Editing Christian right (section)

==History==
[[File:Jerry Falwell portrait.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jerry Falwell]], whose founding of the [[Moral Majority]] was a key step in the formation of the "New Christian Right"]]

=== Background and predecessors ===
In 1863, representatives from eleven Christian denominations in the United States organized the [[National Reform Association (1864)|National Reform Association]]. The organization's goal was to [[Christian amendment|amend]] the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]] to make the country a [[Christian state]]. The National Reform Association is one of the first organizations through which adherents from several Christian denominations worked together in an attempt to enshrine Christianity in American governance.<ref name="Boston2010">{{cite book |last1=Boston |first1=Robert |title=Why the Religious Right Is Wrong About Separation of Church and State |year=2010 |publisher=Prometheus Books |isbn=9781615924103 |page=103 }}</ref> The [[Christian Civic League of Maine]], founded in 1897, and other early organizations of the Christian right supported the aims of the [[temperance movement]]. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, there were also a number of evangelicals who supported progressive causes. The [[Scopes trial]] in 1925 reportedly resulted in most evangelicals abandoning the political arena in an organized fashion. An evangelical subculture emerged, largely isolated from the outside world, consisting of various organizations that laid the groundwork for the religious right in the late 1970s.<ref name="Bad Faith">{{cite book |last=Balmer |first=Randall |author-link=Randall Balmer |date=August 10, 2021 |title=Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kcuAEAAAQBAJ |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]] |page=<!--Pages are unnumbered--> |isbn=9781467462907 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Balmer |first=Randall |date=December 29, 2024 |title=Jimmy Carter: The Last Progressive Evangelical |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/12/29/jimmy-carter-progressive-evangelical-00084165 |work=Politico |location= |access-date=January 8, 2025}}</ref>

While the beginning of the influence of the Christian right is typically traced to the late 1970s, Daniel K. Williams argues in ''God's Own Party'' that it had actually been involved in politics for most of the twentieth century.<ref>{{harvnb|Williams|2010|p=3}}</ref> He also notes that the Christian right had previously been in alliance with the Republican Party in the 1940s through 1960s on matters such as opposition to communism and defending "a Protestant-based moral order".<ref>{{harvnb|Williams|2010|p=3}}</ref> Similarly, scholar Celestini Carmen traces the [[John Birch Society]] (JBS)'s focus on [[culture war]] issues and rhetoric of [[apocalypticism]], [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracism]], and fear to the rise of the Christian right through JBS members and Christian rightist activists [[Tim LaHaye]], [[Phyllis Schlafly]], and others.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Celestini |first1=Carmen |title=God, Country, and Christian Conservatives: The National Association of Manufacturers, the John Birch Society, and the Rise of the Christian Right |date=2018 |type=PhD |publisher=[[University of Waterloo]] |url=https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/13361/Celestini_Carmen.pdf |pages=iv, 37, 283, 322–325, 328–334}}</ref>

In light of the [[state atheism]] espoused by communist countries during the height of the [[Cold War]] in the 1950s and 1960s, [[secularization]] came to be seen by many Americans sympathetic to proto-Christian right narratives as the biggest threat to American and Christian values.<ref>Merriman, Scott A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=l_8VFygyaDYC&pg=PA281 Religion and the Law in America: An Encyclopedia of Personal Belief and Public Policy]. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2007. Print. "In 1956, the United States, changed its motto to 'In God We Trust,' in large part to differentiate itself from the Soviet Union, its Cold War enemy that was widely seen as promoting atheism."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Williams|2010|p=5}}</ref> These fears resulted in a number of actions by the federal government throughout the 1950s, including the establishment of the [[National Day of Prayer]], the addition of the words "[[In God We Trust]]" to U.S. currency, and the addition of the phrase "Under God" to the [[Pledge of Allegiance]].<ref name="Kruse2015">{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/396365659/how-one-nation-didnt-become-under-god-until-the-50s-religious-revival|title=How 'One Nation' Didn't Become 'Under God' Until The '50s Religious Revival|publisher=NPR|first=Kevin M.|last=Kruse|date=March 30, 2015|access-date=April 4, 2018|archive-date=March 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308062853/https://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/396365659/how-one-nation-didnt-become-under-god-until-the-50s-religious-revival|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Gourley |first1=Bruce |title=POLITICIZED PRAYER: National Day of Prayer has Roots in False History, Anti-Communist Fears |url=https://christianethicstoday.com/wp/politicized-prayer-national-day-of-prayer-has-roots-in-false-history-anti-communist-fears/ |access-date=January 8, 2025 |work=Christian Ethics Today |date=August 16, 2016}}</ref> The alienation of [[Southern Democrat]]s from the Democratic Party contributed to the rise of the right, as the [[counterculture of the 1960s]] provoked fear of [[social disintegration]] amongst many conservatives. In addition, as the Democratic Party became identified with progressive and liberal policies, [[social conservatism in the United States|social conservatives]] joined the Republican Party in increasing numbers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Perlstein |first=Rick | author-link = Rick Perlstein | title=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America |page=164 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2008 |isbn=978-0743243025|title-link=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America }}</ref> Despite these trends, many white evangelicals remained politically inactive and were not a unified [[voting bloc]], with many on the [[evangelical left]] believing political activism and engagement to be inconsistent with their beliefs.<ref name="Bad Faith"/><ref name="Pickaxe"/>

