THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO RALPH

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Meanwhile, powerful figures on the religious right feel the Republican Party isn't right enough for them, posing a danger for Reed if he continues to accommodate himself to the party's moderate elements. In March, James Dobson, head of the powerful Focus on Family organization, fired off open letters to party chairman Haley Barbour, complaining bitterly about the lack of immediate payoff from the November election. Fearful of compromising with "anti-family" elements, Dobson argued that it was time to fold the all-inviting "big tent" of the Republican Party. In contrast, Reed argues for a more inclusive Coalition and struggles to appear more secular (in New Hampshire last week, for example, he declined an invitation to give the invocation before the senate because he did not want TV cameras to record him in prayer). There are two faces to the religious right, says Michael Hudson, executive director of the liberal People for the American Way, "the moderate face that meets Bob Dole and the grass-roots state chapters that are still bashing gays. Ralph Reed is trying to create a big tent in the religious right, but can he sell political expediency to his grass-roots movement?"

Other conservatives play down the importance of Reed. Says Gary Bauer, a former Dobson associate and now head of the Family Research Council, a conservative think tank: "I don't think the movement depends on Bauer or Dobson or Reed or any of the names the press focuses on. I see this as a permanent force in American government and politics, and I think it will have a lot to say about public policy for the foreseeable future."

At the moment, however, Reed is the most attractive name attached to the movement-and he shows no sign of resting. "You have to organize, organize, organize, and build and build, and train and train, so that there is a permanent, vibrant structure of which people can be part." He speaks about forming a cadre of at least 10 workers in each of the roughly 175,000 political precincts in the U.S., raising his budget to between $50 million and $100 million and gaining access to 100,000 churches, compared with his current reach of 60,000 churches. "If we do all that," he told an audience last week, "we will be larger and more effective and will reach more people than the Republican and Democratic parties combined."

"The Christians are close to winning the whole war; they might do it by '96," says Frank Luntz, the pollster behind the Contract with America. "By playing hardball they may win everything, but hardball also risks losing everything." Reed frankly admits, "We're on the very threshold of having to make that kind of decision. It's fraught with both opportunity and hazard. If we make this decision the wrong way, 20 years from now we're going to look back and regret it."

Whatever Reed decides-to press for control of the Republican Party now or to rise above partisanship for a while-the religious right is moving toward center stage in American secular life. Henceforth, Reed told Time, "issues are going to have a moral quotient." The Christian Coalition, says Arthur Kropp of People for the American Way, "won't be content to be background music." They will want the oomph of the big band. And a choirboy will lead them. --With reporting by Laurence I. Barrett, traveling with Ralph Reed, and Richard N. Ostling/New York

With reporting by LAURENCE I. BARRETT, TRAVELING WITH RALPH REED, AND RICHARD N. OSTLING/NEW YORK PHOTOGRAPHS FOR TIME BY MARK PETERSON -- SABA

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