A history of the religious right and the role played by Evangelical Christians in the Republican Party, 1979 to present. Thanks so much to my friend Andrew M...
This is a decent overview, but I think it misses a few important factors.
One is that there is an ongoing realignment within christian denominations between conservative and progressive wings of even the mainline protestant denominations. These splinter groups, like the ACNA (Anglican Church of North America) and the group that is in the process of breaking away from the United Methodist Church probably wouldn’t be considered evangelical in the technical sense, but they are absolutely part of the religious right. I think the number of “evangelicals” in the political sense (not necessarily the theological sense) is probably higher than is being estimated in the polls cited in the video, but I don’t have any concrete evidence of that. There is also a very strong fundamentalist Catholic wing of the republican party that was very visible in the rise of the alt-right and the Trump administration in particular. Overall, I think that “evangelical” is probably a flawed term to use for the religious right.
The second is that he fails to address the very significant part that opposition to desegregation played in the early formation of the modern religious right. This article goes into some detail about the racist roots of the religious right, and that opposition to abortion rights was in many ways a pivot to keep momentum in the movement going.
Hmm, I could’ve sworn this video addressed desegregation and rhetoric surrounding “forced busing” and such uniting them, but I must be confusing it with another. I’m trying to find what I’m thinking of but I can’t, it must’ve been a subsection of a Knowing Better video or something. Probably this excellent one on the party swap.
Overall, I think that “evangelical” is probably a flawed term to use for the religious right.
Is this advocating for that? I’m not really sure that anyone is trying to make Evangelical Christianity a synonym for the religious right. The video here is instead explaining how that tendency formed and how it contributed to and became a major player in the coalition that is the religious right.
You know, that’s fair. I think you’re probably right that the video isn’t necessarily conflating the religious right with evangelicals. I might have been reading that into the video when it wasn’t actually there.
This is a decent overview, but I think it misses a few important factors.
One is that there is an ongoing realignment within christian denominations between conservative and progressive wings of even the mainline protestant denominations. These splinter groups, like the ACNA (Anglican Church of North America) and the group that is in the process of breaking away from the United Methodist Church probably wouldn’t be considered evangelical in the technical sense, but they are absolutely part of the religious right. I think the number of “evangelicals” in the political sense (not necessarily the theological sense) is probably higher than is being estimated in the polls cited in the video, but I don’t have any concrete evidence of that. There is also a very strong fundamentalist Catholic wing of the republican party that was very visible in the rise of the alt-right and the Trump administration in particular. Overall, I think that “evangelical” is probably a flawed term to use for the religious right.
The second is that he fails to address the very significant part that opposition to desegregation played in the early formation of the modern religious right. This article goes into some detail about the racist roots of the religious right, and that opposition to abortion rights was in many ways a pivot to keep momentum in the movement going.
Hmm, I could’ve sworn this video addressed desegregation and rhetoric surrounding “forced busing” and such uniting them, but I must be confusing it with another. I’m trying to find what I’m thinking of but I can’t, it must’ve been a subsection of a Knowing Better video or something. Probably this excellent one on the party swap.
Is this advocating for that? I’m not really sure that anyone is trying to make Evangelical Christianity a synonym for the religious right. The video here is instead explaining how that tendency formed and how it contributed to and became a major player in the coalition that is the religious right.
You know, that’s fair. I think you’re probably right that the video isn’t necessarily conflating the religious right with evangelicals. I might have been reading that into the video when it wasn’t actually there.