Day 6: The Religious Right in the United States: Power, Durability, Threat

What is the Religious Right, exactly?
• The Religious Right is comprised of conservative evangelicals,
Catholics, Mainline Protestants, and other small Christian
groups (e.g. Mormons) who began to consolidate politically
behind the Republican Party in the 1980s.
• For example, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson (who we will hear
from later) rallied these groups to fuel Ronald Reagan’s
landslide electoral victory in 1980.

Setbacks of the 1990s and 2000s
• Evangelicals get dealt a series of pretty
significant setbacks in the early 21st
Century:
• 1) Election of Barack Obama as a
Progressive
• 2) Decision in Obergefell v.
Hodges which legalizes same-sex
marriage
• 3) No real political movement on
abortion
• 4) An increasingly progressive
culture

Transactional or Value-Driven? Enter
in Donald Trump
• A twice-divorced New York businessman becomes the bullhorn
for the evangelical right
• He has a series of gaffes like here and here and here
• But, as Cal Thomas noted, Trump delivered the political bacon
for evangelicals
• 1) Roe v. Wade fell due to Trump’s SCOTUS nominees
• 2) Embassy moved to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in Israel, a decision
even Biden did not reverse
• 3) Additional protections on religious liberty around the world
• Secularism has driven various Protestant sects together