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Christian foot soldiers battle for Bush
An increasingly polarised presidential election appears to be in the offing. One of the fault-lines is religion and, in particular, President George W Bush's evangelical faith and how that guides his political beliefs.

...Talking to Mrs Fields it is clear that the White House is all too aware of the crucial role that grassroots organisations in the south could play again in harvesting votes for the 2004 campaign.

Karl Rove, the mercurial presidential advisor who many see as the second most important man in Washington, was in Atlanta just before Christmas, addressing sympathetic evangelicals.

"It was very well received, he spoke a lot about the president's faith, and how that really does steady him, and strengthen him, during these hard times," said Mrs Fields. ...

...The Baptist church in America has a long tradition of separation between church and state, and the promotion of "religious liberty" says David Sapp, the head pastor at the Second Ponce de Leon Baptist ministry in Atlanta.

His spacious white wooden sanctuary is sandwiched between the Catholic and Episcopal cathedrals on a bend in the road that local police call "Jesus Junction".

He is convinced that the Christian Coalition is compromising the word of the gospel, in campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates.

"You look at the leaflets they have sometimes put on cars in our parking lot during services, about peoples' positions on issues. When the churches become a partisan voting bloc, we compromise our freedom," he says.

"You wind up accepting an influence on the church, that I don't think is healthy," he adds.