christian right

The Christian right is also known as the New Christian Right (NCR) or the Religious Right, although some consider the religious right to be "a slightly broader category than Christian Right".{{cite web|url=http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/Cright.htm|title=Content Pages of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Social Science|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230556/http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/Cright.htm|archive-date=March 3, 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/chr_rght.htm|title=The Christian Right, The Twentieth Century, Divining America: Religion in American History|author=Grant Wacker|publisher=National Humanities Center}}

John C. Green of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life states that Jerry Falwell used the label religious right to describe himself. Gary Schneeberger, vice president of media and public relations for Focus on the Family, states that "[t]erms like 'religious right' have been traditionally used in a pejorative way to suggest extremism. The phrase 'socially conservative evangelicals' is not very exciting, but that's certainly the way to do it."Sarah Pulliam: [http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/februaryweb-only/106-42.0.html Phrase 'Religious Right' Misused, Conservatives Say] Christianity Today (Web-only), February 12, 2009.

Evangelical leaders like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council have called attention to the problem of equating the term Christian right with Evangelical Protestants. Although evangelicals constitute the core constituency of the Christian right, not all evangelicals fit the description, and a number of Roman Catholics are also members of the Christian right's core base. The problem of description is further complicated by the fact that the label religious conservative or conservative Christian may apply to other religious groups as well. For instance, Anabaptist Christians (most notably Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites, the Bruderhof Communities, Schwarzenau Brethren, River Brethren and Apostolic Christians) are theologically, socially, and culturally conservative; however, there are no overtly political organizations associated with these Christian denominations, which are usually uninvolved, uninterested, apathetic, or indifferent towards politics.{{cite book |author-last=Joireman |author-first=Sandra F. |year=2009 |chapter=Anabaptism and the State: An Uneasy Coexistence |chapter-url=https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1090&context=polisci-faculty-publications |url-status=live |editor-last=Joireman |editor-first=Sandra F. |title=Church, State, and Citizen: Christian Approaches to Political Engagement |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=73–91 |isbn=978-0-19-537845-0 |lccn=2008038533 |s2cid=153268965 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125145905/https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1090&context=polisci-faculty-publications |archive-date=November 25, 2020 |access-date=February 26, 2022}} Evangelical theologian and pastor Tim Keller stated that conservative Christianity (theology) predates the Christian right (politics). Keller asserted that being a theological conservative does not require a person to be a political conservative, and that some political progressive views around economics, helping the poor, the redistribution of wealth, and racial diversity are compatible with theologically conservative Christianity.{{Cite web |title=Dr. Timothy Keller at the March 2013 Faith Angle Forum |url=https://eppc.org/publication/dr-timothy-keller-at-the-march-2013-faith-angle-forum/ |access-date=January 19, 2023 |website=Ethics & Public Policy Center |language=en-US}} Conservative writer Rod Dreher has stated that a Christian can be theologically conservative while still holding left-wing economic views or even socialist views.{{Cite web |last=Dreher |first=Rod |date=July 24, 2014 |title=What Is 'Traditional Christianity,' Anyway? |url=https://www.theamericanconservative.com/what-is-traditional-christianity-anyway/ |access-date=January 19, 2023 |website=The American Conservative |language=en-US}}

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

In 1863, representatives from eleven Christian denominations in the United States organized the National Reform Association. The organization's goal was to amend the 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 government.{{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 }} 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 century 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. However, an evangelical subculture arose, which was largely secluded from the outside world, but consisted of a number of organizations and institutions, and would ultimately lay the groundwork for the emergence of the religious right in the late 1970s.{{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= |isbn=9781467462907 |via=Google Books}}{{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}}

While 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. 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".{{harvnb|Williams|2010|p=3}} Similarly, scholar Celestini Carmen traces the John Birch Society (JBS)'s focus on culture war issues and rhetoric of apocalypticism, conspiratorialism, and fear to the rise of the Christian right through JBS members and Christian right activists Tim LaHaye, Phyllis Schlafly, and others.{{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}}

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 as the biggest threat to American and Christian values.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."{{harvnb|Williams|2010|p=5}} 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 words "Under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.{{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}}{{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}} The alienation of Southern Democrats 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 liberal policies and nontraditional societal values, social conservatives joined the Republican Party in increasing numbers.{{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 }} Despite these trends, many white evangelicals remained politically inactive and were not a unified voting bloc, with many in the evangelical left believing political activism and engagement to be inconsistent with their beliefs.

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 Presidential election campaign. Weyrich tried a number of wedge issues throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, including abortion, pornography, the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, and school prayer, without success. Weyrich was not successful until the legality of 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 which 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.{{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= }} The origin of this case was a legal challenge to the tax exempt status of a group of segregation academies in Holmes County, Mississippi. 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.{{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}}{{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}} 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.{{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}}

In the 1976 Presidential election, Jimmy Carter, who described himself as an evangelical and a 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 which 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.{{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}}{{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}} This action reportedly encouraged many white evangelicals to become politically active for the first time, and turned them against Jimmy Carter.{{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}} 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",{{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}} and Richard Viguerie said that the 1978 IRS action "kicked a sleeping dog."{{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}} Others, including religious right leader Ed Dobson and conservative activist Grover Norquist have affirmed this as the beginnings of the religious right.{{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=Washigton, 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.""}}{{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."}}

Around the same time, Weyrich began to realize that support for segregation academies was not a viable issue, and began to look for other issues. The unexpected success of mostly Catholic anti-abortion activists in the 1978 midterms convinced Weyrich that opposition to abortion might work as a wedge issue to keep evangelicals politically mobilized. 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.{{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.}} 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 Dr. C. Everett Koop. 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.{{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}} 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.{{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.}} 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.{{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}}{{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}}

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 Presidential election.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. In response to the rise of the Christian right, the 1980 Republican Party platform assumed a number of its positions, including adding support for a restoration of school prayer. While the platform also opposed abortion and leaned towards restricting taxpayer funding for abortions and passing a constitutional amendment which would restore protection of the right to life for unborn children, it also accepted the fact that many Americans, including fellow Republicans, were divided on the issue.{{sfn|Williams|2010|pages=1, 2}}{{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}} At this time, both major political parties were divided internally on the abortion issue, and it was not until the late 1980s that abortion came to be viewed as a strictly partisan issue.{{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}} Over the next two decades religious citizens became more politically active in a time period labeled the New Christian Right.{{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 }}{{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}} In addition to the Moral Majority (which dissolved in the late 1980s), the religious right came to be associated with a number of organizations throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, the Alliance Defending Freedom the Family Research Council and the American Center for Law & Justice.{{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}}

File:M4l2004.jpg in Washington, D.C.]]

Since its inception, the Christian Right has engaged in battles over abortion, euthanasia, contraception, pornography, gambling, obscenity, Christian nationalism, Sunday Sabbatarianism (concerning Sunday blue laws), state sanctioned prayer in public schools, textbook contents (concerning creationism), homosexuality, and sexual education. Ralph Reed, the chairman of the Christian Coalition, stated that the 1988 presidential campaign of Pat Robertson was the 'political crucible' that led to the proliferation of Christian Right groups in the United States. 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.{{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}} Changing political context led to the Christian Right's advocacy for other issues, such as opposition to euthanasia and campaigning for abstinence-only sex education.

In the 2016 Presidential election, the religious right staunchly supported President 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. Trump ultimately appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, all of whom voted to overturn the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022.{{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}}{{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}} Trump's support amongst evangelicals has also been attributed by some, including journalist Tim Alberta, to be a result of a fear that many white evangelicals have of losing their power.{{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}}{{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}} Since the 1990s, the share of Americans who identify as Christian has declined, part of a larger trend of a decline of Christian affiliation throughout the Western World.{{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 }} 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 being under siege by an increasingly secularizing world, which some scholars and commentators have argued has led them to embrace Trump's policies. On many occasions, Trump has stated that he believes Christianity is under attack in the United States.{{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}}{{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}} Trump continued to receive strong support from the religious right in the 2020 and 2024 Presidential elections.{{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=}} Since the 2010s, the religious right has increasingly supported other measures targeting the separation of church in state, including school vouchers and efforts to integrate the Bible and The Ten Commandments into public school curricula.{{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}}{{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}}

Much of the Christian right's power within the American political system is attributed to their extraordinary turnout rate at the polls. The voters that coexist in the Christian right are also highly motivated and driven to get out a viewpoint on issues they care about. As well as high voter turnout, they can be counted on to attend political events, knock on doors and distribute literature. Members of the Christian right are willing to do the electoral work needed to see their candidate elected. Because of their high level of devotion, the Christian right does not need to monetarily compensate these people for their work.{{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 }}{{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 }}{{Update inline|reason=Does this still hold after so many years?|?=yes|date=November 2020}}

Led by Robert Grant advocacy group 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 Foundation and The Heritage Foundation,{{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}} and Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, the new Religious Right combined conservative politics with evangelical and fundamentalist teachings.Jerome Himmelstein, p. 97; Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Religious Right, p.49–50, Sara Diamond, South End Press, Boston, MA The birth of the New Christian right, however, is usually traced to a 1979 meeting where televangelist Jerry Falwell was urged to create a "Moral Majority" organization.{{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}}{{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}} 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. 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.{{'"}}

Weyrich would then engineer a strong union between the Republican Party and many culturally conservative Christians. Soon, Moral Majority became a general term for the conservative political activism of evangelists and fundamentalists such as Pat Robertson, James Robison, and Jerry Falwell.{{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}} 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."

An early attempt to bring the Christian right into American politics began in 1974 when Robert Grant, a movement leader, who founded the American Christian Cause to advocate Christian ideological teachings in Southern California. Concerned that Christians overwhelmingly voted for President Jimmy Carter in 1976, Grant founded Christian Voice to rally Christian voters behind socially conservative candidates. Prior to his alliance with Falwell, Weyrich sought an alliance with Grant. Grant and other Christian Voice staff soon set up their main office at the headquarters of Weyrich's Heritage Foundation.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ehBRJGC7kq0C&pg=PT122|title=What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running America|first=Melissa|last=Rossi|date=May 29, 2007|publisher=Penguin|via=Google Books|isbn=9781440621031}} The alliance between Weyrich and Grant fell apart in 1978.

In the late 1980s, Pat Robertson founded the Christian Coalition of America, building from his 1988 presidential run, with Republican activist Ralph Reed, who became the spokesman for the Coalition. In 1992, the national Christian Coalition, Inc., headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, began producing voter guides, which it distributed to conservative Christian churches, both Protestant and Catholic, with the blessing of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.{{cite book|last1=Smidt|first1=Corwin E.|last2=Penning|first2=James M.|title=Sojourners in the Wilderness: The Christian Right in Comparative Perspective|year=1997|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|language=en|isbn=9780847686452|page=51|quote=Perhaps the most prominent example of this was when the Archdiocese of New York joined forces with the Christian Coalition during the New York City school board elections in 1993 and allowed the distribution of Christian Coalition voter guides in Catholic parishes.}} Under the leadership of Reed and Robertson, the Coalition quickly became the most prominent voice in the conservative Christian movement, its influence culminating with an effort to support the election of a conservative Christian to the presidency in 1996. In addition, they have encouraged the convergence of conservative Christian ideology with political issues, such as healthcare, the economy, education and crime.Micklethwait and Wooldridge, The Right Nation, 2005, 111

Political activists lobbied within the Republican party locally and nationally to influence party platforms and nominations. More recently James Dobson's group Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs, and the Family Research Council in Washington D.C. have gained enormous respect from Republican lawmakers. While strongly advocating for these ideological matters, Dobson himself is warier of the political spectrum and much of the resources of his group are devoted to other aims such as media.Micklethwait and Wooldridge, The Right Nation, 2005, 187 However, as a private citizen, Dobson has stated his opinion on presidential elections; on February 5, 2008, Dobson issued a statement regarding the 2008 presidential election and his strong disappointment with the Republican party's candidates.{{cite web |url=http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000006444.cfm |title=Dr. Dobson: ' I Cannot, and Will Not, Vote for McCain' |publisher=CitizenLink |access-date=December 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080312200209/http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000006444.cfm |archive-date=March 12, 2008 |url-status=dead }}

In an essay written in 1996, Ralph Reed argued against the moral absolutist tone of Christian right leaders, arguing for the Republican Party Platform to stress the moral dimension of abortion rather than placing emphasis on overturning Roe v. Wade. Reed believes that pragmatism is the best way to advocate for the Christian right.{{Cite journal |jstor = 420824|title = The Evolving Politics of the Christian Right|journal = PS: Political Science and Politics|volume = 29|issue = 3|pages = 461–464|last1 = Moen|first1 = Matthew C.|year = 1996|doi = 10.1017/S104909650004508X}}

