Mr Samuel, based at Heston United Reformed Church, West London, said: 'He put his hand into my window, which was half open, and grabbed my hair and opened the door.

He started slapping my face and punching my neck. He was trying to smash my head on the steering wheel.

Then he grabbed my cross and pulled it off and it fell on the floor. He was swearing. The other two men came from the car and took my laptop and Bible.'

Giesbert describes Mitterand as "a Nietzschean until his dying day." He described himself as a mystic with the mind of a rationalist. He did not deny that form of transcendence might exist, but he described the idea that his spirit might survive his death as "embarrassing." He was fond of paraphrasing Celine: "Eternity must be very long, especially toward the end."

This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Over the next few months, two other major Protestant denominations will have similar debates over gay clergy. At this point, however, the outcome in Marion County apparently will differ from that of Grace Episcopal.

The 2.3 million members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the 4.7 million members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are weighing constitutional changes that could sanction the ordination of homosexuals in open same-sex relationships.