In the minds of many observers, the schismatic former Episcopalians aligned with the Institute on Religion and Democracy had not really migrated into the Religious Right. The Religious Right was more the territory of fiery Southern Baptists and apocalyptic Pentecostals than starchy Episcopalians.
But times do change.
Chunks of the American Episcopal Church have broken off (including the church of Washington Post columnist and former Bush speechwriter Michael ("Axis of Evil") Gerson) and placed themselves under the authority of the fiercely anti-gay, anti-Muslim Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria. Akinola's missionary bishop to the United States is the Rev. Martyn Minns -- who recently spoke at the Family Research Council's Values Voters Summit in DC -- the premeir annual political conference of the Religious Right.
Rev. Katherine Ragsdale of Political Research Associates reports that
Minns spoke about the cleavage to a major gathering of the Christian Right at the Values Voters Summit on September 12 in Washington, D.C. Mainline churches are set to destroy timeless values that formed U.S. churches, he said, and conservative teachings on homosexuality and life are "core values" that are "universal, timeless, and non-negotiable." An audio of his speech is here.
It should be noted that Minns was not a bishop in the U.S. Episcopal Church before leaving. He was ordained a "missionary" bishop by the Anglican Church of Nigeria to oversee the Nigerian churches in the United States. It should also be noted that the Church in Nigeria, under whose authority Minns holds his position, does not ordain women. This discrimination is a "value" Minns chose not to mention in Washington.
Minns defies the stereotype of the conservative evangelical or conservative Catholic leaders of the Religious Right. But he epitomizes a dimension of the Religious Right that has been there all along, and is emergent, significant, and not going away.