===Early history and rise, 1970s-1980s===
The movement that would become the religious right had much of its origin in the work and activism of conservative operative [[Paul Weyrich]], who had foreseen the potential to organize evangelicals and conservative Catholics into a political force in the early 1960s and had reportedly started trying to do so during the [[1964 United States presidential election]]. Weyrich tried a number of wedge issues throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, including [[United States anti-abortion movement|abortion]], [[opposition to pornography|pornography]], the proposed [[Equal Rights Amendment]], and [[School prayer in the United States|school prayer]], without success.<ref name="Bad Faith"/><ref name="Pickaxe"/> Weyrich was not successful until the legality of [[segregation academy|segregation academies]] began to be challenged in the early 1970s. In 1970, the [[Internal Revenue Service]] adopted a policy of rescinding the tax-exempt status of private schools that did not admit African Americans, and the following year, the Supreme Court ruled in ''[[Coit v. Green]]'' that organizations that voluntarily practice racial discrimination are not eligible for tax exemption.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Green v. Connally |litigants-force-plain= |vol=330 |reporter=F. Supp.|opinion=1150 |pinpoint= |court=U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia|date=June 30, 1971 |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/330/1150/2126265/ |quote= |postscript= }}</ref> The origin of this case was a legal challenge to the tax-exempt status of a group of segregation academies in [[Holmes County, Mississippi]].<ref name="Bad Faith"/><ref name="Pickaxe"/> Many of the schools targeted by these rulings were church-sponsored, and these actions reportedly caught the attention of a number of evangelical leaders, including [[Jerry Falwell]]. The largest educational institution targeted by the IRS was [[Bob Jones University]], which lost its tax exemption in 1976 due to its policy prohibiting interracial dating. This action reportedly further caught the ire of evangelical leaders, many of whom believed that the IRS was overstepping its legal authority.<ref name="ippavyui">{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5502785|title=Evangelical: Religious Right Has Distorted the Faith|date=June 23, 2006|work=NPR|author=Linda Wertheimer|access-date=January 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202210127/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5502785|archive-date=February 2, 2007|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perry |first=Samuel L. |last2=Braunstein |first2=Ruth |last3=Gorski |first3=Philip S. |last4=Grubbs |first4=Joshua B. |date=March 2022 |title=Historical Fundamentalism? Christian Nationalism and Ignorance About Religion in American Political History |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jssr.12760 |journal=[[Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion]] |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=24 |doi=10.1111/jssr.12760 |issn=0021-8294}}</ref> Weyrich also sought to frame the IRS crackdown on segregation academics as an issue of government intrusion and attacks on religious freedom, effectively diverting attention from the racial aspect of the issue.<ref name="Bad Faith"/><ref name="politico522">{{cite news |last=Balmer |first=Randall |date=May 10, 2022 |title=The Religious Right and the Abortion Myth|url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/05/10/abortion-history-right-white-evangelical-1970s-00031480 |work=Politico |access-date=August 10, 2022}}</ref>

