THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO RALPH REED

On Sunday, Ralph Reed rests -- at least he tries to. But on the night of April 30, his two-year-old, Christopher, lay awake for hours, badly sunburned from a picnic, leaving Reed little time for sleep in the modern, red brick house in Chesapeake, Virginia, that he and his wife Jo Anne recently purchased. Reed struggles for time with his family. "I get home as often as I can, even if it's only for a day," says the 33-year-old father of three. Still, the executive director of the formidable Christian Coalition has another mission, and at dawn on Monday he was up and off to catch a 7 o'clock flight to Washington, the beginning of a hectic but typical week of lobbying, socializing and expanding his movement. Tuesday morning he was in New Hampshire, where Governor Steven Merrill joked about Reed's imminent appearance before the state senate: "They want to know you don't have two heads, that you don't have horns." Reed, who looks every bit the eagle scout he once was, responded with a guffaw that was too loud by half for his 64-kg frame. The New Hampshire senate, which usually deigns to listen only to would-be Presidents, paid close attention to his message. The ranks of conservative Christians, Reed said, are now "too large, too diverse, too significant to be ignored by either major political party." Not long ago, America's Christian right was dismissed as a group of pasty-faced zealots, led by divisive televangelists like Jerry Falwell, who helped yank the Republican Party so far to the right that moderates were frightened away. But Reed has emerged as the movement's fresh face, the choirboy to the rescue, a born-again Christian with a fine sense of the secular mechanics of American politics. His message, emphasizing such broadly appealing themes as support for tax cuts, has helped make the Christian Coalition one of the most powerful grass-roots organizations in American politics. Its 1.6 million active supporters and $25 million annual budget, up from 500,000 activists and a $14.8 million budget just two years ago, hold a virtual veto on the Republican nominee for President, and will exert an extraordinary influence over who will occupy the Oval Office beginning in 1997. In fact, Reed's success represents the most thorough penetration of the secular world of American politics by an essentially religious organization in this century. To some, this ascendancy evokes more ancient spirits -- say, that of 17th century New England theocracies, which were as invasive as they were close-minded. To the movement's adherents, however, it signifies a bracing, expansive and historic spiritual Renaissance.