Conservative evangelicals dropped their anti-militarism as Cold War God-and-country rhetoric took hold

Evidence

The defense of Christian America required more than spiritual resources alone. Eisenhower presided over the vast expansion of America’s military-industrial complex, and in his farewell address, he made the connection explicit: a strong military would keep Americans free to worship their God. At the same time, Eisenhower looked back on his presidency with some trepidation, warning of the dangers of this mobilization. Few conservative evangelicals seemed to share his concern. As late as 1952, the NAE had joined mainline groups in denouncing the nation’s peacetime militarization, but by the end of the decade, the conflation of “God and country,” and growing reliance on military might to protect both, meant that Christian nationalism—and evangelicalism itself—would take on a decidedly militaristic bent. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 84

Categorization

• DEFINE: Key definitional/evidence point: the NAE’s 1952 anti-militarization stance shows this militaristic bent was an adopted turn, not always inherent to evangelicalism—central to the reader’s contestation of whether this strand IS evangelicalism or a dominant strand.
• XREF: The 1952 NAE denunciation is direct evidence for the reader’s contestation question: evangelicalism had a measurable non-militarist position as late as 1952, showing the militarist bent was a development, not a given.