This bill, which evokes and reflects U.S. religious zealots' self-images as persecuted martyrs, mandates economic sanctions against any nation that refuses certain brands of so-called Christian missionary activity deemed necessary by major evangelical and fundamentalist groups.

The "Freedom from Religious Persecution Act" has already been endorsed by Trent Lott, the Senate Majority Leader and Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House.

State Department officials complain that the new "anti-persecution" lobby emerging, one backed by the National Association of Evangelicals, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Family Research Council and their respective newsletters and broadcasters, will eliminate the flexibility needed to deal pragmatically with religious persecution.

Calling it a "blunderbuss approach" the State Department insiders fear the effect of the bill on U.S. relations with Moslem allies such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Once again, others say, old boundaries that were violated with impunity centuries ago by Christians and Moslems during their unrelenting religious wars (The Crusades) are once again under assault.

"This is one of the top priorities of the Republican Congress," Newt Gingrich told representatives of 30 religious organizations eager to pass the bill. With scarce exceptions, the majority of these groups were certifiably made up of evangelicals and other religious conservatives.

While many now complain that constraints on international trade are already too cumbersome, the introduction of the new bill further complicates matters, according to export experts.

The issue is a sticky one, as few politicians want to risk voting against "religious persecution," though, in fact, they realize that the bill is little more than a Trojan horse for religious fundamentalist aims.

Groups that oppose religious tinkering in matters of State, and who invite the support of all Americans with similar concerns, include Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a venerable organization founded 50 years ago.

In its efforts to prevent the encroachments of religious-hatched schemes in government, Americans United's Barry Lynn explains that his quarrel is not with religion or Christianity. "Please understand one thing," he says, AU's "quarrel is not with religious Americans. Far from it. I'm a Christian minister myself, and many of AU's members are people of faith."

What AU and its directors do want to do, insists Lynn, is help make "life uncomfortable for Pat Robertson and his cronies." Americans and Others United for Separation of Church and State wants to "crush" Robertson's plan "for replacing American democracy with a rigid theocracy" where all laws are based on a narrow interpretation of scriptures, he says.

"Thomas Jefferson's 'wall of separation' has never undergone the relentless and ugly assault that it is facing today from the Religious Rights," according to Lynn.

Americans United opposes "with dangerous zealots," he says, "who use religion or the Bible as a club to attack others."

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, maintains a national office at 1816 Jefferson Place, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036