Mark J. Pelavin is the Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. He is one of the Jewish community's leading legislative strategists, and one of its senior lobbyists.

People for the American Way, the NAACP, and the African Americans Ministers Leadership Council today released a frightening report documenting how, in the report’s words, “A new generation of Religious Right leaders is turning conservative churches into political machines for far-right Republican candidates with rhetoric that might make Pat Robertson blush.”

The report, “The Patriot Pastors’ Electoral War Against the ‘Hordes of Hell,’” highlights the role played by Ohio’s Pastor Rod Parsley (typical quote: “Let the Reformation begin! Shout it like you’re going to carry the blood-stained banner of the cross of Christ the length and breath of the Buckeye State”), the well-developed network of such pastors in Texas, as well as developments in Pennsylvania, Missouri, and other states.

It’s difficult, but important, reading.