Christian right leaders framed pandemic restrictions as unconstitutional fear-based tyranny.

Evidence

Other Trump supporters on the Christian right emphasized the threat to personal liberty posed by mask mandates and lockdown restrictions. Former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee, for example, said in mid-April 2020 that lockdown enforcement was threatening Americans’ “civil liberties” and effectively “shredding the Constitution.” So too, pastor John MacArthur, who drew national criticism for reopening his megachurch during the pandemic and discouraging mask use, warned, “[J]ust terrify people that they might die and they’ll all roll over in complete compliance. They’ll give up their freedoms, they’ll put on silly masks … they’ll sit in their house for as long as you tell them to sit there. You can conquer an entire nation in fear.” — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross, 147

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: COVID restrictions were opposed by the right on economic-withdrawal grounds, not health ones. — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 146; The pandemic emergency powers were framed as a shock-doctrine rights grab by the right — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 108; Religious Right leaders cultivated fear to sustain their own political success — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 568 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The pandemic emergency powers were framed as a shock-doctrine rights grab by the right #corroborates (0.90) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 108
• The right opposed Covid programs for being public, not just for being Covid #expands (0.80) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 600
• Religious Right leaders cultivated fear to sustain their own political success #expands (0.75) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 568