Overtly partisan actions by churches could threaten their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status due to the Johnson Amendment of the Internal Revenue Code.{{cite web|title=Charities, Churches and Politics|url=https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161131,00.html|publisher=Internal Revenue Service|access-date=July 5, 2011|archive-date=July 4, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110704130602/http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=161131,00.html|url-status=dead}} In one notable example, the former pastor of the East Waynesville Baptist Church in Waynesville, North Carolina "told the congregation that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry should either leave the church or repent".{{Cite web|url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-05-07-church-politics_x.htm|title= Democrats voted out of church because of their politics, members say|website=USA Today}} The church later expelled nine members who had voted for Kerry and refused to repent, which led to criticism on the national level. The pastor resigned and the ousted church members were allowed to return.[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/16/national/16church.html Political Split Leaves a Church Sadder and Grayer], The New York Times, May 15, 2005

The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian right group now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom, started the Pulpit Freedom Initiative{{cite news|last=Berlinerblau |first=Jacques |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/georgetown-on-faith/post/where-does-church-end-and-state-begin/2011/10/04/gIQAzy2RNL_blog.html |title=Where does church end and state begin? – Georgetown/On Faith |newspaper=The Washington Post |date= October 5, 2011|access-date=December 26, 2011}} in 2008. ADF states that "[t]he goal of Pulpit Freedom Sunday is simple: have the Johnson Amendment declared unconstitutional – and once and for all remove the ability of the IRS to censor what a pastor says from the pulpit."{{cite web |url=http://speakupmovement.org/church/LearnMore/details/5253 |title=Speak Up: Pulpit Freedom Sunday – History of the Pulpit Initiative |publisher=Speakupmovement.org |access-date=December 26, 2011 |archive-date=April 26, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426072406/http://speakupmovement.org/church/LearnMore/details/5253 |url-status=dead }}

Both Christian right and secular polling organizations sometimes conduct polls to determine which presidential candidates will receive the support of Christian right constituents. One such poll is taken at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit.{{Cite web|url=https://www.frcaction.org/index.cfm?c=WASH_BRIEFING|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512182418/http://www.frcaction.org/index.cfm?c=WASH_BRIEFING|url-status=dead|title=FRC Action|archive-date=May 12, 2015|website=www.frcaction.org}}{{cite news |url=https://www.christianpost.com/news/presidential-hopefuls-highlight-values-to-christian-conservatives-29775/ |title=Presidential Hopefuls Highlight 'Values' to Christian Conservatives |date=October 20, 2007 |last=Vu |first=Michelle |newspaper=The Christian Post |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130102043700/http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071020/29775_Presidential_Hopefuls_Highlight_'Values'_to_Christian_Conservatives.htm |archive-date=January 2, 2013 |access-date=May 28, 2018 |url-status=unfit}} George W. Bush's electoral success owed much to his overwhelming support from white evangelical voters, who comprise 23% of the vote. In 2000 he received 68% of the white evangelical vote; in 2004 that percentage rose to 78%.[http://people-press.org/commentary/display.php3?AnalysisID=103 Religion and the Presidential Vote] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080413120730/http://people-press.org/commentary/display.php3?AnalysisID=103 |date=April 13, 2008 }}, Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, December 6, 2004 In 2016, Donald Trump received 81% of the white evangelical vote.{{cite web | last1=Martínez | first1=Jessica | last2=Smith | first2=Gregory A. | title=How the faithful voted: A preliminary 2016 analysis | url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/ | date=November 9, 2016 | publisher=Pew Research Center | access-date=June 12, 2019}}{{cite news | last1=Lovett | first1=Ian | title=Evangelicals Back Donald Trump in Record Numbers, Despite Earlier Doubts | url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/evangelicals-back-donald-trump-in-record-numbers-despite-earlier-doubts-1478689372 | date=November 9, 2016 | newspaper=The Wall Street Journal | access-date=June 12, 2019}}

{{see also|Christian school}}

The Home School Legal Defense Association was co-founded in 1983 by Michael Farris, who would later establish Generation Joshua and Patrick Henry College, and Michael Smith. This organization attempts to challenge laws that serve as obstacles to allowing parents to home-school their children and to organize the disparate group of homeschooling families into a cohesive bloc. The number of homeschooling families has increased in the last twenty years, and around 80 percent of these families identify themselves as evangelicals.Rosin, God's Harvard, 2007, 61–62

The main universities associated with the Christian right in the United States are:

• Bob Jones University – Protestant Fundamentalist institution, founded in 1927.{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.2005.00111.x | volume=67 | issue=2 | title=Into the Wilderness: Ronald Reagan, Bob Jones University, and the Political Education of the Christian Right | year=2005 | journal=The Historian | pages=234–253 | last1 = Haberman | first1 = Aaron| s2cid=143885519 }}
• Christendom College – Roman Catholic institution, founded in 1977{{cite book|last=Askin|first=Steve|title=A new Rite: conservative Catholic organizations and their allies|date=February 1, 1994|publisher=Catholics for a Free Choice|language=en }}
• Liberty University – Baptist institution, founded in 1971{{cite book|last=Anderson|first=John|title=Conservative Christian Politics in Russia and the United States|date=September 19, 2014|publisher=Routledge|language=en |isbn=9781317606635|page=164|quote=Some Christian Right leaders established their own institutions, such as Pat Robertson's Regents University and Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.}}
• Regent University – Evangelical Christian institution, founded in 1977

{{see also|Christian media}}

The media has played a major role in the rise of the Christian right since the 1920s and has continued to be a powerful force for political Christianity today. The role of the media for the Religious right has been influential in its ability to connect Christian audiences to the larger American culture while at the same time bringing and keeping religion into play as both a political and a cultural force. The political agenda of the Christian right has been disseminated to the public through a variety of media outlets including radio broadcasting, television, and literature.

Religious broadcasting began in the 1920s through the radio.Diamond, S. (2000) Not by Politics Alone: The Enduring Influence of the Christian right. New York: Guildford Press. Between the 1950s and 1980s, TV became a powerful way for the Christian right to influence the public through shows such as Pat Robertson's The 700 Club and The Family Channel (now Freeform). The Internet has also helped the Christian right reach a much larger audience. These organizations' websites play a strong role in popularising the Christian right's stances on cultural and political issues, and inform interested viewers on how to get involved. For example, the Christian Coalition of America has used the Internet to inform the public, as well as to sell merchandise and gather members.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The Roman Catholic Church is against capital punishment while there are some Christian denominations that support the death penalty. https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2018/08/02/180802a.html https://www.chron.com/culture/religion/article/texas-pastor-luigi-mangione-punishment-20257168.php

The Christian right strongly advocates for a system of educational choice, using a system of school vouchers, instead of public education. Vouchers would be government funded and could be redeemed for "a specified maximum sum per child per years if spent on approved educational services".Spring, Joel. Political Agendas for Education: From the Religious Right to the Green Party. Second Edition. (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002) This method would allow parents to determine which school their child attends while relieving the economic burden associated with private schools. The concept is popular among constituents of church-related schools, including those affiliated with Roman Catholicism.

{{see also|Creation and evolution in public education}}

The Protestant members of the Christian right in the United States generally promote the teaching of creationism and intelligent design as opposed to, or alongside, biological evolution.{{cite book|last=Ciment|first=James|title=Postwar America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History|date=March 26, 2015|publisher=Routledge|language=en|isbn=9781317462354|page=513|quote=Throughout the twentieth century, many evangelicals accepted theistic evolution ... Some Christian right organizations supported the teaching of creationism, along with evolution, in public schools.}}{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=J. Matthew|title=From Pews to Polling Places: Faith and Politics in the American Religious Mosaic|date=October 22, 2007|publisher=Georgetown University Press|language=en |isbn=9781589013261|page=178|quote=Among Catholics and Latinos who practice other religious traditions, more than seven in ten support having organized prayer in public schools. ... Catholics are much more likely to state that both evolution and creationism should be taught in the schools.}}[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/11/ap/national/mainD8DPVRQ84.shtml Pat Robertson Warns Pa. Town of Disaster] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060809024450/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/11/ap/national/mainD8DPVRQ84.shtml |date=August 9, 2006 }}, CBSNews.com[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/10/politics/main1036232.shtml|Robertson: Pa. Voters Rejected God] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511162036/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/10/politics/main1036232.shtml%7crobertson: |date=May 11, 2013 }}, CBSNews.com Some supporters of the Christian right have opposed the teaching of evolution in the past, but they did not have the ability to stop it being taught in public schools as was done during the Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, in which a science teacher went on trial for teaching about the subject of evolution in a public school.{{cite web |url=http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/creation/voices/legal/bkgrd.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010720160218/http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/creation/voices/legal/bkgrd.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 20, 2001 |title=Court decisions regarding Evolution/Creationism |access-date=December 26, 2011 }} Other "Christian right organizations supported the teaching of creationism, along with evolution, in public schools", specifically promoting theistic evolution (also known as evolutionary creationism) in which God is regarded as the originator of the process.

Members of and organizations associated with the Christian right, such as the Discovery Institute, created and popularized the modern concept of intelligent design, which became widely known only with the publication of the book Of Pandas and People in 1989.{{cite web |url=http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2007/08/the-true-origin.html |title=The true origin of 'intelligent design' |last=Matzke |first=Nick |author-link=Nick Matzke |date=August 14, 2007 |website=The Panda's Thumb |publisher=The TalkOrigins Foundation, Inc. |location=Houston, TX |type=Blog |access-date=July 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120327191315/http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2007/08/the-true-origin.html |archive-date=March 27, 2012 |url-status=dead }} The Discovery Institute, through their intelligent design initiative called the Center for Science and Culture, has endorsed the teach the controversy approach. According to its proponents, such an approach would ensure that both the strengths and weaknesses of evolutionary theory were discussed in the curriculum.Slack, Gordy. The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything. (San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons, 2007), 67. This tactic was criticized by Judge John E. Jones III in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, describing it as "at best disingenuous, and at worst a canard."Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District: Memorandum Opinion by Judge John E. Jones III, page 89

The overwhelming majority of scientific research, both in the United States and elsewhere, has concluded that the theory of evolution, using the technical definition of the word theory, is the only viable explanation of the development of life, and an overwhelming majority of biologists strongly support its presentation in public school science classes.{{cite web |url=http://ncse.com/taking-action/project-steve |title=Project Steve |publisher=Ncse.com |access-date=December 26, 2011}} Outside the United States, as well as among American Catholics and Mainline Protestants, Christian conservatives have generally come to accept the theory of evolution.{{Cite web |url=http://www.onenewsnow.com/church/2014/11/03/pope-backs-evolution-vatican-calls-creation-%E2%80%98blasphemous%E2%80%99#.VOyIar-sWgM |title=Pope backs evolution, Vatican calls creation 'blasphemous' |access-date=February 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214060813/http://www.onenewsnow.com/church/2014/11/03/pope-backs-evolution-vatican-calls-creation-%E2%80%98blasphemous%E2%80%99#.VOyIar-sWgM |archive-date=February 14, 2015 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/4588289/The-Vatican-claims-Darwins-theory-of-evolution-is-compatible-with-Christianity.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/4588289/The-Vatican-claims-Darwins-theory-of-evolution-is-compatible-with-Christianity.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The Vatican claims Darwin's theory of evolution is compatible with Christianity|author=Chris Irvine|date=February 11, 2009|work=The Telegraph}}{{cbignore}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/about/policy-and-thinking/our-views|title=Our views|website=The Church of England}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/2910447/Charles-Darwin-to-receive-apology-from-the-Church-of-England-for-rejecting-evolution.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/2910447/Charles-Darwin-to-receive-apology-from-the-Church-of-England-for-rejecting-evolution.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Charles Darwin to receive apology from the Church of England for rejecting evolution|author=Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent|date=September 13, 2008|work=The Telegraph}}{{cbignore}}{{cite web|url=http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/christianity-evolution|title=Christianity in Evolution|access-date=February 24, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224170354/http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/christianity-evolution|archive-date=February 24, 2015|url-status=dead}}

Some Christian groups advocate for the removal of sex education literature from public schools,See Is the School House the Proper Place to Teach Raw Sex? (1968). Also:

