At Huffpo, Frank Schaeffer says he was a Republican who left the "evangelical subculture." And he blames the Republican Party's fall on religion:
Two religions (in the broadest sense of the term) have destroyed the
Republican Party: evangelical Christianity and Christian/Jewish
Zionism. Evangelical Christianity created the Religious Right which
forever linked the Republican Party to the antiabortion, anti-sex
education, anti-evolution and anti-gay crusades. And both Christian and
Jewish Zionism linked the Republican Party to what became the
neoconservative movement with its roots in such publications as Commentary magazine and their shrill Israel-can-do-no-wrong anti-Arab agenda. (I knew the late editor of Commentary
Norman Podhoretz quite well, and we met several times to build
alliances between evangelicals and the far American Zionist far right.
When it came to Arabs, I believe he was a real racist.)
I would not call Zionism per se a religion, but I'm talking
about secular goals pursued with religious fervor. I would call
Zionism, American-style a politicized version of a religion.