In the [[1976 United States presidential election|1976 Presidential election]], [[Jimmy Carter]], who described himself as an evangelical and a [[born again|born-again Christian]], received the support of a majority of American evangelicals and the emerging Christian right largely because of his much-acclaimed religious conversion. However, the issue of segregation academies carried over into Carter's presidency, and in 1978, the IRS proposed a new rule that would have revoked the tax exemption of private schools based on their racial demographic composition relative to that of their respective communities. While this rule never went into effect, it provoked fierce backlash and protests from evangelical leaders and church congregants alike, with many believing it to be an attack on non-discriminatory institutions and religious freedom. The IRS reportedly received over 150,000 letters in opposition to this proposal, mostly from Christians.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pine |first1=Art |title=IRS Softens Proposal Aimed At 'Segregation Academies' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/02/10/irs-softens-proposal-aimed-at-segregation-academies/127aa5a4-5506-43e0-9da3-72ee8da321b3/ |access-date=January 8, 2025 |work=The Washington Post |date=February 9, 1979}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Kurlander |first=David |date=February 17, 2022 |title='We Want Them Burned': The 1978 IRS Controversy Over Discriminatory Schools |url=https://cafe.com/article/we-want-them-burned-the-1978-irs-controversy-over-discriminatory-schools/ |work=Cafe.com |location= |publisher=[[Vox Media]] |access-date=January 8, 2025}}</ref> This action reportedly encouraged many white evangelicals to become politically active for the first time, and turned them against Jimmy Carter.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lehmann |first1=Chris |title=How Jimmy Carter Lost Evangelical Christians to the Right |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/jimmy-carter-evangelical-christianity/ |access-date=January 8, 2025 |work=The Nation |date=December 30, 2024}}</ref> Weyrich later stated that what got evangelicals involved in politics was "Jimmy Carter's intervention against the Christian schools, trying to deny them tax-exempt status on the basis of so-called de facto segregation",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=William Curtis |title=With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America |date=1996 |publisher=Broadway Books |location=New York City |isbn=9780553067491 |page=173 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/With_God_on_Our_Side/cuXPDuEO6BkC?hl |access-date=January 8, 2025 |via=Google Books}}</ref> and [[Richard Viguerie]] said that the 1978 IRS action "kicked a sleeping dog."<ref name="Pickaxe">{{cite web |last1=Balmer |first1=Randall |title=The Historian's Pickaxe: Uncovering the Racist Origins of the Religious Right |url=https://amc.sas.upenn.edu/sites/www.sas.upenn.edu.andrea-mitchell-center/files/Balmer%20-%20Historian's%20Pickaxe.pdf |website=The Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |access-date=January 8, 2025 |date=September 24, 2021}}</ref> Others, including religious right leader [[Ed Dobson]] and conservative activist [[Grover Norquist]] have affirmed this as the beginnings of the religious right.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Cromartie |editor1-first=Michael |title=No Longer Exiles: The Religious New Right in American Politics |date=1992 |publisher=[[Ethics and Public Policy Center]] |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=9780896331723 |page=52 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/No_Longer_Exiles/rbnYAAAAMAAJ?hl |access-date=January 8, 2025 |via=Google Books |quote="Edward G. Dobson: "The Religious New Right did not start because of a concern about abortion. I want to go back and re-emphasize that. I sat in the non-smoke-filled back room with the Moral Majority, and I frankly do not remember abortion being mentioned as a reason why we ought to do something.""}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Gilgoff |first1=Dan |title=Exclusive: Grover Norquist Gives Religious Conservatives Tough Love |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/god-and-country/2009/06/11/exclusive-grover-norquist-gives-religious-conservatives-tough-love#read_more |access-date=January 8, 2025 |work=U.S. News & World Report |date=June 11, 2009 |quote="The religious right did not get started in 1962 with prayer in school. And it didn't get started in '73 with Roe v. Wade. It started in '77 or '78 with the Carter administration's attack on Christian schools and Christian radio stations [pressing for allegedly segregated Christian organizations to lose their tax-exempt status]. That's where all of the organization flowed out of. It was complete self-defense."}}</ref>