• {{cite book |author=Janice M. Irvine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jBWYvXt18CwC |title=Talk about Sex: The Battles Over Sex Education in the United States |publisher=University of California Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-520-24329-3 |page=74}}
• {{cite book |author=Gilbert Herdt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ww0VCgAAQBAJ |title=Moral Panics, Sex Panics: Fear and the Fight Over Sexual Rights |date=June 1, 2009 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-3723-1}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Irvine |first1=Janice M. |year=2006 |title=Emotional scripts of sex panics |journal=Sexuality Research and Social Policy |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=82–94 |doi=10.1525/srsp.2006.3.3.82 |issn=1868-9884 |s2cid=144221306}}
• {{Cite news |author=Daniel Wallis |date=October 30, 2014 |title=Arizona school board votes to remove pages from biology textbook |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-arizona-education-idUSKBN0IJ2HG20141030 |newspaper=Reuters}}
• {{cite web |date=October 30, 2014 |title=Gilbert schools to edit 'abortion' section of textbook |url=https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/gilbert/2014/10/30/gilbert-schools-edit-abortion-section-textbook/18160307/ |work=azcentral}} for parental opt-out of comprehensive sex education, or for abstinence-only sex education. Sam Harris has written that thirty percent of America's sex-education programs are abstinence based and ineffective.Harris, Sam. Letter to a Christian Nation 2006

The Christian right promotes homeschooling and private schooling as a valid alternative to public education for parents who object to the content being taught at school.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} The percentage of children being homeschooled rose from 1.7% of the student population in 1999 to 2.2% in 2003,{{cite web |url=http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/homeschool/index.asp |title=Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 – Executive Summary |publisher=National Center for Education Statistics |access-date=December 26, 2011}} and much of this increase has been attributed to the desire to incorporate Christian teachings into the curriculum.{{cite web |url=http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20Sep07/Art_Sep07_02.html |title=Popularity of homeschooling rises nationwide, curriculum concerns, safety cited |work=Christian Examiner |access-date=December 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112233842/http://www.christianexaminer.com/Articles/Articles%20Sep07/Art_Sep07_02.html |archive-date=January 12, 2012 |url-status=dead }} In 2003, 72% of parents who homeschooled their children cited the ability to provide religious or moral instruction as the reason for removing their children from public schools.{{cite web |url=http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/homeschool/parentsreasons.asp |title=Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 – Parents' Reasons for Homeschooling |publisher=National Center for Education Statistics |access-date=December 26, 2011}} The Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case established that creationism cannot be taught in public schools, and in response officials have increasingly appropriated public funds for charter schools that teach curricula like Accelerated Christian Education.{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/01/creationism_in_texas_public_schools_undermining_the_charter_movement.single.html|title=Creationism in Texas public schools: Undermining the charter movement.|author=Zack Kopplin|date=January 16, 2014|work=Slate}}

The Christian right is in favor of legislation that maintains and promotes Sunday Sabbatarianism, such as Sunday blue laws that forbid shopping and restrict the sale of alcohol on Sundays, which is the Lord's Day in mainstream Christianity.

Supporters of the Christian right have no one unified stance on the role of government since the movement is primarily one that advocates social conservatism; in fact, "struggles [have] broken out in state party organizations" between supporters of the Christian right and other conservatives.{{cite book|last=Farney|first=James Harold|title=Social Conservatives and Party Politics in Canada and the United States|year=2012|publisher=University of Toronto Press|language=en|isbn=9781442612600|page=61|quote=Struggles broke out in state party organizations between social conservatives - in general organized by the Christian Coalition - and party activists more interested in fiscal policy, foreign policy, or simply winning office.}}{{cite web |url=http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/chr_rght.htm |title=The Christian Right, The Twentieth Century, Divining America: Religion in American History, TeacherServe, National Humanities Center |publisher=Nationalhumanitiescenter.org |access-date=December 26, 2011}} It promotes conservative interpretations of the Bible as the basis for moral values and enforcing such values by legislation. Some members of the Christian right, especially Catholics, accept the Catholic Church's strong support for labor unions.

{{see also|Accommodationism}}

The Christian right believes that separation of church and state is not explicit in the American Constitution, believing instead that such separation is a creation of what it claims are activist judges in the judicial system.{{cite web|url=http://www.patrobertson.com/Teaching/Teachingonfirstamendment.asp|title=The First Amendment|publisher=PatRobertson.com|author=Pat Robertson}}{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html |title=Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists |website=Library of Congress |access-date=December 26, 2011}}{{cite web |author=ThinkExist.com Quotations |url=http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the_purpose_of_separation_of_church_and_state_is/212643.html |title=James Madison quotes |publisher=Thinkexist.com |access-date=December 26, 2011}} In the United States, the Christian right often supports their claims by stating that the country was "founded by Christians as a Christian Nation."{{cite web|url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.RES.888:|title=House Resolution 888 United States House of Representatives (Bill Text – 110th Congress (2007–2008) – THOMAS)|publisher=Library of Congress|date=December 18, 2007|access-date=January 25, 2008|archive-date=October 14, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081014160204/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.RES.888:|url-status=dead}}{{cite web |author=A Nonbeliever |url=http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html |title=America is not founded upon Christianity but the Enlightenment |publisher=Freethought.mbdojo.com |access-date=December 26, 2011 |archive-date=August 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130807222507/http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html |url-status=usurped }} Members of the Christian right take the position that the Establishment Clause bars the federal government from establishing or sponsoring a state church (e.g., the Church of England), but does not prevent the government from acknowledging religion. The Christian right points out that the term "separation of church and state" is derived from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson, not from the Constitution itself.{{cite web |last=Watkins |first=Shanea |url=http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/06/the-mythical-wall-of-separation-how-a-misused-metaphor-changed-church-state-law-policy-and-discourse |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100322135737/http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2006/06/The-Mythical-Wall-of-Separation-How-a-Misused-Metaphor-Changed-Church-State-Law-Policy-and-Discourse |url-status=unfit |archive-date=March 22, 2010 |title=The Mythical "Wall of Separation": How a Misused Metaphor Changed Church–State Law, Policy, and Discourse |publisher=The Heritage Foundation |access-date=December 26, 2011}}{{cite web |url=http://www.frc.org/familypolicylecture/policy-lecture--wall-of-separation-between-church-and-state |title=Wall of Separation Between Church and State: Myth, Reality, Results |publisher=Family Research Council |access-date=December 26, 2011}}{{cite web |author=Charles E. Steele |url=http://www.schoolprayerinamerica.info/1separationchurchstate.html |title=Separation of Church and State, Thomas Jefferson, and the First Amendment |publisher=Schoolprayerinamerica.info |date=January 18, 2009 |access-date=December 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106072029/http://www.schoolprayerinamerica.info/1separationchurchstate.html |archive-date=January 6, 2012 |url-status=dead }} Furthermore, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) takes the view that the concept of "separation of church and state" has been used by the American Civil Liberties Union and its allies to inhibit public acknowledgment of Christianity and restrict the religious freedoms of Christians.{{cite web |url=http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/ReligiousFreedom |title=Religious Freedom |publisher=Alliance Defense Fund |access-date=December 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111226183052/http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/ReligiousFreedom |archive-date=December 26, 2011 |url-status=dead }}

Thus, Christian right leaders have argued that the Establishment Clause does not prohibit the display of religion in the public sphere. Leaders, therefore, believe that public institutions should be allowed, or even required, to display the Ten Commandments. This interpretation has been repeatedly rejected by the courts, which have found that such displays violate the Establishment Clause. Public officials though are prohibited from using their authority in which the primary effect is "advancing or prohibiting religion", according to the Lemon Supreme Court test, and there cannot be an "excessive entanglement with religion" and the government. Some, such as Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, argue that the First Amendment, which specifically restricts Congress, applies only to the Congress and not the states. This position rejects the incorporation of the Bill of Rights.{{cite web |url=http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147492060 |title=The First Amendment means what it says - RIGHTLYCONCERNED.COM |publisher=Action.afa.net |date=February 19, 2010 |access-date=December 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721203505/http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147492060 |archive-date=July 21, 2011 |url-status=dead }}

Generally, the Christian right supports the presence of religious institutions within government and the public sphere, and advocates for fewer restrictions on government funding for religious charities and schools. Both Catholics and Protestants, according to a 2005 Gallup study, have been supportive of school prayer in public schools.{{cite book|last1=Gallup|first1=Alec|last2=Newport|first2=Frank|title=The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 2005|year=2006|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|language=en|isbn=9780742552586|page=318|quote=Related to their support of school prayer, most Americans also believe that religion should have a greater 'presence' in public schools. ... Protestants are most likely to favor school prayer (82%), followed closely by Catholics (75%).}}

Early American fundamentalists, such as John R. Rice"[Rice] melded politics and religion in a way that made it very clear what side of any political

issue he believed God was on. God had been very clearly opposed to the New Deal "socialism" of Franklin Roosevelt,

and God was equally opposed to the Great Society "socialism" of Lyndon Baines Johnson". Andrew Himes,

The Sword of the Lord: The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family Chiara Press, 2011

{{ISBN|1453843752}}, (p.271).Nathan Andrew Finn,

The Development of Baptist Fundamentalism in the South, 1940–1980 ProQuest, 2007

{{ISBN|0549371435}} (p.204). often favored laissez-faire economics and were outspoken critics of the New Deal and later the Great Society. The contemporary Christian right supports economic conservative policies such as tax cuts and social conservative policies such as child tax credits.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cc.org/issues.cfm |title=Christian Coalition of America's Agenda for the 108th Congress (2003-2004) |website=Christian Coalition of America |access-date=March 17, 2008 |archive-date=October 9, 2004 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20041009202641/http://cc.org/issues.cfm |url-status=dead }}

{{See also|Christian Zionism}}

Many evangelical Protestant supporters of the religious right have strongly supported the state of Israel in recent decades, encouraging support for Israel within the United States government.Stephen Spector, Evangelicals and Israel: the story of American Christian Zionism (2008) pp 23–49 Some of them have linked Israel to Biblical prophesies; for example, Ed McAteer, founder of the Moral Majority, said "I believe that we are seeing prophecy unfold so rapidly and dramatically and wonderfully and, without exaggerating, makes me breathless."Jan G. Linn, What's Wrong With The Christian Right (2004) p 27 This belief, an example of dispensationalism, arises from the idea that the establishment of Israel is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus, because it represents the Biblically prophesied Gathering of Israel. A 2017 poll indicates that this belief is held by 80% of evangelicals, and that half of evangelicals consider it an important cause of their support for the state of Israel.Bump, Philip. May 14, 2017. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/14/half-of-evangelicals-support-israel-because-they-believe-it-is-important-for-fulfilling-end-times-prophecy/ "Half of evangelicals support Israel because they believe it is important for fulfilling end-times prophecy"]. The Washington Post.

During the Lebanese Civil War that started in 1975 and ended in 1990, many Christian parties endorsed the right's political viewpoints such as the Christian Lebanese phalanges which is known as the Kataeb Party, and later, the right's political viewpoints were also endorsed by the Lebanese Armed Forces because their power and influence were threatened by the growing power and influence of the more radical Islamist and left-wing movements, such as the Shiite Amal Movement, and the Progressive Socialist Party in the 1980s.

{{See also|Bioethics|Consistent life ethic}}

Historically, large percentages of American Catholics and Evangelical Protestants oppose and have opposed abortion,{{Cite web |title=Religious Landscape Study |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/ |access-date=June 27, 2022 |website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |language=en-US}} believing that life begins at conception and that abortion is murder. Therefore, those in the movement have worked toward the overturning of Roe v. Wade (1973), and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). The Christian right has also supported incremental steps to make abortion less available. Such efforts include bans on late-term abortion (including intact dilation and extraction),[http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/abortion/2003s3.html Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003] 108th United States Congress (1st session) prohibitions against Medicaid funding and other public funding for elective abortions, removal of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide abortion services, legislation requiring parental consent or notification for abortions performed on minors,[https://www.dailypress.com/1994/04/09/allen-wants-parents-notified/ Allen Wants Parents Notified – Daily Press] . Articles.dailypress.com (April 9, 1994). Retrieved on August 24, 2013. legal protections for unborn victims of violence, legal protections for infants born alive following failed abortions, and bans on abortifacient medications.

