Anne Hamilton-Byrne, the former head of Australia’s Family cult, has made a secret out-of-court settlement with one of her alleged victims, who claimed he was routinely injected with LSD at her behest.

Supreme Court documents show at least five former cult members in the past four years have sued the self-appointed mystic for treatment they claimed to have suffered at her hands or under her direction.

The Washington Fellowship, a Washington, D.C. and suburbs based Christian organization has received much publicity in the past two years. Jeff Sharlet’s new book, THE FAMILY says it reveals “the secret fundamentalism at the heart of American Power.” If only zeal for Jesus were what “The Fellowship” was about, I might not bother writing this article, except perhaps to advocate on its behalf.

Various scholars try, and fail, to answer the question asked in the headline.

From Barack Obama’s incendiary pastor, to Mitt Romney’s Mormonism, to Mike Huckabee’s southern Baptist roots, religion is the constant in America’s choosing of a president. Racism, sexism, health policy, the economy and Iraq have had their moments, but religion renews itself with every fresh controversy.

Even John McCain, relatively secure as presumed Republican candidate, has jettisoned a preacher whose endorsement became politically untenable.

Yet the most influential and enduring religious force in the country – elitist Christian fundamentalism – is mostly unsighted and rarely remarked upon, according to writer Jeff Sharlet.

Overt fundamentalists, the Bible thumping televangelist populists, are the antithesis of the secretive network he has identified and that is known variously as The Fellowship and The Family.