't alarmed. That a nation so intent upon monitoring worldwide nuclear capabilities so willingly looks away from its own brand of religious extremists who are rooting for the end of the world - extremists who will one day potentially carry nuclear payloads on the planes - is tantamount to watching Nero fiddle while arsons set Rome on fire. If not for uber-watchdog Mikey Weinstein and his Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the Dominionist Christian takeover of the military would be much further along.

Before writing the novel Being Christian, I spent several years tracking the modern marriage between the Religious Right and the GOP. The journey took me into mega-churches brimming with the desperate and gullible. I immediately knew I was witness to a culture-changing phenomenon that would not be going away anytime soon. To date, para-churches continue to spring up at a brisk rate, the inevitable result being that End Times demographics will ultimately dominate Christianity. The Religious Right is deeply funded, highly motivated and passionate, and their numbers increase daily. For low-information, poor or rural voters, their pastor is often their only source of information. For urban and suburban dwellers, the mega-church offers an enticing, feel-good, do-good community whose mission at base is about biblical inerrancy and End Times.