Key theoconservative thinkers began as 1960s radicals before their rightward conversion

Evidence

Furthering the alliance was a cohort of conservative Catholic intellectuals who would later be termed “theoconservatives.” Led by Richard John Neuhaus and Michael Novak, among others, several of the movement’s key figures had started off in life as 1960s radicals. Disillusioned with what they perceived as the moral nihilism of the age, they pivoted sharply to the right and coalesced as a scholarly movement and political force in the Reagan years. Conversion may have made them more zealous than native believers, and perhaps the most zealous of the bunch was Neuhaus, who had crossed over all the way from progressive Lutheranism to conservative Catholicism. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 277

Categorization

• SEED: A possible essay angle on political conversions and how apostates or converts become the most zealous movement architects.