The Christian right element in the Reagan coalition strongly supported him in 1980, in the belief that he would appoint Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade. They were astonished and dismayed when his first appointment was Sandra Day O'Connor, whom they feared would tolerate abortion. They worked hard to defeat her confirmation but failed.Prudence Flowers, "'A Prolife Disaster': The Reagan Administration and the Nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor". Journal of Contemporary History 53.2 (2018): 391–414

The Christian right contends that morning-after pills such as Plan B and Ella are possible abortifacients, able to interfere with a fertilized egg's implantation in the uterine wall.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/health/research/morning-after-pills-dont-block-implantation-science-suggests.html|title=Abortion Qualms on Morning-After Pill May Be Unfounded|last=Belluck|first=Pam|work=The New York Times|date=June 6, 2012}} The labeling mandated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Plan B and Ella state that they may interfere with implantation, but according to a June 2012, The New York Times article, many scientists believe that they work only by interfering with ovulation and are arguing to have the implantation language removed from product labels. The Christian right maintains that the chemical properties of morning-after pills make them abortifacients and that the politics of abortion is influencing scientific judgments. Jonathan Imbody of the Christian Medical Association says he questions "whether ideological considerations are driving these decisions." Specifically, many Catholic members, as well as some conservative Protestant members, of the Christian right have campaigned against contraception altogether.{{cite web|url=https://rewire.news/article/2014/01/06/catholic-groups-trying-to-eliminate-coverage-of-contraception-no-matter-who-pays/|title=Catholic Groups Trying to Eliminate Coverage of Contraception No Matter Who Pays: The latest court challenges to the birth control benefit show how much the fight against the contraception mandate is really about the Christian right trying to establish an employer's "right" to control your private sex life.|last=Marcotte|first=Amanda|date=January 6, 2014|publisher=Rewire|language=en|access-date=February 2, 2017}}{{cite news|title=Contra-Contraception|last=Shorto|first=Russell|date=May 7, 2006|work=The New York Times}}

{{See also|Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization}}

File:Supreme Court of the United States - Roberts Court 2020.jpg in 2020. This court oversaw the landmark United States Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022.{{Cite web |title=Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization |url=https://ballotpedia.org/Dobbs_v._Jackson_Women%E2%80%99s_Health_Organization |access-date=June 27, 2022 |website=Ballotpedia |language=en}}]]

In May 2022, Politico published a leaked draft majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito.{{Cite web |title=Exclusive: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473 |access-date=June 27, 2022 |website=POLITICO |date=May 2, 2022 |language=en}} It would overturn Roe and Casey by nullifying the specific privacy rights in question, eliminating federal involvement, and leaving the issue to be determined by the states. Through a statement made by the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, the Court confirmed the document's authenticity but said that it was not a final decision or the Justice's final decision, which was expected by June or July.

The decision was issued on June 24, 2022, ruling 6–3 to reverse the lower court rulings; a more narrow 5–4 ruling overturned Roe and Casey. The majority opinion stated that abortion was not a constitutional right, and that states should have discretion in regulating abortion. The majority opinion, written by Alito, was substantially similar to the leaked draft. Chief Justice Roberts agreed with the judgment upholding the Mississippi law but did not join the majority in the opinion to overturn Roe and Casey.

Due to the Christian right's views regarding ethics and to an extent due to negative views of eugenics common to most ideologies in North America, it has worked for the regulation and restriction of certain applications of biotechnology. In particular, the Christian right opposes therapeutic and reproductive human cloning, championing a 2005 United Nations ban on the practice, and human embryonic stem cell research, which involves the extraction of one or more cells from a human embryo.{{cite news |date=June 14, 2012 |title=U-M: 6 new stem cell lines available for research |url=https://www.newsday.com/news/health/u-m-6-new-stem-cell-lines-available-for-research-d09183 |work=Newsday |agency=Associated Press}} The Christian right supports research with adult stem cells, amniotic stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells which do not use cells from human embryos, as they view the harvesting of biological material from an embryo lacking the ability to give permission as an assault on a living being.

The Christian right also opposes euthanasia, and, in one highly publicized case, took an active role in seeking governmental intervention to prevent Terri Schiavo from being deprived of nutrition and hydration.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

{{Further|Woman's Christian Temperance Union|List of anti-cannabis organizations}}

The Christian right has historically supported the temperance movement, thus supporting causes such as maintaining Sunday blue laws, adding alcohol packaging warning messages to bottles and limiting alcohol advertising.{{cite book |last1=Rozell |first1=Mark J. |last2=Green |first2=John Clifford |last3=Jelen |first3=Ted G. |last4=Rozell |first4=Mark J. |last5=Wilcox |first5=Clyde |title=The Christian Right in American Politics: Marching to the Millennium |date=2003 |publisher=Georgetown University Press |isbn=978-0-87840-393-6 |page=258 |language=en|quote=The temperance movement is the clearly identifiable origin of the contemporary Christian Right in Maine. The Maine Christian Civic League (MCCL)—the principal Christian Right group in the state began as a temperance organization in}} It has advocated for the prohibition of drugs and has opposed efforts to legalize marijuana.{{cite web |last1=Rainey |first1=Clint |title=Is the Religious Right's Powerful Opposition to Drugs Finally Fading? |url=https://slate.com/technology/2013/01/colorado-drug-legalization-and-evangelicals-why-didnt-religious-right-fight-marijuana-amendment.html |work=Slate |access-date=October 6, 2020 |language=en |date=January 4, 2013}}

{{Main|Christianity and homosexuality|Christianity and transgender people|Same-sex marriage in the United States}}

{{Further|Discrimination in the United States|LGBT rights opposition|Public opinion of same-sex marriage in the United States}}

The modern roots of the Christian right's views on sexual matters were evident in the years 1950s–1960s, a period in which many conservative Christians in the United States viewed sexual promiscuity as not only excessive, but in fact as a threat to their ideal vision of the country.{{cite book|last=Herman|first=Didi|url=https://archive.org/details/antigayagendaort00herm|title=The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-226-32764-8|location=Chicago, IL|url-access=registration|access-date=September 20, 2012}}{{rp|30}} Beginning in the 1970s, conservative Christian protests against promiscuity began to surface, largely as a reaction to the "permissive Sixties" and changes in sexual behavior confirmed by Roe v. Wade and the LGBT rights movement. The Christian right proceeded to make sexuality issues a priority political cause.{{rp|28}}

Anita Bryant organized Save Our Children, a widespread campaign to oppose legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Miami-Dade County, Florida.{{cite journal |author-last=Fetner |author-first=Tina |date=August 2001 |title=Working Anita Bryant: The Impact of Christian Anti-Gay Activism on Lesbian and Gay Movement Claims |journal=Social Problems |volume=48 |issue=3 |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Study of Social Problems |pages=411–428 |doi=10.1525/sp.2001.48.3.411 |hdl=11375/21175 |issn=1533-8533 |s2cid=144876642|hdl-access=free }} The group argued that gay people were "recruiting" or "molesting children" in order to make them gay. Bryant said, "As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children," and also said that "If gays are granted rights, next we'll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters."{{cite book|title= At Any Cost|url= https://archive.org/details/atanycost0000brya|url-access= registration|last= Bryant|first=Anita |author2=Green, Bob |year= 1978|publisher= Fleming H. Revell |location= Grand Rapids, Michigan, US|isbn= 9780800709402}} The Bryant campaign achieved success in repealing some city anti-discrimination laws, and proposed other citizen initiatives such as a failed California ballot question designed to ban gay people or those who supported LGBT rights from holding public teaching jobs. Bryant's campaign attracted widespread opposition and boycotts which put her out of business.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

From the late 1970s onwards, some conservative Christian organizations such as the Christian Broadcasting Network, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, the American Family Association, and the Christian Coalition of America, along with right-wing Christian hate groups such as the Westboro Baptist Church, have been outspoken against LGBT rights. Late in 1979, a new religious revival among conservative Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics ushered in the Republican coalition politically aligned with the Christian right that would reign in the United States between the years 1970s and 1980s, becoming another obstacle for the progress of the LGBTQ rights movement. During the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, LGBTQ communities were further stigmatized as they became the focus of mass hysteria and suffered isolation, marginalization and violence.{{cite book |last=Westengard |first=Laura |year=2019 |chapter=Monstrosity: Melancholia, Cannibalism, and HIV/AIDS |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b5unDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA99 |title=Gothic Queer Culture: Marginalized Communities and the Ghosts of Insidious Trauma |location=Lincoln, Nebraska |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |pages=99–103 |isbn=978-1-4962-0204-8 |lccn=2018057900}}

The Christian right champions itself as the "self-appointed conscience of American society". During the 1980s, the movement was largely dismissed by political pundits and mainstream religious leaders as "a collection of buffoonish has-beens". Later, it re-emerged, better organized and more focused, taking firm positions against abortion, pornography, sexual deviancy, and extreme feminism.{{cite journal|last=Kaplan|first=George R.|title=Shotgun Wedding: Notes on Public Education's Encounter with the New Christian Right|journal=Phi Delta Kappan|date=May 1994|volume=75|issue=9}}{{cite book|last=Green|first=Hohn|title=THE VALUES CAMPAIGN? The Christian Right and the 2004 Elections|year=2006|publisher=Georgetown University Press|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=978-1589011083|editor=Green, John C. |editor2=Rozell, Mark J. |editor3=Wilcox, Clyde}}{{rp|4}} Beginning around the first presidency of Donald Trump, Christian conservatives have largely refrained from engaging in debates about sexual morality.Douthat, Ross, et al. [http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/gabfest/2018/02/the_florida_shooting_white_house_job_shake_ups_and_porn_on_the_political.html "The 'Let's Just Ban Everything' Edition"] Political Gabfest. Slate, February 15, 2018. Slate. Start listening at 37:00.

Influential Christian right organizations at the forefront of the anti-gay rights movement in the United States include Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, and the Family Research Institute.{{rp|15–16}} An important stratagem in Christian right anti-gay politics is in its rejection of "the edicts of a Big Brother" state, allowing it to profit from "a general feeling of discontent and demoralization with government". As a result, the Christian right has endorsed smaller government, restricting its ability to arbitrate in disputes regarding values and traditions. In this context, gay rights laws have come to symbolize the government's allegedly unconstitutional "[interference] with individual freedom".{{rp|170–171}}

The central tenets of Focus on the Family and similar organizations, such as the Family Research Council, emphasise issues such as abortion and the necessity of gender roles. A number of organizations, including the New Christian Right, "have in various ways rejected liberal America in favor of the regulation of pornography, anti-abortion legislation, the criminalization of homosexuality, and the virtues of faithfulness and loyalty in sexual partnerships", according to sociologist Bryan S. Turner.{{cite journal |author-last=Petersen |author-first=David L. |date=Spring 2005 |title=Genesis and Family Values |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |volume=124 |issue=1 |pages=5–23 |doi=10.2307/30040988 |issn=0021-9231 |jstor=30040988 |s2cid=141110842}}

Some members of the Christian right view same-sex marriage as a central issue in the culture wars, more so than other gay rights issues and even more significantly than abortion.{{rp|57}}{{dubious|date=July 2013}} The legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts in 2004 changed the Christian right, causing it to put its opposition to these marriages above most other issues. It also created previously unknown interracial and ecumenical coalitions, and stimulated new electoral activity in pastors and congregations.{{rp|58}}

Criticisms of the Christian right often come from Christians who believe Jesus' message was centered on social responsibility and social justice. Theologian Michael Lerner has summarized: "The unholy alliance of the Political Right and the Religious Right threatens to destroy the America we love. It also threatens to generate a revulsion against God and religion by identifying them with militarism, ecological irresponsibility, fundamentalist antagonism to science and rational thought, and insensitivity to the needs of the poor and the powerless."{{cite book |last = Lerner

|first = Michael

|title = The Left Hand of God (book)

|publisher = Harper Collins

|year = 2006

|page = [https://archive.org/details/lefthandofgodtak00lern/page/1 1]

|isbn = 978-0-06084247-5

|title-link = The Left Hand of God (book)

}}

Commentators such as Rob Schenck, Randall Balmer, and Charles M. Blow criticized the Christian right for its tolerance and embrace of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election despite Trump's failure to adhere to any of the principles advocated by the Christian right groups for decades.Posner, Sarah. [https://newrepublic.com/article/140961/amazing-disgrace-donald-trump-hijacked-religious-right "Amazing Disgrace"] New Republic. March 20, 2017. November 16, 2017.Blow, Charles M. [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/opinion/moore-trump-religious-right.html "Moore, Trump and the Right's New Religion"]. The New York Times. November 16, 2017. November 16, 2016. In a 2023 interview with NPR, Russell D. Moore stated that he had come to believe that Christianity was "in a crisis" after hearing multiple pastors speak of congregation members rejecting quotes from the Sermon on the Mount as "liberal talking points" and not backing down upon being informed of their source.Detrow, S. [https://www.npr.org/2023/08/05/1192374014/russell-moore-on-altar-call-for-evangelical-america "Russell Moore on 'altar call for Evangelical America'"], NPR, All Things Considered, August 5, 2023. January 18, 2024.

