Robertson's adieu: is the Religious Right really dead this time? (Perspective).

My first television appearance with the Rev. Pat Robertson in almost seven years occurred the morning after Robertson officially announced he was resigning as president of the Christian Coalition.

The religious broadcaster had unexpectedly declared in a press release that he would be moving on to further his "ministry" and added, "It is now time for the Lord to raise up someone to take my place." (Don't get excited; I don't think he has me in mind.)

We had been scheduled to debate prayer in school, but CNN host Paula Zahn immediately turned the conversation to the meaning of Robertson's departure. She observed that the CNN guest bookers were so good they had managed to get both Robertson and his chief critic on. She observed that I had said in that morning's papers, "It looks like the captain has jumped off the sinking ship."

Not surprisingly, Robertson didn't agree. But it took him a while to say that. He began by calling me a "good friend" and then launched into an obscure anecdote about how Americans United had once sued to keep his Regent University from getting some bonds from the state of Virginia. He noted that after we lost the case, he sent me a $100 bill and told me to take my wife to dinner.

The story is true -- but irrelevant to the topic at hand. Robertson did indeed send me a $100 bill and a sarcastic note thanking me for AU's hard work. The money is still tucked away in a safe place while I think of what to do with it. I'm considering framing it and the accompanying note and offering it on Ebay sometime. Moreover, since I think it is safe to say that Americans United has defeated Robertson's efforts far more regularly than he has defeated ours, I was worried about having to send him $100 bills all the time.

The Christian Coalition had hit a rough patch long before Robertson stepped down. The organization's profile in Washington has been declining since the departure of Ralph Reed in 1997. The Coalition claims to have put out 3 million voter guides to help the Republican gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey last November, but the candidates lost decisively.

The Coalition has seen an exodus of top staff. It is trying to negotiate itself out of a multi-million-dollar race discrimination lawsuit here in Washington. Even the annual "Road To Victory" Conference last fall had to be scrapped.

The Coalition's troubles are serious, but they do not spell the death of the entire Religious Right movement. There are plenty of figures who, with or without the approval of God (I don't make those judgments personally), will be happy to fill in any gaps. The Family Research Council has a new leader, Kenneth Connor, who wants his group to be higher profile. Former FRC head Gary Bauer has started a new Religious Right organization and a political action committee. D. James Kennedy, a Florida TV preacher is trying to garner national attention with his defense of Chief Justice Roy Moore, the Alabama jurist who we are suing for sneaking a two-and-a-half-ton Ten Commandments monolith into the state's judicial center one night. Radio counselor James Dobson's Focus on the Family reaches millions of people every day with a potent cocktail of "family values" and far-right politics.

According to top presidential advisor Karl Rove, the Republicans are aware that the number of voters self-identifying as "Christian conservatives" was down during the 2000 election (albeit only from 18 percent to 15 percent.) Rove said recently that President George W. Bush wants to shore up his support in this constituency. This could only mean a further move to the right in an effort to garner more core support from the ranks of those who love the "faith-based initiative" and hate the wall of separation between church and state.

Should Bush pursue this course, the danger is that really bad ideas will be given far more attention than they deserve. I know that my old debating partner, Rep. Ernest Istook of Oklahoma, hopes that the president will support his new proposed amendment to the Constitution to bring government-promoted prayer back to public schools. Here we go again.

The bottom line: If you hear political pundits on television announcing the "death" of the Religious Right, be skeptical. We've been down this road before. The Religious Right has been pronounced dead in the past by self-styled "experts," only to rise vampire-like from its coffin and stalk the land anew.

The president of the United States, who seems to have little use for church-state separation, wants to do more for the Religious Right. Powerful Republicans in Congress such as House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Majority Whip Tom DeLay and Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, are staunch Religious Right allies, far right and proud of it. The very idea of a GOP moderate occupying any of those slots is unthinkable. Folks, this is not a movement that has lost its steam.

As they probably teach at Hogwarts Academy in Harry Potter's later years, when you mix 15 percent of the electorate dedicated to a radical agenda with battles between new rivals for the mantle of Pat Robertson and a Congress bound and determined to stop everything Americans United stands for, you have a very wicked potion.

Barry W. Lynn is executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.