"Have you heard of the $1,750-per-person "Gathering," which starts Thursday in Orlando, Florida?

Probably not. But if you're female, gay, non-Christian, or otherwise interested in the separation of church and state, your life has been affected by it.

The Gathering is a conference of hard-right Christian organizations and, perhaps more important, funders. Most of them are not household names, at least if your household isn't evangelical. But that's the point: The Gathering is a hub of Christian Right organizing, and the people in attendance have led the campaigns to privatize public schools, redefine "religious liberty" (as in the Hobby Lobby case), fight same-sex marriage, fight evolution, and, well, you know the rest. They're probably behind that, too.

Featured speakers have included many of the usual suspects: Alliance Defending Freedom President and CEO Alan Sears (2013), Focus on the Family President Jim Daly (2011), and Family Research Council head Tony Perkins (2006). This year, however, they are joined by David Brooks of The New York Times and Michael Gerson of The Washington Post. What's going on? Has The Gathering gone mainstream?

Hardly, says Bruce Wilson, director of the advocacy group Truth Wins Out's Center Against Religious Extremism and a leading researcher on The Gathering. The selection of this year's speakers, he says, is just the latest in a long line of misdirections and canards...

...The Gathering is as close to a "vast right-wing conspiracy" as you're likely to find. So with this year's conference about to get under way, Wilson gave The Daily Beast an exclusive interview over email--heavily redacted here--about this shadowy, powerful network of hard-right funders.

Read my interview with the Daily Beast's  Jay Michaelson

Here is a collection of the ongoing Twocare.org series related to The Gathering and the National Christian Foundation:

NYT's David Brooks, WaPo's Michael Gerson to Speak at Top Antigay Funding Confab

Twocare.org Index #1: From Russia To Uganda, the War on Gay Rights Leads to The Gathering (2014)

The Secret Antigay U.S. Money Behind The WCF and the Global Evangelical War on LGBT Rights

The National Christian Foundation Anti-LGBT Funding Encyclopedia

The Gathering: The Religious Right's Cash Cow

Transcript, The Gathering 1997: "The Homosexual Agenda"

Chick-Fil-A Vice President on Board of "Biggest Anti-LGBT Funder In America

American Evangelical Anti-LGBT Push in Ukraine Tied To National Prayer Breakfast Affiliate `The Gathering'

Hobby Lobby Case Linked To Secretive National Prayer Breakfast Group, "The Family"

The Hobby Lobby Case and The Alliance Defending Freedom's Ties To Christian Reconstructionism

Becoming Evil: The Ex-Gay Industry As a Handmaiden To Genocide ?

How Antigay American Fundamentalists Indoctrinated Russia's School Children, 1992-1997