{{See also|Christian left|Christian socialism|Christian communism}}

One argument which questions the legitimacy of the Christian right posits that Jesus Christ may be considered a leftist on the modern political spectrum. Jesus' and Catholics’ concern with the poor and feeding the hungry, among other things, are argued, by proponents of Christian leftism, to be core attributes of modern-day socialism and social justice.{{cite web|work=A Political Glossary|url=http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/right-wing|publisher=Auburn University|last=Johnson|first=Paul|title=Right-wing, rightist|year=2005|access-date=October 23, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819232535/http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/right-wing|archive-date=August 19, 2014|url-status=dead}}Bobbio, Norberto and Allan Cameron, Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction. University of Chicago Press, 1997, p. 51, 62. {{ISBN|978-0-226-06246-4}}J. E. Goldthorpe. An Introduction to Sociology. Cambridge, England, UK; Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia; New York City, USA p. 156. {{ISBN|0-521-24545-1}}. However, others {{who|date=March 2021}} contend that while Jesus' concern for the poor and hungry is virtuous and that individuals have a moral obligation to help others, the relationship between charity and the state should not be construed in the same manner.Petersen, David L. (2005). "Genesis and Family Values". Journal of Biblical Literature. 124 (1)Paul Edward Gottfried, Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right, p. 13.

According to Frank Newport of Gallup, "there are fewer Americans today who are both highly religious and liberal than there are Americans who are both highly religious and conservative." Newport also noted that 52% of white conservatives identify as "highly religious" while only 16% of white liberals identify as the same. However, African-Americans, "the most religious of any major racial or ethnic group in the country", are "strongly oriented to voting Democratic". While observing that African-American Democrats are more religious than their white Democrat counterparts, Newport further noted, however, that African-American Democrats are "much more likely to be ideologically moderate or conservative."[https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/258032/religious-left-numbers-problem.aspx The Religious Left Has a Numbers Problem by Frank Newport | Gallup, June 4, 2019] (retrieved May 5, 2020)

Some criticize what they see as a politicization of Christianity because they say Jesus transcends political concepts.Stephen J. Nichols: [https://books.google.com/books?id=mcP0olaD8j0C&pg=PA204 Jesus Made in America: A Cultural History from the Puritans to "The Passion of the Christ"] pp. 204–209. Westmont, IL, 2008.{{cite web |last=Shermer |first=Michael |url=http://trueslant.com/michaelshermer/2010/07/29/was-jesus-a-conservative-or-a-liberal/ |title=Was Jesus a Conservative or a Liberal? – Michael Shermer – Skeptic |publisher=True/Slant |date=July 21, 2010 |access-date=December 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004104302/http://trueslant.com/michaelshermer/2010/07/29/was-jesus-a-conservative-or-a-liberal/ |archive-date=October 4, 2012 |url-status=dead }}

Mikhail Gorbachev referred to Jesus as "the first Socialist".{{cite web |title=Biography of Mikhail Gorbachev|url=http://www.nationalcoldwarexhibition.org/explore/biography.cfm?name=Gorbachev,%20Mikhail|work=National Cold War Exhibition|publisher=Trustees of the Royal Air Force Museum|access-date=August 10, 2012}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K6FOU-s0l0QC|title=The Tragedy of American Compassion|first=Marvin|last=Olasky|date=February 1, 1994|publisher=Regnery Publishing|isbn=9780895267252|access-date=March 3, 2019|via=Google Books}}

The Christian right has tried to recruit social conservatives in the black church.{{cite book|last1=Boyarin|first1=Daniel|last2=Itzkovitz|first2=Daniel|last3=Pellegrini|first3=Ann|title=Queer Theory and the Jewish Question|date=June 19, 2012|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231508957|page=85}} Prior to the 2016 United States presidential election, African-American Republican Ben Carson emerged as a leader of the Christian right.{{cite web|url=http://religiondispatches.org/meet-the-new-christian-right-same-as-the-old-christian-right/|title=Meet the New Christian Right, Same as The Old Christian Right|last=Miller|first=Patricia|date=December 12, 2016|work=Religion Dispatches|access-date=May 17, 2018}} Other Christian African-Americans who identify with conservatism are Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas,{{cite web|url=https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/faith-freed-clarence-thomas-hate-118621|title=Faith Freed Clarence Thomas From Hate|author=Star Parker|work=The National Interest|date=February 3, 2020|access-date=April 18, 2020}} rapper Kanye West,{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/11/25/the-gospel-according-to-kanye/#slide-1|title=The Gospel According to Kanye|work=National Review|author=Kevin D. Williamson|date=November 7, 2019|access-date=April 18, 2020}} Alveda King, and pastor Tony Evans.{{cite web|url=https://urbanfaith.com/2012/05/talking-politics-with-dr-tony-evans.html/|title=Talking Politics with Dr. Tony Evans|author=Christine A. Scheller|date=May 31, 2012|publisher=UrbanFaith.com|quote=[Evans:] 'God would never have endorsed what the culture is allowing [regarding same-sex marriage].' [Interviewer:] 'Doesn't the combination of limited government and social conservatism just land you in the Republican party?' [Evans:] 'No, it doesn't, because I believe that we have conservative, blue-dog Democrats who would hold to non-abortion, who would hold to the definition of a family as a man and a woman, and who would at least hold to a smaller government than now exists.'|access-date=April 18, 2020|archive-date=July 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728121934/https://urbanfaith.com/2012/05/talking-politics-with-dr-tony-evans.html/|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=https://world.wng.org/2012/10/vote_your_priorities|title=Vote your priorities|work=World|date=October 5, 2012|author=Emily Belz|quote=[Evans] makes clear he isn't endorsing anyone or any party, but he's clear in his criticism of President Obama's positions on abortion and the family. ... 'I will always [prioritize] the right to life.' ... 'Spending is totally out of control, because government's doing more than it was designed to do.' ... 'The Bible makes no provision for the redefinition of marriage and the family, other than the one that is prescribed in the Bible by God and Jesus to be between a man and a woman. It is an illegitimate issue to accept or promote from a Christian standpoint.'|access-date=April 18, 2020|archive-date=July 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728134338/https://world.wng.org/2012/10/vote_your_priorities|url-status=dead}}

Whilst the Christian right in the United States generally identifies with aspects of LGBT rights opposition, other Christian movements argue that the biblical texts only oppose specific types of divergent sexual behaviour, such as paederasty (i.e. sexual intercourse between boys and men).{{Cite web|url=http://www.tcpc.org/library/article.cfm?library_id=152|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212223001/http://www.tcpc.org/library/article.cfm?library_id=152|url-status=dead|title=Why TCPC Advocates Equal Rights for Gay and Lesbian People|archive-date=February 12, 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://www.christianalliance.org/site/c.bnKIIQNtEoG/b.667209/k.5987/Equality_for_Gays_and_Lesbians.htm|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20080919093841/http://www.christianalliance.org/site/c.bnKIIQNtEoG/b.667209/k.5987/Equality_for_Gays_and_Lesbians.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 19, 2008|title=Equality for Gays and Lesbians|date=December 1, 2005}}[http://www.pflagdetroit.org/BibleandHomosexuality.html Bible & Homosexuality Home Page] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224172958/http://www.pflagdetroit.org/BibleandHomosexuality.html |date=February 24, 2015 }}. Pflagdetroit.org (December 11, 1998). Retrieved on August 24, 2013.{{Cite web|url=https://whosoever.org/how-can-someone-be-a-christian-and-a-homosexual/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090421135539/http://www.whosoever.org/gayxian/articles.html|url-status=dead|title=How Can Someone Be A Christian And A Homosexual? | Whosoever|first=David|last=Mundy|archive-date=April 21, 2009}} During the Trump administration, there was a growing push{{who|date=March 2022}} for religious liberty bills, aimed to exempt individuals and businesses from anti-discrimination laws intended to protect LGBT people, if they claimed that their actions were motivated by religious beliefs.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}} Among the most powerful organizations that promoted anti-LGBT and anti-transgender legislation under the Trump administration is the Alliance Defending Freedom.{{cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/alliance-defending-freedom|title=Alliance Defending Freedom|website=Southern Poverty Law Center|language=en|access-date=June 29, 2021}}

Some social scientists have used the word "dominionism" to refer to adherence of dominion theology,Barron, Bruce. 1992. Heaven on Earth? The Social & Political Agendas of Dominion Theology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan. {{ISBN|0-310-53611-1}}.Davis, Derek H. and Hankins, Barry, 2003. New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America, Baylor University Press.{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1177/0306396806061086 | last1 = Davidson | first1 = Carl | last2 = Harris | first2 = Jerry | year = 2006 | title = Globalisation, theocracy and the new fascism: the US Right's rise to power | journal = Race and Class | volume = 47 | issue = 3| pages = 47–67 | s2cid = 143793920 }} as well as to the influence in the broader Christian Right of ideas inspired by Dominion Theology. Although such influence (particularly of Reconstructionism) has been described by many authors,Berlet, Chip and Matthew N. Lyons. 2000. Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort. New York: Guilford Press. full adherents to Reconstructionism are few and marginalized among conservative Christians.Diamond, Sara, 1998. Not by Politics Alone: The Enduring Influence of the Christian Right, New York: Guilford Press, p.213.Ortiz, Chris 2007. [http://www.chalcedon.edu/blog/2007_09_01_archive.php#3737641030821242405 "Gary North on D. James Kennedy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091011080305/http://www.chalcedon.edu/blog/2007_09_01_archive.php#3737641030821242405 |date=October 11, 2009 }}, Chalcedon Blog, September 6, 2007.

In the early 1990s, sociologist Sara DiamondDiamond, Sara. 1995. Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States. New York: Guilford Press. {{ISBN|0-89862-864-4}}.Diamond, Sara. 1989. Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right. Boston: South End Press. defined dominionism in her PhD dissertation as a movement that, while it includes Dominion Theology and Reconstructionism as subsets, is much broader in scope, extending to much of the Christian Right.In her early work, Diamond sometimes used the term dominion theology to refer to this broader movement, rather than to the specific theological system of Reconstructionism. She was followed by journalists who included Frederick ClarksonClarkson, Frederick, 1994. [http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v08n1/chrisrec.html Christian Reconstructionism: Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence"], The Public Eye 8, Nos. 1 & 2, March/June 1994.Clarkson, Frederick. 1997. Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage. {{ISBN|1-56751-088-4}} and Chris Hedges[http://www.theocracywatch.org/chris_hedges_nov24_04.htm The Christian Right and the Rise of American Fascism By Chris Hedges] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511180104/http://www.theocracywatch.org/chris_hedges_nov24_04.htm |date=May 11, 2008 }}, TheocracyWatch.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.harpers.org/archive/2005/05/0080541 |title=Feeling the hate with the National Religious Broadcasters |access-date=April 11, 2007 |last=Hedges |first=Chris |date=May 2005 |magazine=Harper's Magazine}}Hedges, Chris, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Free Press, 2006. and others who have stressed the influence of Dominionist ideas on the Christian right.Goldberg, Michelle 2006. Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. New York: W. W. Norton. {{ISBN|0-393-06094-2}} (10). {{ISBN|978-0-393-06094-2}} (13).Phillips, Kevin 2006. American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st century {{ISBN|0-670-03486-X}}McCarraher, Eugene 2006. "Empire Falls", Commonweal 133(9), May 5, 2006.Yurica, Katherine 2004. [http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm "The Despoiling of America" published February 11, 2004] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928014442/http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm |date=September 28, 2007 }}. Retrieved October 3, 2007. And also published in Toward a New Political Humanism, edited by Barry F. Seidman and Neil J. Murphy, Prometheus Books, New York, 2004.Yurica, Katherine 2004. [http://www.yuricareport.com/Religion/TheBloodGuiltyChurches.html Blood Guilty Churches] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090930221309/http://www.yuricareport.com/Religion/TheBloodGuiltyChurches.html |date=September 30, 2009 }}, January 19, 2005. Retrieved October 6, 2007.Yurica, Katherine 2005. [http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/Conference/YuricaRespondsToKurtz%20.html Yurica Responds to Stanley Kurtz Attack] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928015846/http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/Conference/YuricaRespondsToKurtz%20.html |date=September 28, 2007 }}, May 23, 2005. Retrieved October 6, 2007.Maddox, Marion 2005. God under Howard: The Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics, Allen & Unwin.Rudin, James 2006. The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right's Plans for the Rest of Us, New York: Thunder's Mouth Press.Harris, Sam 2007. "[https://latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-harris15mar15,0,5899452.story God's dupes]", Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2007. Retrieved October 8, 2007.[http://www.theocracywatch.org/ "The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080912052937/http://www.theocracywatch.org/ |date=September 12, 2008 }}, TheocracyWatch, Last updated: December 2005; URL accessed May 8, 2006.{{excessive citations inline|date=June 2024}}

The terms "dominionist" and "dominionism" are rarely used for self-description, and their usage has been attacked from right-leaning quarters. Stanley Kurtz labeled it "conspiratorial nonsense", "political paranoia", and "guilt by association",{{cite journal |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/kurtz/kurtz200505020944.asp |title=Dominionist Domination: The Left runs with a wild theory |author=Stanley Kurtz |date=May 2, 2005 |journal=National Review Online |access-date=October 6, 2007}} and decried Hedges' "vague characterizations" that allow him to "paint a highly questionable picture of a virtually faceless and nameless 'Dominionist' Christian mass."{{cite journal |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/kurtz/kurtz200504280758.asp |title=Scary Stuff |author=Stanley Kurtz |date=April 28, 2005 |journal=National Review Online |access-date=October 6, 2007}} Kurtz also complained about a perceived link between average Christian evangelicals and extremism such as Christian Reconstructionism:

The notion that conservative Christians want to reinstitute slavery and rule by genocide is not just crazy, it's downright dangerous. The most disturbing part of the Harper's cover story (the one by Chris Hedges) was the attempt to link Christian conservatives with Hitler and fascism. Once we acknowledge the similarity between conservative Christians and fascists, Hedges appears to suggest, we can confront Christian evil by setting aside "the old polite rules of democracy." So wild conspiracy theories and visions of genocide are really excuses for the Left to disregard the rules of democracy and defeat conservative Christians – by any means necessary.

