It has to be remembered that even the “Christianists� Sullivan condemns don’t blow themselves up, they don’t throw homos off buildings, they don’t issue fatwas against cartoonists, or beat women, or stone people, or chop off hands and feet. Instead, more than anything else, people like Robertson and Falwell specialize in being annoying, making pretentious claims to political influence beyond what they have, and above all making money at it.

As I (and Andrew Sullivan) have noted in the past, the closest thing to the Islamic supremacist outlook that Christianity has to offer is Christian Reconstructionism. They are a fringe movement even by Christianist standards, but their outlook tends to get projected onto all Christianists and even all Christians. So, Christianity actually has three ideological categories to be separated instead of just two.

Nevertheless, I think it’s incumbant on all non-Christianist Christians to make clear that there is a distinction between people like Pat Robertson and the rest of the religion. But it’s not just up to practicing Christians. It’s up to everyone who has the sense to understand that Focus on the Family does not speak for the Christian faith. Too often people will make anti-Christian statements when they mean to make anti-Christianist statements.

This new word is an extremely helpful linguistical tool in making a distinction that absolutely must be made. I sure hope it catches on.