Evangelical fundraising depended on a cultivated sense of persecution

Evidence

Conservative evangelicals had learned to trade on a sense of embattlement. When liberals, communists, feminists, or secular humanists seemed to be winning, supporters dug deep into their pockets. With Reagan in the White House, the sense of urgency diminished. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 314

Categorization

• SEED: Angles on how a political movement’s business model requires sustained grievance — connects to Trump-era perpetual-embattlement rhetoric.
• XREF: connects to: Feigned persecution, not actual threat, drives religious voter turnout; Child Evangelism Fellowship deliberately exploits child psychological vulnerability to recruit converts — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 988; The Scopes humiliation drove evangelicals into a self-imposed cultural retreat. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 69