Lisa Miller of Newsweek said that many warnings about "dominionism" are "paranoid" and she also said that "the word creates a siege mentality in which 'we' need to guard against 'them.{{'"}}Miller, Lisa, 2011. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/dominionism-beliefs-among-conservative-christians-overblown/2011/08/17/gIQAb5eaNJ_print.html 'Dominionism' beliefs among conservative Christians overblown]. Newsweek. Published August 18, 2011. Retrieved September 8, 2011. Ross Douthat of The New York Times noted that "many of the people that writers like Diamond and others describe as 'dominionists' would disavow the label, many definitions of dominionism conflate several very different Christian political theologies, and there's a lively debate about whether the term is even useful at all."Douthat, Ross 2011. [http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-new-yorker-and-francis-schaeffer/ The New Yorker and Francis Schaeffer]. The New York Times. Published August 29, 2011. Retrieved September 11, 2011. According to Joe Carter of First Things, "the term was coined in the 1980s by Diamond and is never used outside liberal blogs and websites. No reputable scholars use the term for it is a meaningless neologism that Diamond concocted for her dissertation",Carter, Joe, 2011. [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/08/a-journalism-lesson-for-the-new-yorker A Journalism Lesson for the New Yorker]. First Things. Published August 10, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2011. while Jeremy Pierce of First Things coined the word "dominionismist" to describe those who promote the idea that there is a dominionist conspiracy.Pierce, Jeremy, 2011. [http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2011/08/dominionismists/ Dominionismists]. First Things. Published August 14, 2011. Retrieved September 8, 2011.

Another criticism has focused on the proper use of the term. Berlet wrote that "some critics of the Christian Right have stretched the term dominionism past its breaking point",Berlet, Chip, 2005. [http://www.publiceye.org/feeds/public/berlet/2005/11/christian-right-dominionism-and.html The Christian Right, Dominionism, and Theocracy] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080918061837/http://www.publiceye.org/feeds/public/berlet/2005/11/christian-right-dominionism-and.html |date=September 18, 2008 }}. Retrieved September 25, 2007. and argued that, rather than labeling conservatives as extremists, it would be better to "talk to these people" and "engage them".Ellis Henican, [http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/Conference/SpiritualOliveBranchChipBerlet_Newsday.html "A spiritual olive branch for the far-right faithful"], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006070752/http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/Conference/SpiritualOliveBranchChipBerlet_Newsday.html |date=October 6, 2008 }} Newsday, May 1, 2005. Reposted at YuricaReport.com. Retrieved September 23, 2006 Sara Diamond wrote that "[l]iberals' writing about the Christian Right's take-over plans has generally taken the form of conspiracy theory", and argued that instead one should "analyze the subtle ways" that ideas like Dominionism "take hold within movements and why."Diamond, Sara. 1995. "[http://zena.secureforum.com/Znet/ZMag/articles/feb95diamond.htm Dominion Theology]". Z Magazine, February 1995

Dan Olinger, a professor at the fundamentalist Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, said, "We want to be good citizens and participants, but we're not really interested in using the iron fist of the law to compel people to do everything Christians should do."{{cite web |url=http://www.independentmail.com/news/2007/feb/10/bible-user-or-reader/?print=1 |title=Pastors: Christian government not Jesus' cause |work=Anderson Independent-Mail|date=February 10, 2007 |access-date=December 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314003921/http://www.independentmail.com/news/2007/feb/10/bible-user-or-reader/?print=1 |archive-date=March 14, 2012 |url-status=dead }} Bob Marcaurelle, interim pastor at Mountain Springs Baptist Church in Piedmont, said the Middle Ages were proof enough that Christian ruling groups are almost always corrupted by power. "When Christianity becomes the government, the question is whose Christianity?" Marcaurelle asked.{{cite web|url=http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20070213/NEWS/702130319|title=Pastors fret Christian group might be a threat|work=StarNewsOnline.com}}

{{Christian Democracy sidebar}}

While the Christian right is a strong movement in the United States, it also has a presence in Canada. Alan Curtis suggests that the American Christian right "is a phenomenon that is very hard for Europeans to understand."Curtis, Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense (2005) p 126Geiko Müller-Fahrenholz, America's battle for God: a European Christian looks at civil religion (2007) p xviii Robin Pettitt, a professor at Kingston University London, states, however, that like the Christian right in the US, Christian Democratic movements in Europe and Latin America are "equally driven by the debate over the role of the state and the church in political, social and moral life."{{cite book|last=Pettitt|first=Robin T.|title=Contemporary Party Politics|date=June 24, 2014|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|language=en |isbn=9781137412645|page=66|quote=Again, parties mobilised on religious grounds, most notable in the form of Christian Democratic parties found in, for example, Germany, but also, sometimes to a lesser extent, in much of the rest of Europe. Christian Democratic parties are also found in Chile and Mexico. It could be argued that the rise of the Christian right in the United States and its increased strength in the Republican Party is an example of this cleavage at work. The Christian right in the United States ... is equally driven by the debate over the role of the state and the church in political, social and moral life.}}

{{Conservatism in Australia}}

In Australia, the Christian right draws from both Catholics and Protestants. Historically, the first Christian right party was the Democratic Labor Party.{{Cite web |last=Robinson |first=Geoffrey |title=Why the Australian Christian right has weak political appeal |url=http://theconversation.com/why-the-australian-christian-right-has-weak-political-appeal-93735 |access-date=September 14, 2022 |website=The Conversation |date=April 12, 2018 |language=en}} The Democratic Labor Party was formed in 1955 as a split from the Australian Labor Party (ALP). In Victoria, and New South Wales, state executive members, parliamentarians and branch members associated with the Industrial Groups or B. A. Santamaria and "The Movement" (and therefore strongly identified with Roman Catholicism) were expelled from the party, and formed the Democratic Labor Party (DLP). Later in 1957, a similar split occurred in Queensland, with the resulting group subsequently joining the DLP. The party also had sitting members from Tasmania and New South Wales at various times, though it was much stronger in the former mentioned states. The goals of the party were anti communism, the decentralization of industry, population, administration and ownership.{{Cite journal |last=Mackerras |first=N. R. M. |date=1958 |title=Why the DLP Exists |journal=Australian Institute of Policy and Science |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=30–34}} The party decided, in its view that the ALP was filled with communists, that it would preference the ruling conservative Liberal and Country parties over the ALP.{{Cite web |last=Parliament of Australia |date=2022 |title=The Democratic Labor Party an overview |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2011-2012/DPLOverview |access-date=September 14, 2022 |website=www.aph.gov.au |language=en-AU}} However, it was more morally conservative, militantly anti-communist and socially compassionate than the Liberals.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The DLP heavily lost ground in the federal election of 1974 that saw its primary vote cut by nearly two-thirds, and the election of an ALP government. The DLP never regained its previous support in subsequent elections and formally disbanded in 1978, but a small group within the party refused to accept this decision and created a small, reformed successor party (now the Democratic Labour Party). Though his party was effectively gone, Santamaria and his National Civic Council (NCC) took a strong diametrically opposed stance to dominant Third Way/neoliberal/New Right tendencies within both the ALP and Liberal parties throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The B. A Santamaria and the Democratic Labor party produced many alumni who became the base of the Christian right in Australia. In Liberal party, these were Tony Abbott and Kevin Andrews. Outside the Liberal party, conservative commentator's such as Greg Sheridan and Gerrard Henderson also had links to Santamaria. Within the Australian Labor Party (ALP), this alumni can be found in the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), which de-affiliated from the ALP with the industrial Groups in the 1950s, and then re-affiliated in the 1980s.{{Cite web |last=Schneiders |first=Royce Millar, Ben |date=May 1, 2015 |title=Why is the union that represents supermarket workers stopping gay marriage? |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-is-the-union-that-represents-supermarket-workers-stopping-gay-marriage-20150430-1mwl32.html |access-date=September 14, 2022 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}} The SDA opposed gay marriage and abortion, which were some reasons for workers to form another competing union.{{Cite web |last=Retail and Fast Food Workers Union |title=SDA Facts – Retail and Fast Food Workers Union |url=https://raffwu.org.au/campaigns/industry/campaigns-industry-sda-facts/ |url-status=dead |access-date=September 14, 2022 |archive-date=September 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914125627/https://raffwu.org.au/campaigns/industry/campaigns-industry-sda-facts/ }} Tony Burke, who opposed euthanasia, came from the SDA.{{Cite news |date=August 10, 2016 |title=Denton lashes out at 'Catholic force' blocking euthanasia laws |language=en-AU |work=ABC News |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-10/denton-blames-catholic-force-blocking-voluntary-euthanasia/7718152 |access-date=September 14, 2022}}{{Cite web |last=Parliament of Australia |title=Hon Tony Burke MP |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=DYW |access-date=September 14, 2022 |website=www.aph.gov.au |language=en-AU}} Currently, the NCC functions as a minority organization within the Christian Right.

The more Protestant strands of the Christian Right have been far more diverse. Fundamentalist Christianity directly inspired Fred Nile and his parties. Nile in 1967–68 was assistant director of the Billy Graham Crusade in Sydney. The Christian Democratic Party (initially known as the "Call to Australia" party) is on the strongly religious conservative end of the Australian political spectrum, promoting social conservatism, opposing gay rights and abortion.Fred Nile, Fred Nile: Autobiography (Sydney: Strand Publishing: 2001) {{ISBN|1-876825-79-0}} It gained 9.1% of the vote in the New South Wales (NSW) state election of 1981, Its support base has generally been restricted to NSW and Western Australia, where it usually gains between 2–4% of votes, with its support being minuscule in other states. The party started to fall apart in 2019 when the moderate faction member, Paul Green, lost his seat, and when a faction of younger people attempted to dismiss the governing board.{{Cite web |last=Sandeman |first=John |date=August 9, 2019 |title=CDP crisis meeting for Fred Nile's party – Eternity News |url=https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/cdp-crisis-meeting-for-fred-niles-party/,%20https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/cdp-crisis-meeting-for-fred-niles-party/ |access-date=September 14, 2022 |website=www.eternitynews.com.au |language=en-AU}}{{Cite web |last=Lim |first=Anne |date=July 16, 2019 |title=Christian Democrats – regrets, they have a few – Eternity News |url=https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/christian-democrats-regrets-they-have-a-few/,%20https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/christian-democrats-regrets-they-have-a-few/ |access-date=September 14, 2022 |website=www.eternitynews.com.au |language=en-AU}} Whilst this failed, it opened up a rift between the traditional party factions that led to prolonged legal disputes and the party winding up in 2022.{{Cite web |last=Sandeman |first=John |date=March 1, 2022 |title=Winding up order issued for Christian Democratic party – Eternity News |url=https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/winding-up-order-issued-for-christian-democratic-party/,%20https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/winding-up-order-issued-for-christian-democratic-party/ |access-date=September 14, 2022 |website=www.eternitynews.com.au |language=en-AU}} Fred Nile would quickly join a new party.{{Cite web |last=Sandeman |first=John |date=May 19, 2022 |title=Fred Nile joins a new party, and introduces an Aboriginal rights bill – Eternity News |url=https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/fred-nile-joins-a-new-party-and-introduces-an-aboriginal-rights-bill/,%20https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/fred-nile-joins-a-new-party-and-introduces-an-aboriginal-rights-bill/ |access-date=September 14, 2022 |website=www.eternitynews.com.au |language=en-AU}}