Around the same time, Weyrich realized that support for segregation academies was not viable and began to look for other issues. The unexpected success of predominantly Catholic anti-abortion activists in the [[1978 United States elections|1978 midterms]] convinced Weyrich that opposition to abortion might work as a wedge issue to keep evangelicals politically mobilized.<ref name="Bad Faith"/><ref name="Pickaxe"/> He favored the issue because it could be framed in the context of [[family values]] and be used to claim moral superiority, as well as attack [[second-wave feminism]].<ref name="ABCAU"/><ref>{{cite news |title=How abortion became a mobilizing issue among the religious right |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/05/08/1097514184/how-abortion-became-a-mobilizing-issue-among-the-religious-right |access-date=January 8, 2025 |work=NPR |date=May 8, 2022 |location=Washington, D. C.}}</ref> Prior to this time, the Catholic Church was the only Christian denomination that was staunchly anti-abortion, with many Protestant and evangelical denominations, including the [[Southern Baptist Convention]], either supporting the legalization of the procedure in some circumstances, or not taking a stance on the issue. The following year, filmmaker [[Frank Schaeffer]] produced a series of anti-abortion films titled ''Whatever Happened to the Human Race?'', starring his father, evangelist [[Francis Schaeffer]] and pediatric surgeon [[C. Everett Koop|Dr. C. Everett Koop]].<ref name="Bad Faith"/><ref name="politico522"/> That same year, abortion was reportedly suggested as a wedge issue during a conference call between a number of religious right leaders, although many were still skeptical of its ability to mobilize evangelicals.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Balmer |first1=Randall |title=There's a straight line from US racial segregation to the anti-abortion movement |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/08/abortion-us-religious-right-racial-segregation |access-date=January 8, 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=September 8, 2021}}</ref> Schaeffer's films were also reportedly met with tepid reception during a tour in which they were shown at numerous churches around the United States, and leaders like Jerry Falwell were initially hesitant to utilize abortion, believing that its stereotype amongst evangelicals as a "Catholic issue" would hinder its ability to politically mobilize them.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gross |first1=Terry |title=Pro-Life — And In Favor Of Keeping Abortion Legal |url=https://www.npr.org/transcripts/97998654 |access-date=January 8, 2025 |work=NPR |date=December 9, 2008 |location=Washington, D. C.}}</ref> It was not until the early 1980s that abortion would become in effect the signature wedge issue of the religious right, and conservative evangelicals began joining the anti-abortion movement in large numbers.<ref name = "Catholic"/><ref name = "CC">{{cite book|title=Crisis of Conservatism?: The Republican Party, the Conservative Movement, and American Politics After Bush|author1=Joel D. Aberbach |author2=Gillian Peele |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref><ref name = "RCC">{{cite book|title=Catholics and Politics: the Dynamic Tension between Faith and Power|quote=To summarize, in the Republican Party, many Catholic activists held conservative positions on key issues emphasized by Christian Right leaders, and they said that they supported the political activities of some Christian Right candidates.|author1=Kristin E. Heyer |author2=Mark J. Rozell |author3=Michael A. Genovese |publisher=[[Georgetown University Press]]}}</ref>

