For those of you who think that the Democrats taking over the House of Representatives and the Senate is sign of things to come in the presidential election, think again.

There is a huge demographic in this country that has an overwhelming effect on every election. I learned about this demographic in a documentary titled, “Friends of God, A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi.”

The documentary takes an inside look at the estimated 50 to 80 million members of the evangelical community. Evangelicals believe that the Bible is the true word of God, Jesus is the Son of God and that all people must be born again in the Christian faith. As the documentary explains, evangelicals are as conservative as they come, feverishly combatting such liberal concepts as evolution and homosexuality.

In the documentary, Pelosi travels to an anti-evolution lecture for third graders. During the lecture, the speaker tells the children who are barely old enough to sit still that the dinosaurs didn’t actually exist. In fact, history only dates back 2,000 years and the world actually started with man. After the lecture, Pelosi asks many of the students what they learned from the lecture. With a glazed look on their face, they respond, “I believe in creation, not evolution.”

Evangelicals’ closed spectrum goes even further to cover homosexuality. A key person in the faith is Pastor Ted Haggard. Former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Haggard resigned after allegations that he had sex with a male prostitute and bought illegal drugs. Unfortunately for Haggard, he may never be able to step into his mega-cathedral and preach again because of his sexual orientation. No matter how loyal he was to his faith, he will be exorcised from his community for this one mistake. Shouldn’t the church be the first place Haggard would run to for solace?

The last portion of the documentary focuses on Rev. Jerry Falwell, who is the leader of the Moral Majority. He has adamantly stood for his conservative beliefs and urges other evangelicals to vote for their beliefs. Falwell believes that it is impossible to win the presidential election without the vote of the evangelicals.

“I don’t think you can win without them,” Falwell tells Pelosi. “John Kerry learned that. Al Gore learned that. And Hillary will learn that in 2008.”

The Religious Reich is growing faster and larger everyday. If we don’t want political representation to be effected by such a large, and apparently narrow-minded group, everyone needs to get out and vote in order to be heard.