About 30 years ago, a young lawyer named John W. Whitehead worked alongside people like Jerry Falwell to help birth the Religious Right. Hoping to give the movement an intellectual grounding, Whitehead penned a series of books attacking the separation of church and state and demanding a government based on Christian fundamentalism.
Whitehead's books -- The Separation Illusion, The Second American Revolution and The Stealing of America -- made him a popular figure in Religious Right circles.
Whitehead repudiated theocracy years ago. It's unlikely he'd be welcome at a CNP meeting now.
"Politics," he said in a recent interview, "would never even figure into Jesus' mind. He was a homeless person. He was like Gandhi. It wasn't in the picture. Christianity was not founded on politics. It was founded on helping the less fortunate .... That's how you impact culture."

Schaeffer and Whitehead are two high-profile Religious Right apostates, but they aren't the only ones.