Connect: Do you recall the US televangelists of the 1980s? Among the most popular were Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker and the appositely named Oral Roberts.
Their shows specialised in miracles, prophecies and members of the faithful speaking in tongues. Supplicants on crutches regularly cast aside their earthly props before gushing tears and walking perfectly.
Despite the white faces, the English language variant and the churchy choreography, it looked like a different world. How, most European viewers wondered, could devotees take these charades seriously? Certainly, they were theatrical and compelling in the "I don't believe it" manner. However, rather than religious celebrations, the shows - appropriately perhaps - seemed pure showbiz.
They were, and they raised hundreds of millions of dollars. Swaggart, for instance, raked in $150 million annually until his penchant for prostitutes became public knowledge.
Bakker, whose shows featured his wife Tammy, racked up six mansions, dozens of luxury cars and 47 separate bank accounts before his own extreme sexual promiscuity undid his racket.
In February 1999, though past his heyday, an article in Falwell's National Liberty Journal claimed the Teletubbies character, Tinky Winky, might be a hidden homosexual symbol. After all, Tinky Winky was purple - a colour, Falwell claimed, that was clearly symbolic of homosexuality - had a triangle on his head and carried a handbag. Case closed against the vile Tinky Winky.
After September 11, 2001, Falwell (along with Robertson) blamed that day's attacks on gays, lesbians and feminists. "I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians . . . helped this happen," he said. Robertson concurred, adding that the problem was the secular agenda "adopted at the highest levels of government".
And so it has gone. There are scores of examples of the lunacy espoused by US televangelists but you get the drift. Twenty years ago, the televised circuses seemed alarming and sinister and sometimes downright sacrilegious. Nonetheless, Americans - even Bible-Belt Americans - must surely tire of the lunacy and such fundamentalism would be remembered as a comic aberration.
It hasn't happened. In fact, it's that same fundamentalism which gives much of the fervour to the Bush campaign for re-election. It's broadly acknowledged that Bush supporters love their man in a way that Kerry supporters don't love theirs. Kerry voters may applaud their man's policies and are motivated by ABB (Anybody But Bush) but they do not show comparable fervour.
Bush, like 42 per cent of Americans, describes himself as a born-again Christian. As president, he is thoroughly messianic. Last Sunday's New York Times magazine interviewed Republican insiders who claimed belief, not reason, is the guiding principle of the Bush White House. Bush's former environment secretary, Christine Todd Whitman, was quoted: "In meetings, I'd ask if there were any facts to support our case. For that I was accused of disloyalty," she said. Senators have been told not to worry about the complexities of Iraq. Bush's "instinct and gut" tell him he's right. An NYT journalist was told he lives in "the reality-based community". In contrast, Bush, like the televangelists, lives in a different world unburdened by facts.
Religious fundamentalism helps greatly to explain Republican fervour. The single slogan on Bush-Cheney billboards proclaims "One Nation Under God".
The implication is clear: the Bush administration is doing the work of God and anybody who opposes that is not. The formula is simple: if you believe in the God of the televangelists, you believe in George Bush too.
It's ironic that Catholic Kerry should be placed on the side of reason and science. After all, Protestantism has traditionally prided itself on its greater embrace of reason. Plainness, no "plaster saints", less distinction between clergy and laity - these are characteristics of reformed Christianity. Catholics could continue to worship "false idols" but Protestants claimed to use reason.
That, at least, was the traditional wisdom. However, in the US of 2004, all that has been turned on its head. It's the Bible-Belt Protestants, spurred on by decades of televangelism and a president who shares their belief, who decry reason and trumpet faith. It's the vehemence of their illogical convictions that gives the Bush campaign its voracious and messianic energy.
The Reformation of medieval Europe required print technology for its success. Without print, Martin Luther's ideas would have remained local and would have been easily crushed by Rome. Televangelists have used TV to spread their beliefs (or claimed beliefs). Lacing their shows with showbiz gimmicks and fervour, they have colonised a huge part of the American psyche.
Although the US was founded on the separation of church and state, Bush has made politics and religion inseparable. John Kerry is not simply opposing him on policies; he is, many Bush supporters believe, opposing divine will. Hence the hectoring, blustering and insulting tirades typical of American Republicans in 2004. They do, courtesy of lousy TV, live in a different world.