In recent years, the Evangelical Christian movement and the Republican Party have become synonymous — over 81 percent of people who identify as Evangelical Christian said they voted for Donald Trump in 2016.
Despite one of the United States’ founding principles being a separation of church and state (which was famously coined by the staunch conservative Thomas Jefferson), the Republican Party has become closely intertwined with its evangelical voter base, so much so that separating the two entities is almost impossible.
But what kicked off the involvement of religious institutions in the world of American politics?
It goes as far back as the 1800s in the constitution for the Confederate States of America, which states: “We, the people of the Confederate States … in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of America.”
The Confederacy also had a motto, which was “Deo Vindice (“God will avenge”), and in fact, Confederacy President Jefferson Davis proclaimed that the time had come “to recognize our dependence upon God … [and] supplicate his merciful protection.”
Those states who were a part of the Confederacy — including North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas and more — either now lean Republican or are predominantly Republican-led states. According to the Pew Research Center, 76 percent of adults in the Southern United States identify as Christian, with over half being Evangelical Protestants.
One of the most famous (or infamous) faces of the evangelical movement was Rev. Billy Graham, who later became known as “America’s Pastor.” In the 1950s, Graham found himself in the center of conservative, political circles and was instrumental in lobbying for the addition of “In God We Trust” onto American currency during the Eisenhower administration.
Anthea Butler, an associate professor of religious studies and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said Billy Graham’s friendships to presidents over the course of six decades helped to elevate the evangelical stage into American mainstream culture.
“Evangelicals have always been interested in politics, whether we’re talking about slaveholders in the South who didn’t want to give up their slaves and fought for the Confederacy, or if we’re talking about the modern era, especially Billy Graham,” she explained.
Another historian, John Fea, explained Graham played an instrumental role in helping conservative leaders get into office.
“During the 1960s, Richard Nixon used Billy Graham to help him win over white evangelicals,” Fea explained. “But it was not until the late 1970s and 1980s that white conservative evangelicalism became fused with the GOP.”
Fea offered it was the removal of prayer from public schools, the legalization of abortion and the removal of government funding for Christian private schools in the south that lead tothe widespread belief Christianity was under attack by the United States government.
“The leaders of the Christian Right believed the best way to ‘reclaim’ or ‘restore’ this identity was by gaining control of all three branches of government,” Fea said. “Jimmy Carter, a self-proclaimed “born-again Christian,” was not championing these issues to the degree that many evangelical conservatives wished. As a result, white evangelicals gravitated to Ronald Reagan, a man who seemed to understand evangelical concerns, or was, at the very least, willing to placate evangelicals.”
It’s widely believed Reagan’s reign was around the time the evangelical movement began to truly infiltrate conservative, American politics. Fea explained conservative, Evangelical Christians developed a “playbook” of sorts to further push their agenda: elect the right president who then will appoint the right Supreme Court justices who will overturn decisions the Christian Right believes have undermined America’s “Christian foundations.”
Fellow historian Laura Gifford explained Reagan’s public support of the pro-life movement helped to normalize evangelical talking points within the Republican Party. She went on to say Republicans have taken a “cultural war” approach to get the evangelical base, including rhetoric similar to what was used to justify American Assimilation schools, which were established to “civilize” Native American children and youth into Anglo-American culture.
“We have managed as a society to create such comprehensive echo chambers for sharing ideas and information that many pro-Trump evangelicals will continue to believe the narratives their faith leaders disseminate,” she explained.
The word “evangelical” is derived from the root word evangelion, which roughly translates to Good News. Gifford explained evangelical Christians have become so entrenched with trying to spread the “good news,” she argues they’ve lost sight of what truly matters.
An article was featured in TIME Magazine in January which discussed how — despite being impeached twice and having a more than questionable moral compass — white Evangelical Christians are willing to ride or die for former President Donald Trump.
Over 80 percent of evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and in this year’s Republican Primary, 53 percent said they would vote for Trump again, according to a survey done by TIME Magazine.
Samuel Perry, the author of the TIME article and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma, said Trump has become the Republican Party and for evangelical Christians, the choice of who they’re voting for is simple.
“Whatever cognitive dissonance some devout Christians may feel for supporting a twice-impeached serial philandering liar who tried to stage a coup and threatens violence against political opponents is easily dismissed with the conviction that no Republican nominee, no matter how problematic, could be worse than losing to a Democrat,” he said. “Understand the American religion of fanatical partisanship and culture-warring and you understand why white evangelicals will always fall in line.”
Trump is very likely to be the Republican nominee in the race to become the next president. As states continue to have their primary elections, the reality of a rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden becomes more and more likely.
The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta wrote a piece in May 2022 where he interviewed several Evangelical pastors about the prevalence of political conversations in the form of church sermons. Alberta — who grew up in an Evangelical Protestant household — offered an explanation as to why evangelical Christians have become so hellbent on influencing American policies.
“For generations, white evangelicals have cultivated a narrative pitting courageous, God-fearing Christians against a wicked society that wants to expunge the Almighty from public life,” Alberta offered. “Having convinced so many evangelicals that the next election could trigger the nation’s demise, Christian leaders effectively turned thousands of churches into unwitting cells in a loosely organized, hazily defined, existentially urgent movement—the types of places where paranoia and falsehoods flourish and people turn on one another.
“The Church is becoming radicalized, and pastors who don’t address this fact head-on are only contributing to the problem.”