In 1979, the [[Moral Majority]], widely considered the first religious right organization, was founded by Falwell, Weyrich, and other associates and began emphasizing such issues as abortion, pornography, gay rights, and opposition to the [[Equal Rights Amendment]], and a perceived moral decline of the United States, and played a major role in mobilizing evangelicals to support [[Ronald Reagan]] in the [[1980 United States presidential election]].<ref name=Reinhard /><ref>Ellis, Blake A. "An Alternative Politics: Texas Baptists and the Rise of the Christian Right, 1975–1985." ''The Southwestern Historical Quarterly'', vol. 112, no. 4, 2009, pp. 361–86. {{jstor|30242432}} Retrieved May 5, 2023.</ref> In response to the rise of the Christian right, the 1980 Republican Party platform assumed a number of its positions, including the resumption of public school prayer. While the platform also opposed abortion, leaned towards restricting taxpayer funding for abortions, and sought a constitutional amendment bestowing [[Beginning of human personhood|personhood to fetuses]], it also acknowledged the fact that many Americans, including Republicans, were divided on the issue.<ref name="hartsem" />{{sfn|Williams|2010|pages=1, 2}}<ref name="gop1980">{{Cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25844|title=Republican Party Platforms: Republican Party Platform of 1980|access-date=December 19, 2013|archive-date=December 19, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219225439/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25844|url-status=dead}}</ref> At this time, both major political parties were divided internally on abortion rights, and it was not until the late 1980s that abortion came to be viewed as a partisan issue.<ref name="ABCAU">{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=Emily |title=Why is America so divided on abortion? Because a key conservative player planned it that way |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-16/why-america-is-so-divided-on-abortion-and-the-men-who-planned-it/101188994 |access-date=January 8, 2025 |work=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=July 15, 2022}}</ref> Over the next two decades, Christian rightist citizens became more politically active in a time period labeled the [[New Christian Right]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cook |first1=Kimberly J. |first2=Chris |last2=Powell |title=Christianity and Punitive Mentalities: A Qualitative Study |journal=Crime, Law and Social Change |volume=39 |issue=1 |year=2003 |pages=69–89 |doi=10.1023/A:1022487430900 |s2cid=142654351 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Miller |first=Patricia |date=December 12, 2016 |title=Meet the New Christian Right, Same as the Old Christian Right |url=http://religiondispatches.org/meet-the-new-christian-right-same-as-the-old-christian-right/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170203080843/http://religiondispatches.org/meet-the-new-christian-right-same-as-the-old-christian-right/ |archive-date=February 3, 2017 |access-date=February 2, 2017 |work=[[Religion Dispatches]] |language=en}}</ref> In addition to the Moral Majority (which dissolved in the late 1980s), the Christian right was associated with new organizations throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including the [[Christian Coalition of America]], [[Focus on the Family]], the [[Alliance Defending Freedom]], the [[Family Research Council]], and the [[American Center for Law & Justice]].<ref name="Himmelstein" /><ref name="Martin1996a" /><ref name="Lehmann2023">{{cite web |last1=Lehmann |first1=Chris |title=The Vanguard Party of the Christian Right |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/alliance-defending-freedom/ |publisher=[[The Nation]] |access-date=29 July 2024 |date=5 October 2023}}</ref>

===Later history, 1990s to present===
[[File:M4l2004.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Demonstrators at the 2004 [[March for Life (Washington, D.C.)|March for Life]] in Washington, D.C.]]
Since its inception, the Christian right has engaged in battles over abortion, [[Christian views on euthanasia|euthanasia]], [[Christian views on birth control|contraception]], [[Opposition to pornography|pornography]], gambling, [[obscenity]], [[Christian nationalism]], [[Sabbatarianism]] (concerning Sunday [[blue law]]s), state-sanctioned public [[school prayer]], public school textbook inclusion of [[Creation and evolution in public education|creationism]] (if not prohibition on teaching mainstream [[evolutionary science]]), [[Opposition to LGBTQ rights|LGBTQ rights]], and [[sexual education]].<ref name="Zubovich2018"/><ref name="Bowers2009"/> [[Ralph Reed]], the chairman of the Christian Coalition, stated that the [[Pat Robertson#Political service and activism|1988 presidential campaign]] of [[Pat Robertson]] was the "political crucible" that led to the proliferation of Christian right groups in the United States.<ref name="RozellWilcox1997" /> The Christian right is perhaps best known for its alliance with the U.S. anti-abortion movement and its efforts to overturn the 1973 ''[[Roe v Wade]]'' ruling, which established abortion as a constitutionally protected right in the U.S.<ref name="RozellWilcox1997">{{cite book|last1=Rozell|first1=Mark J.|last2=Wilcox|first2=Clyde|title=God at the Grass Roots, 1996: The Christian Right in the American Elections|year=1997|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780847686117|page=[https://archive.org/details/godatgrassroots10000unse/page/117 117]|quote=Initially, the abortion issue dominated the agenda of conservative Christians. But as political context changed, more issues were included. Euthanasia, the rights of homosexuals, pornography, sex education in schools, charter and home schools, and gambling have become issues of concern to the "pro-family" movement.|url=https://archive.org/details/godatgrassroots10000unse/page/117}}</ref> Changing political contexts led to the Christian right's advocacy for other issues, such as [[Religious views on euthanasia|opposition to euthanasia]] and campaigning for [[abstinence-only sex education]].<ref name="RozellWilcox1997"/>

