Editing Christian right (section)

=== 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"/>