The Family First Party is a former political party which was linked with Pentecostal Church and other smaller Christian denominations, and was also identified with the strongly religious conservative end of the Australian political spectrum. It has had one or two members in the SA parliament since 2002, and in 2004 also managed to elect a Victorian senator. Its electoral support is small, with the largest constituencies being South Australia (4–6%), and Victoria (around 4%). Family First generally receives lower support in national elections than in state elections. Family First was merged with the Australian Conservatives Party in 2017.{{Cite news |date=April 25, 2017 |title=Bernardi's Australian Conservatives to merge with Family First |language=en-AU |work=ABC News |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-25/cory-bernardi-australian-conservatives-family-first-to-merge/8471244 |access-date=September 14, 2022}}

Outside of the Catholic links to B.A. Santamaria and the minor Protestant parties, some party members of the Liberal and National Party Coalition and the Australian Labor Party also support some of the values of the Christian right on abortion and gay rights. The Australian Christian Lobby argues for opposition to same-sex marriage in state and federal politics.{{cite web|url=http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/state-election-2012/christianity-and-the-lnp-20120207-1r60g.html|title=Christianity and the LNP|work=Brisbane Times|date=February 8, 2012}}

{{Conservatism in Brazil}}

In Brazil, the evangelical caucus have a great influence at the parliament and in the society in general. The bloc promotes strong socially conservative positions, like opposition to abortion, LGBT rights, marijuana legalization, sexual and gender education at schools and support to decrease of age of defense of infancy. Except for left-wing and far-left parties with strong social progressive beliefs like Workers' Party or Socialism and Liberty Party, Christian conservatives can be found in all political parties of Brazil, but nevertheless they are more common associated with parties like Social Democratic Party, Democratas, PSL, Social Christian Party, Brazilian Republican Party, Patriota and in the Party of the Republic. In 2016, Marcelo Crivella, a licensed pentecostal pastor from the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, won in a runoff the election to mayor of Rio de Janeiro, the second biggest city in Brazil, with the Brazilian Republican Party, making for the first time an evangelical bloc member mayor of a big city in Brazil. In 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was elected president with massive support of conservative Catholics, Charismatics, Evangelicals and Pentecostals; Another candidate, Cabo Daciolo, from Patriota, attracted much attention from media and public in general, despite a lower votation. Both had a right-wing populist, Christian nationalist program, but Bolsonaro was near to a national conservative and economic liberal one, contrasting with an Ultranationalist, theocratic and protectionist style of Daciolo.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

{{further|Social conservatism in Canada}}

{{See also|Abortion in Canada}}

{{Conservatism in Canada}}

Religion has been a key factor in Canadian politics since well before the Canadian Confederation was established in 1867, when the Conservatives were the party of traditionalist Catholics and Anglicans and the Liberals were the party of Protestant dissenters and anti-clerical Catholics. This pattern largely remained until the mid-twentieth century when a new division emerged between the Christian left (represented by the Social Gospel philosophy and ecumenicism) and the Christian right (represented by fundamentalism and biblical literalism). The Christian left (along with the secular and anti-religious left) became supporters of the New Democratic Party while the right moved to the Social Credit Party, especially in Western Canada, and to a lesser extent the Progressive Conservatives.

The Social Credit Party, founded in 1935, represented a major change in Canadian religious politics. Until that time, fundamentalists had shunned politics as "worldly", and a distraction from the proper practice of religion. However, the new party was founded by fundamentalist radio preacher and Bible school teacher William Aberhart or "Bible Bill". Aberhart mixed his own interpretation of scripture and prophecy with the monetary reform theories of social credit to create a movement that swept across Alberta, winning the provincial election of 1935 in a landslide. Aberhart and his disciple Ernest Manning then governed the province for the next forty years, several times trying to expand into the rest of Canada{{Cite web |title=Social Credit |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/social-credit |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca |language=en}}

In 1987, Manning's son, Preston Manning, founded the new Reform Party of Canada, which soon became the main party of the religious right. It won majorities of the seats in Western Canada in repeated elections, but was unable to break through in Eastern Canada, though it became the official opposition from 1997 to 2003 (Reform was renamed the Canadian Alliance in 2000). In 2003 the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives merged to create the Conservative Party of Canada, led by Stephen Harper, a member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, who went on to become prime minister in 2006.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, introduced by the patriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1982, has been controversial within the Christian right in Canada. Although this Charter entrenches rights and freedoms (such as the freedom of religion) that central in the belief systems of the Christian right, it has also been interpreted by the Supreme Court of Canada to strike down many laws supported by the Christian right. In 1982, the Supreme Court struck down Canada's Lords' Day Act, which required many stored to be closed on Sundays, as an infringement the freedom of conscience and religion. Abortion, partly decriminalized in 1969 by an act of Parliament, was completely decriminalized after the two R. v. Morgentaler cases (in 1988 and in 1993). Parliament attempted to pass a new law governing abortion in 1993, but this legislation failed after a tie vote in the Senate. A series of provincial superior court decisions which legalized same-sex marriage led the federal government to introduce legislation that legalized same-sex marriage in all of Canada. Before he took office, former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper stated that he would hold a free vote on the issue,{{cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/harper-reopens-same-sex-marriage-debate-1.524436 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714020225/http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2005/11/29/harper-smaesex051129.html |url-status=live |archive-date=July 14, 2007 |title=Harper reopens same-sex marriage debate |publisher=CBC TV |date=November 30, 2005 |access-date=February 29, 2008}} and declared the issue closed after it was voted down in the House of Commons in 2006.{{cite web |url=http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061207/samesexmarriage_vote_061207?s_name=&no_ads= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106100150/http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061207/samesexmarriage_vote_061207?s_name=&no_ads= |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 6, 2007 |title=Harper declares same-sex marriage issue closed |access-date=February 29, 2008 |date=December 7, 2006 |publisher=CTV}}

In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down Canada's prostitution law in Canada v Bedford, prompting the Stephen Harper government to introduce a new prostitution law fashioned after the Nordic Model. In 2015, the Supreme Court struck down Canada's prohibition on euthanasia in Carter v Canada, again leading Parliament to pass a new law governing euthanasia. The Christian right has been critical of all these judicial decisions and have generally been the greatest advocates for the stringent laws against abortion, same-sex marriage, prostitution, and euthanasia, though in differing degrees. For instance, the Christian right in Canada is strongly and vocally organized on the topic of abortion, but criticism of same-sex marriage is far more seldom.{{Cite web |date=September 2017 |title=Position Paper #93: Religion and Abortion |url=https://www.arcc-cdac.ca/media/position-papers/93-Religion-and-Abortion.pdf |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=arcc-cdac.ca}} In 2021 the Canadian government passed Bill C-4, banning conversion therapy nationwide, which received opposition from the Christian Right and Conservative members of parliament. Christian Pastors altered their preaching schedules to criticize and discuss this new law.{{Cite web |last=Hume |first=Chris |date=2022-01-26 |title=Canadian Law About Conversion Therapy Raises Concerns for Pastors |url=https://www.thelancasterpatriot.com/canadian-law-about-conversion-therapy-raises-concerns-for-pastors/ |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=The Lancaster Patriot |language=en}}

{{Main|Political influence of Evangelicalism in Latin America}}

{{Further|Conservative wave|World Christianity}}

Christian right politics in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa is strongly connected with the growing propagation of the Evangelical-Pentecostal movement in the Global South and Third World countries.{{cite book |author-last=Freston |author-first=Paul |year=2008 |chapter=The Changing Face of Christian Proselytization: New Actors from the Global South |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y5TCBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |editor-last=Hackett |editor-first=Rosalind I. J. |editor-link=Rosalind Hackett |title=Proselytization Revisited: Rights Talk, Free Markets, and Culture Wars |location=New York and London |publisher=Routledge |edition=1st |pages=109–138 |isbn=9781845532284 |lccn=2007046731}}{{cite journal |author-last=Robbins |author-first=Joel |date=October 2004 |title=The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity |editor1-last=Brenneis |editor1-first=Don |editor1-link=Don Brenneis |editor2-last=Strier |editor2-first=Karen B. |editor2-link=Karen B. Strier |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |publisher=Annual Reviews |volume=33 |pages=117–143 |doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093421 |issn=1545-4290 |jstor=25064848 |s2cid=145722188}}{{Cite news |last1=Corrales |first1=Javier |title=A Perfect Marriage: Evangelicals and Conservatives in Latin America |date=January 17, 2018 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/opinion/evangelicals-politics-latin-america.html |access-date=June 2, 2018|newspaper=The New York Times }}{{cite news |last1=Lissardy |first1=Gerardo |title="La fuerza política más nueva": cómo los evangélicos emergen en el mapa de poder en América Latina |url=http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-43706779 |access-date=June 2, 2018 |agency=BBC}} Roman Catholics in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa, despite being normally socially conservative, tend to be more left-wing in economics{{cite news |last1=Young |first1=Julia |title=The Church in Latin America |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/church-latin-america |access-date=June 2, 2018 |work=Commonweal|date=March 31, 2013}}{{cite news |title=Christianity and Conflict in Latin America |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2006/04/06/christianity-and-conflict-in-latin-america/ |access-date=June 2, 2018 |agency=Pew Research Center |date=April 6, 2006}} due to the traditional teachings of the Catholic social doctrine. Evangelical-Pentecostal Christians, on the other hand, are mostly from the neo-Pentecostal movement, and thus believers in the Prosperity theology that justifies most of their neoliberal economic ideas.{{cite journal |author-last=Haynes |author-first=Naomi |date=March 2012 |title=Pentecostalism and the morality of money: Prosperity, inequality, and religious sociality on the Zambian Copperbelt |url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/10092601/HAYNES_2012_Pentecostalism_and_the_Morality_of_Money.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Royal Anthropological Institute |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=123–139 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9655.2011.01734.x |doi-access=free |issn=1467-9655 |jstor=41350810 |s2cid=142926682 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718220724/https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/10092601/HAYNES_2012_Pentecostalism_and_the_Morality_of_Money.pdf |archive-date=July 18, 2018 |access-date=November 25, 2021}}{{cite journal |last=Smith |first=Daniel J. |date=March 2021 |title=The Pentecostal prosperity gospel in Nigeria: Paradoxes of corruption and inequality |journal=Journal of Modern African Studies |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=103–122 |doi=10.1017/S0022278X2000066X |pmid=37398918 |pmc=10312994 |issn=1469-7777 |lccn=2001-227388 |oclc=48535892 |s2cid=232223673}} They are also strongly socially conservative, even for Latin American standards.

In Mexico, the interests of the Christian right are represented by different political organisations and civil associations. The most notable case is the National Action Party, a conservative party aligned with Christian Democratic ideas, notably influenced by the Social teaching of the Catholic Church, and which has held the presidency of Mexico twice. The party's platform states strong opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and the legalisation of drugs, among many other conservative policies. In addition, prominent figures in the party have been linked to Catholic Church organisations. The evangelical caucus, albeit for a relatively short time, was represented by the Social Encounter Party and the Solidarity Encounter Party, the latter being the successor to the former. Both parties were founded by Hugo Eric Flores, who according to some sources was an evangelical minister before entering politics. Initially statewide for Baja California, Social Encounter came to govern that state in coalition with the National Action Party. The party would later be officialised as a political party at the federal level. Other organisations and associations adhering to the ideals of the Christian right include the Frente Nacional por la Familia, the Organización del Bien Común, colloquially known as El Yunque and with close ties to the PAN, and the Legionaries of Christ, a Roman Catholic clerical religious order of priests and candidates for the priesthood established in Mexico.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

In the Netherlands, Calvinist Protestants have long had their own political parties, now called the Reformed Political Party (SGP) on the right, and the ChristianUnion (CU) in the center. For generations they operated their own newspapers and broadcasting association. The SGP has about 28,000 members, and three out of 150 members of the Dutch parliament's lower house. It has always been in opposition to the government.Alan J. Day, Political parties of the world (2002) p 343

In Northern Ireland, Ian Paisley led a Protestant fundamentalist party, the Democratic Unionist Party, which had a considerable influence on the province's culture.Andrew Vincent, Modern Political Ideologies. John Wiley & Sons, 2009. {{ISBN|1405154950}} (p. 325).Richard P. Davis, Mirror Hate: the Convergent Ideology of Northern Ireland paramilitaries, 1966–1992. Dartmouth, 1994. {{ISBN|1855215586}} . (p.80) For a time after the 2017 United Kingdom general election, the DUP provided confidence and supply to the governing Conservative Party, although this agreement provoked concern from socially liberal elements of the party about possible DUP influence on social policy.{{cite news|last1=Kentish|first1=Ben|title=Conservative LGBT activists raise fears over DUP's 'appalling' record on gay rights|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservative-lgbt-dup-gay-rights-ruth-davidson-scottish-tory-leader-activists-record-a7783306.html|access-date=June 11, 2017|work=The Independent|date=June 10, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170626050438/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservative-lgbt-dup-gay-rights-ruth-davidson-scottish-tory-leader-activists-record-a7783306.html|archive-date=June 26, 2017}} Although there is no evidence this occurred. Karen Armstrong has mentioned British evangelical leader Colin Urquhart as advocating positions similar to the Christian Right.Karen Armstrong, A History of God: the 4000-year quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Ballantine Books, 1994 p. 390.

