I've got two books on my ever-increasing to-read list on the subject of the "religious right" and the danger that it represents to both the church and the nation. Unfortunately, neither of them are going to get started until I've finished the latest Harry Potter book -- which could mean I start one of them Monday afternoon.

The first book is Gregory A. Boyd's "The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the quest for political power is destroying the church." The second is "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical's Lament," by Randall Balmer.

For those who follow this sort of thing, Boyd got in a little bit of hot water some years back when he suggested that God wasn't omniscient. Needless to say, someone who subscribes to those sorts of theological positions is going to have a tough go of convincing me of their political positions based upon their faith.

Right about now some of you are wondering why I'm mentioning these books and tackling this subject seeing as how I haven't read them yet. Well, I was prompted by this article in Christianity Today by the magazine's Books & Culture editor, John Wilson. Wilson's article is based upon another book in this vein, "Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity", by Charles Marsh.

Of Marsh's book, Wilson makes a couple of points that I look forward to being thoughtfully dealt with when I read the two books I have on hand.

I knew I was going to struggle with Marsh's book when I saw the title of its introductory chapter, "On Being a Christian After Bush." (What immediately came to mind was a counter-chapter, "On Being a Christian After Fillmore.") But I read it through, first when the galleys came and again when the finished volume arrived in the mail from Oxford University Press. As a Books & Culture-ish type, you should read it too, to test your own sense of our present moment against that of a thoughtful fellow Christian. Your reaction may be quite different from mine.

For myself, only very intermittently does the world Marsh describes correspond to the world I know. Neither at the church where Wendy and I worship—Faith Evangelical Covenant in Wheaton, where partisan politics is strictly off limits—nor in the evangelical circles I'm familiar with across the country do I see anything resembling the pervasive "political captivity" of the gospel that Marsh indicts. I do see evidence of the distortions he identifies in the pronouncements of some prominent evangelical figures, but—in my experience—the influence of such attitudes is far less dramatic than he suggests.

I must admit to being a little bit befuddled about the issue. I've got two books on my bookshelf on this subject, and Wilson describes a third, that have come out in just the past few years -- and that's not even mentioning Jim Wallis' "God's Politics" -- that have as a thesis the "unholy" alliance between evangelical Christians and the Republican Party.

I've yet to hear of, or see book reviews or other public discussions, of any books that have a thesis alleging an "unholy" alliance between mainline Christian churches and the Democratic Party -- or worse, Cuba's Communist Party. (I encourage you to Google "National Council of Churches" and "Cuba" if you have any questions on this point.)

When Sen. John McCain goes to speak at the late Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, there's furrowed brows, consternation and mild finger-wagging among the so-called "mainline" churches. When Barack Obama goes to a United Church of Christ convention, there's praise at the fact that a Democrat is reaching out to the faithful.

I'm going to propose a thesis, and we'll see if these books can disabuse me of it.

Thesis: People of faith support political parties based upon how each party addresses their core beliefs.

Examples: For those who believe that abortion is wrong -- and that is a core issue for them -- the GOP is their political party of choice.

For those who believe that eliminating poverty is a core principle of good government, the Democrat Party is their political party of choice.

Are these two different types Christians "captive" to these respective political parties or are they simply using these political parties as tools to accomplish what their faith tells them must be done?

I'll share with you in a couple of weeks what I've learned, but I open the books with a heavy burden of skepticism and a thought: Maybe there's a market out there for a book that bemoans the overly close relationship between America's mainline churches and the Democrat Party.