From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

On Christmas Day, religion and politics in America.

Hello again, I'm Mormon All in. This is an archived edition of To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans

care about most. The man who predicted the emerging Republican majority back in the 1970s

now says the party has been transformed. Kevin Phillips says the rising power of radical Christians

endangers the separation of church and state. On To the Point, we'll talk with Phillips

and Richard Land of the Southern

Baptist Convention, a group that Phillips is worried about. How many Republicans think America

should be a Christian state? Does religion threaten democracy in a diverse country? On reporters'

notebook later on, are conservatives more generous than liberals?

You may be surprised.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica

and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and

Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Hello again. Warren Alney, back with an archived edition of

To the Point. A longtime student of American politics says that Republicans have become America's

first religious party. On To the Point, we'll hear Kevin Phillips debate Richard Land of the Southern

Baptist Convention.

Does religion drive foreign policy in the Bush White House? What about the separation of church and state?

On reporter's notebook, politics, prosperity, and charitable giving. First, giving of another kind,

...