In Fiji, Sodelpa is a conservative, nationalist party which seeks to make Christianity the state religion, while the constitution makes Fiji a secular republic. Following the 2014 general election, Sodelpa is the main opposition party in Parliament.

In Hungary, the ruling national-conservative party Fidesz can also be considered to be a party of the Christian right. Viktor Orbán is known for his use of conservative Christian values against immigration and the rise of Islam in Europe.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/14/viktor-orban-budapest-hungary-christianity-with-a-twist|title=Orbán deploys Christianity with a twist to tighten grip in Hungary|last=Walker|first=Shaun|date=July 14, 2019|work=The Guardian|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/a3b4kk/is-authoritarian-europe-becoming-the-new-hope-of-the-religious-right-v26n1|title=Is Authoritarian Europe Becoming the New Hope of the Religious Right?|last1=Wylesol|first1=Sarah|last2=Posner|first2=George|date=March 15, 2019|website=Vice|language=en}}

In the Philippines, due to Spanish colonization, and the introduction of the Catholic Church, religious conservatism has a strong influence on national policies. Some have argued that the U.S. Christian right may have roots in the Philippines.{{cite book |last=Nadal |first=Kevin |date=2011 |title=Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zN7-s84jAkoC&q=Conservatism+Philippines&pg=PT42 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |page=42 |isbn=9781118019771 |access-date=August 22, 2014 }}

In Poland, the Roman Catholic national-conservative party Law and Justice can be considered to be a party of the Christian right.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/05/family-faith-flag-catholic-religious-right-battle-polands-soul|title=Family, faith, flag: the religious right and the battle for Poland's soul|last=Coman|first=Julian|date=October 5, 2019|work=The Guardian|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

In Russia, the United Russia has collaborated closely with the Russian Orthodox Church, boosting the Kremlin's appeal to social conservatives.{{cite web | url=http://www.christiantoday.com/article/how.the.russian.orthodox.church.is.backing.vladimir.putins.new.world.order/81108.htm | title=How the Russian Orthodox Church is backing Vladimir Putin's new world order | date=March 3, 2016 }}

In Scandinavia, the Faroe Island's Centre Party is a bible-oriented fundamentalist party with about 4% of the vote. However, the Norwegian Christian People's Party, the Swedish Christian Democrats and Danish Christian Democrats are less religiously orthodox and are similar to mainstream European Christian Democracy.

In Switzerland, Federal Democratic Union is a small conservative Protestant party with about 1% of the vote.Alan J. Day, Political parties of the world (2002) p 449

Some minor political parties have formed as vehicles for Christian right activists:

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Australian Christians (Australia)
• Christian Democratic Party (Australia)
• Christian Party of Austria (Austria)
• Botswana Movement for Democracy (Botswana)
• We Believe (Bolivia)
• Alliance for Brazil (Brazil)
• Patriota (Brazil)
• Christian Heritage Party (Canada)
• National Restoration Party (Costa Rica)
• Christian Democratic People's Party (Hungary)
• Kataeb Party (Lebanon)
• Christian Liberal Party (South Korea)
• Christian Values Party (Sweden)
• Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino (Philippines)
• Federal Democratic Union (Switzerland)
• Reformed Political Party (Netherlands)
• Nicaraguan Party of the Christian Path (Nicaragua)
• The Christians (Norway)
• Law and Justice (Poland)
• Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Romania)
• Christian Party (United Kingdom)
• Christian People's Alliance (United Kingdom)
• Indian National Christian Party (India)
• Christian Liberty Party (United States)
• American Solidarity Party (United States){{cite web|url=http://www.christiandemocracymagazine.com/2012/12/an-interview-with-david-frost-and-kirk.html|title=An Interview with David Frost and Kirk Morrison|work=Christian Democracy |language=en|access-date=June 23, 2016|quote=There is a growing movement of people who adhere to Catholic Social Teaching and, because of that, find that they cannot find a home with either of the two major political parties in the United States. Their answer has been to form a political party based on Christian democratic principles. The name they have chosen is American Solidarity Party. ... Kirk, you have an article that will go into the first issue of Christian Democracy along with this interview. Christian democracy has been described as conservative on social issues and liberal on economic issues.}}
• Constitution Party (United States){{cite web |url=http://www.constitutionparty.com/party_platform.php|title=Constitution Party National Platform|year=2012|publisher=Constitution Party.com|access-date=September 15, 2012}}
• Prohibition Party (United States)
• Democratic Unionist Party (United Kingdom)
• Traditional Unionist Voice (United Kingdom)
• Christian Conservative Party, a political party in Norway
• Conservative Christian Party – BPF, a political party in Belarus

{{div col end}}

• Roman Catholic Church (social, moral, and cultural issues)
• Traditionalist Catholicism
• Southern Baptist Convention
• Assemblies of God
• Presbyterian Church in America
• Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod
• Continuing Anglicans
• Conservative evangelicalism
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

{{Portal|Christianity|Conservatism}}

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

• Alliance Defending Freedom
• Anti-Semitism in Christianity
• American Center for Law & Justice
• Bible Belt (United States)
• Bible Belt (Netherlands)
• Catholic Church and Nazi Germany
• Catholic Church and Nazi Germany during World War II
• Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust
• Chalcedon Foundation
• Christian fascism
• Christian fundamentalism
• Christian Identity
• Christian libertarianism
• Christian nationalism
• Christian reconstructionism
• Christian revival
• Christian terrorism
• Christianity and other religions
• Christianity and politics
• Christianity and violence
• Christian values
• Christian Zionism
• Clerical fascism
• Ustaše
• Wahhabism
• Concerned Women for America
• Dominion theology
• Family values
• Focus on the Family
• Integralism
• Independent Baptist
• Liberty Institute
• Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience
• National Catholicism
• Neopatriarchy
• New Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement
• Orthodox Anglican Communion
• PragerU
• Radical right (United States)
• Radical right (Europe)
• Religion and authoritarianism
• Theoconservatism
• Theonomy
• Traditional Anglican Church
• Traditionalist Catholicism
• Traditionalist conservatism
• True Orthodox church

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

{{wikiquote}}

• Boston, Rob. 2000. Close Encounters with the Religious Right: Journeys into the Twilight Zone of Religion and Politics. Prometheus Books. {{ISBN|978-1-57392-797-0}}.
• Boyd, James H., [http://www.james-dave.com/politics.html Politics and the Christian Voter].
• {{cite book |last=Brown |first=Ruth Murray |title=For a "Christian America": A History of the Religious Right |year=2002 |location=Amherst, NY |publisher=Prometheus Books |isbn=978-1-573-92973-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/forchristianamer00brow }}
• Bruns, Roger A. 2002. Preacher: Billy Sunday and Big-Time American Evangelism. University of Illinois Press. {{ISBN|978-0-252-07075-4}}.
• Compton, John W. 2020. The End of Empathy: Why White Protestants Stopped Loving Their Neighbors. Oxford University Press.
• Diamond, Sara. 1995. Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States. New York: Guilford. {{ISBN|0-89862-864-4}}.
• Dowland, Seth. Family Values and the Rise of the Christian Right (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).
• Gloege, Timothy. 2015. Guaranteed Pure: The Moody Bible Institute, Business, and the Making of Modern Evangelicalism. The University of North Carolina Press. {{ISBN|1469621010}}.
• Green, John C., James L. Guth and Kevin Hill. 1993. "Faith and Election: The Christian right in Congressional Campaigns 1978–1988". The Journal of Politics 55(1), (February): 80–91.
• Green, John C. "The Christian Right and the 1994 Elections: A View from the States", PS: Political Science and Politics Vol. 28, No. 1 (Mar. 1995), pp. 5–8 {{jstor|420570}}.
• Hirschberger, Bernd; Voges, Katja (eds.): Religious Freedom and Populism: The Appropriation of a Human Right and How to Counter It. Bielefeld: transcript. ISBN 978-3-8376-6827-8.
• Himmelstein, Jerome L. 1990. To The Right: The Transformation of American Conservatism. University of California Press.
• Kruse, Kevin M. One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America. Basic Books, 2015. {{ISBN|0465049494}}.
• Marsden, George. Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism.
• Marsh, Charles. Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).
• Martin, William. 1996. With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, New York: Broadway Books. {{ISBN|0-7679-2257-3}}.
• Mascolo, Lo Gionathan. 2023. The Christian Right in Europe  Movements, Networks, and Denominations. Bielefeldt. transcript. ISBN 978-3-8376-6038-8.
• {{cite book |author-link1=John Micklethwait |last1=Micklethwait |first1=John|author-link2=Adrian Wooldridge |first2=Adrian |last2=Wooldridge |year=2004 |title=The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America |publisher=Penguin Books |location=New York City |isbn=978-1-59420-020-5|title-link=The Right Nation }}
• Noll, Mark. 1989. Religion and American Politics: From the Colonial Period to the 1980s.
• Noll, Mark and Rawlyk, George: Amazing Grace: Evangelicalism in Australia, Canada, Britain, Canada and the United States: Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press: 1994: {{ISBN|0-7735-1214-4}}.
• {{cite journal |author-last=O'Donnell |author-first=Jonathon |date=September 2020 |title=The deliverance of the administrative state: Deep state conspiracism, charismatic demonology, and the post-truth politics of American Christian nationalism |editor1-last=Stausberg |editor1-first=Michael |editor1-link=Michael Stausberg |editor2-last=Engler |editor2-first=Steven |editor2-link=Steven Engler |journal=Religion |publisher=Taylor & Francis |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=696–719 |doi=10.1080/0048721X.2020.1810817 |s2cid=222094116 |issn=1096-1151}}
• Preston, Andrew, Bruce J. Schulman, and Julian E. Zelizer, eds. Faithful Republic: Religion and Politics in Modern America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015) viii, 213 pp.; Essays by scholars
• Ribuffo, Leo P. 1983. The Old Christian right: The Protestant Far Right from the Great Depression to the Cold War. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. {{ISBN|0-87722-598-2}}.
• Shields, Jon A., "Framing the Christian Right: How Progressives and Post-War Liberals Constructed the Religious Right", Journal of Church and State, 53 (Autumn 2011), 635–55.
• Smith, Jeremy Adam, 2007, "Living in the Gap: The Ideal and Reality of the Christian Right Family". The Public Eye, Winter 2007–08.
• Wald, Kenneth. 2003. Religion and Politics in the United States.
• Wilcox, Clyde. Onward Christian Soldiers: The Religious Right in American Politics. survey by two neutral scholars.
• {{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Daniel K. |title=God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tfkBh3hL0x4C |year=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-534084-6}}
• {{cite book |last=Wills |first=Garry |author-link=Garry Wills |title=Under God: Religion and American Politics |year=1990 |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-671-65705-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/undergodreligion00will }}

{{Christianity footer}}

{{Christianity and politics}}

{{Political spectrum}}

{{Relpolnav}}

{{American Social Conservatism}}

{{Conservatism US footer}}

{{Conservatism navbox}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christian Right}}

Category:Anti-abortion movement in the United States

Category:Anti-pornography movement in the United States

Category:Catholic Church in the United States

Category:Christian movements

Category:Christian nationalism

Category:Christian terminology

Category:Christian Zionism in the United States

Right

Category:Conservatism in South America

Category:Conservatism in the United States

Category:Evangelicalism in South America

Category:Evangelicalism in the United States

Category:Neoconservatism

Category:New Right (United States)

Category:Opposition to same-sex marriage in the United States

Category:Orthodox Judaism in the United States

Category:Paleoconservatism

Category:Prohibition in the United States

Category:Republican Party (United States)

Category:Right-wing ideologies

Category:Right-wing populism in the United States

Category:Social conservatism in the United States

Category:The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States