Esther Kaplan grew up in the only non-Christian family in her hometown of King's Valley, Oregon. Her childhood was deeply intertwined with those of Christian fundamentalists she played with and with whom her family socialized, even as she was often considered an oddity who needed to be converted. Later in life she was touched personally and then compelled into activity by the AIDS epidemic, particularly disturbed by the hateful response of some of the Christian Right who viewed AIDS as a just punishment from God against gays. It is this intimate familiarity with both the people who make up much of the base of the rapidly growing Christian Right in this country, as well as with the human cost and suffering being inflicted by the political operatives leading this movement, that Esther has approached the subject of the rising role Christian fundamentalism in this country.