In the [[2016 United States presidential election|2016 presidential election]], the Christian right staunchly supported [[Donald Trump]], who promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn ''Roe v Wade''. Many evangelicals were initially hesitant to support Trump due to his character flaws and lack of religiosity.<ref name="The Week"/> Trump ultimately appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, all of whom voted to overturn the 1973 decision in ''[[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization]]'' in 2022.<ref name="NYTimes adf">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/28/magazine/roe-v-wade-christian-network.html | title=The Untold Story of the Network That Took Down Roe v. Wade | work=The New York Times | date=May 28, 2024 | last1=Dias | first1=Elizabeth | last2=Lerer | first2=Lisa |accessdate=January 8, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Watkins |first=Morgan |title=How Mitch McConnell helped engineer the fall of Roe v. Wade and cement his abortion legacy |url=https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/mitch-mcconnell/2022/06/24/heres-why-fall-roe-v-wade-part-mitch-mcconnells-legacy/7646604001/ |access-date=March 7, 2023 |work=[[The Courier-Journal]] |date=June 24, 2022 |location=Louisville, KY}}</ref> Trump's support amongst evangelicals has also been attributed by some, including journalist [[Tim Alberta]], to a fear that white evangelicals and evangelicalism, if not Christianity more broadly, are losing their political power.<ref name="NYT23">{{cite news |last=Szalai |first=Jennifer |date=December 2, 2023 |title=How American Evangelicalism Became 'Mister Rogers With a Blowtorch' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/02/books/review/the-kingdom-the-power-and-the-glory-tim-alberta.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 8, 2025}}</ref><ref name="PBS23">{{cite news |last1=Bennett |first1=Geoff |last2=Kotuby |first2=Stephanie |last3=Gold |first3=Alexa |date=December 6, 2023 |title=Tim Alberta discusses his new book exploring American evangelicals and political extremism |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/tim-alberta-discusses-his-new-book-exploring-american-evangelicals-and-political-extremism |work=PBS Newshour |access-date=January 8, 2025}}</ref> Since the 1990s, the share of Americans who identify as Christian has declined, part of a larger [[decline of Christianity in the Western world]].<ref name="Public">{{cite web|accessdate=2021-07-10|title=The American Religious Landscape in 2020s|url=https://www.prri.org/research/2020-census-of-american-religion/#page-section-1|website=[[Public Religion Research Institute]]|date=July 8, 2021 }}</ref> Alberta, and others, have argued that many white evangelicals see Trump as a savior figure, and that his rhetoric about returning the United States to a perceived state of former greatness, embodied by his campaign slogan "[[Make America Great Again]]", resonates strongly with them. In addition to their declining numbers, many have also reported a fear of an increasingly secularizing world, which some scholars and commentators have argued led them to embrace Trumpism.<ref name="NYT23"/><ref name="PBS23"/> On many occasions, Trump has stated that he believes Christianity is under attack in the United States.<ref>{{cite news |last=Darbhamulla |first=Sruthi |date=September 10, 2024 |title=An unsteady alliance: Donald Trump and the religious right |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/an-unsteady-alliance-trump-and-the-religious-right/article68382345.ece |work=The Hindu |access-date=January 8, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Maqbool |first=Aleem |date=November 16, 2024 |title='Anointed by God': The Christians who see Trump as their saviour |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20g1zvgj4do |work=BBC News |access-date=January 8, 2025}}</ref> Trump continued to receive strong support from the Christian right in the [[2020 United States presidential election|2020]] and [[2024 United States presidential election|2024]] presidential elections.<ref name="The Week">{{cite news |last= |first= |date=December 8, 2024 |title=What Donald Trump owes the Christian Right |url=https://theweek.com/politics/what-donald-trump-owes-the-christian-right |work=The Week |location= |publisher= |access-date=}}</ref> Since the 2010s, the Christian right has increasingly supported other measures targeting the [[Separation of church and state in the United States|separation of church and state]], including [[school voucher]]s and efforts to integrate the [[Christian Bible]] and [[the Ten Commandments]] into public school curricula.<ref>{{cite news |last=Smith |first=David |date=June 22, 2024 |title=In Trump we trust: religious right on crusade to make their man president |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/22/trump-christians-president-religion |work=The Guardian |location= |publisher= |access-date=January 8, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Prokop |first=Andrew |date=September 11, 2023 |title=The conservative push for "school choice" has had its most successful year ever |url=https://www.vox.com/politics/23689496/school-choice-education-savings-accounts-american-federation-children |work=Vox |location= |publisher= |access-date=January 8, 2025}}</ref>

