The Religious Right’s origin in segregation explains its embrace of Trump.

Evidence

There is a kind of tragic continuity in the Religious Right’s embrace of Donald Trump. A movement that began with the defense of racial segregation in the late 1970s climbed into bed with a vulgar demagogue who recognizes “some good people” among white supremacists, who equivocates about denouncing a representative of the Ku Klux Klan, and who admonished a white supremacist terrorist group to “stand by” in advance of the 2020 election. If racism is America’s original sin, politically conservative evangelicals, with their continuing support for their champion, have been loath to seek redemption. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 163

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the earlier thesis (chapter 7) that the movement’s charter principle was defending segregation, not opposing abortion. — connects to: The Religious Right’s religious-freedom framing masked its defense of segregation — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 112; The Religious Right’s origins lay in defending racial segregation, not opposing abortion — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 140; Trump’s 2016 evangelical support suggests racism never left the Religious Right’s core — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 145 (+3 more)

Related

• Trump’s 2016 evangelical support suggests racism never left the Religious Right’s core (similarity 0.89)
• The Religious Right’s origins lay in defending racial segregation, not opposing abortion (similarity 0.88)
• The Religious Right’s religious-freedom framing masked its defense of segregation (similarity 0.83)
• The Religious Right’s foundation is racial exclusion, not abortion opposition. (similarity 0.82)
• The Religious Right adopted abortion only after racial segregation failed to rally voters (similarity 0.81)
• Evangelicals’ turn against Carter was rooted in racial segregation defense, not abortion (similarity 0.81)
• White Christians supported Trump despite his apparent moral violations (similarity 0.80)
• The Christian right supports Trump for autocratic power, not shared Christian values (similarity 0.79)
• Trump won white Christian support through explicit appeals to white supremacy. (similarity 0.79)
• The birther conspiracy launched Trump’s political viability. (similarity 0.79)
• Racism was integral but rendered invisible in the Christian Right’s origins (similarity 0.79)
• Trump’s rise was symptomatic of a preexisting militant evangelical worldview (similarity 0.79)
• The Religious Right includes more than fundamentalists (similarity 0.78)
• Religious Right leaders reframed racism as religious freedom to mask self-interest (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Racism was integral but rendered invisible in the Christian Right’s origins #corroborates (0.95) — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 533
• Trump’s 2016 evangelical support suggests racism never left the Religious Right’s core #corroborates (0.90) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 145
• Trump won white Christian support through explicit appeals to white supremacy. #expands (0.80) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 53
• Christian nationalism, not evangelical identity, drives conservative support for Trump #qualifies (0.70) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 90