===Organizational ability===
====Grassroots activism====
The Christian right wields significant influence in American politics due to their high voter turnout and strong motivation to support right-wing candidates. They actively participate in political events, canvassing and distributing literature without needing financial compensation, driven by their devotion to the cause.<ref name=Green2006>{{cite news |author1-link=John C. Green|first1=John C. |last1=Green |first2=Mark |last2=Silk |title=Why Moral Values Did Count |work=Religion in the News |date=Spring 2005 |url=http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/RINVol8No1/WhyMoral%20ValuesDidCount.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123231911/http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/RINVol8No1/WhyMoral%20ValuesDidCount.htm |archive-date=January 23, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author1-link=Geoffrey Layman |first1=Geoffrey C. |last1=Layman |first2=John C. |last2=Green |title=Wars and Rumors of Wars: The Contexts of Cultural Conflict in American Political Behavior |journal=British Journal of Political Science |volume=36 |issue=1 |year=2006 |pages=61–89 |doi=10.1017/S0007123406000044 |s2cid=144870729 }}</ref>{{Update inline|reason=Does this still hold after so many years?|?=yes|date=November 2020}}

====Political leaders and institutions====
Led by [[Robert Grant (Christian Leader)|Robert Grant]]'s advocacy group [[Christian Voice (USA)|Christian Voice]], Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, [[Ed McAteer]]'s Religious Roundtable Council, [[James Dobson]]'s [[Focus on the Family]], [[Paul Weyrich]]'s [[Free Congress Research and Education Foundation]], and [[the Heritage Foundation]],<ref name=weyfalw>{{cite news|url=https://latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-weyrich19-2008dec19-story.html#page=1|title=Paul Weyrich, religious conservative and ex-president of Heritage Foundation, dies at 66|author=Elaine Woo|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=December 19, 2008|access-date=January 29, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150409082035/http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-weyrich19-2008dec19-story.html#page=1|archive-date=April 9, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[Pat Robertson]]'s [[Christian Broadcasting Network]], the new Christian right combined conservative politics with evangelical and fundamentalist religion.<ref name=Himmelstein>Jerome Himmelstein, p. 97; Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Religious Right, p.49–50, Sara Diamond, [[South End Press]], Boston, MA</ref> The birth of the new Christian right, however, is usually traced to a 1979 meeting wherein televangelist Jerry Falwell was urged to create a "Moral Majority" organization.<ref name="Martin1996a">{{cite book |last=Martin|first=William|year=1996|title=With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tzi7bIDP3aMC|location=New York|publisher=Broadway Books |isbn=978-0-553-06745-3}}</ref><ref name="Diamond1995a">{{cite book|last=Sara|first=Diamond|year=1995|title=Roads to Dominion|location=New York|publisher=Guilford Press|isbn=978-0-89862-864-7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/roadstodominionr00diamrich}}</ref> In 1979, Weyrich was in a discussion with Falwell when he remarked that there was a "moral majority" of Americans ready to be called to political action.<ref name=weyfalw /> Weyrich later recalled in a 2007 interview with the ''[[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]]'' that after he mentioned the term "moral majority", Falwell "turned to his people and said, 'That's the name of our organization.{{'"}}<ref name=weyfalw />

Weyrich would then engineer a strong union between the Republican Party and many culturally conservative Christians.<ref name=weyfalw /> Soon, "moral majority" became a general term for the conservative political activism of evangelicals and fundamentalists such as Pat Robertson, [[James Robison (televangelist)|James Robison]], and Jerry Falwell.<ref name=Reinhard>{{cite book|last=Reinhard|first=David|title=The Republican Right since 1945|year=1983|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, KY|isbn=978-0813114842|page=[https://archive.org/details/republicanrights00rein/page/245 245]|url=https://archive.org/details/republicanrights00rein/page/245}}</ref> Howard Schweber, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, writes that "in the past two decades", "Catholic politicians have emerged as leading figures in the religious conservative movement."<ref name=Schweber2012/>