Religious Right: Outside Activists to Inside Operatives

It’s tempting to treat the Trump moment as an aberration of the political cycle rather than a result of the Religious Right’s own history. Indeed, Trump’s rise to power does not indicate the death of the Religious Right, as some have argued. Instead, it has plainly revealed the Religious Right’s gradual shift from its origins as outside agitators to inside party operatives. With such a change have come damaging consequences. It has produced profound effects for both religious conservatives and the Republican Party, and it has exacerbated divisions within the wide swath of American evangelicalism. Trump’s candidacy has baldly uncovered those schisms, but they had been there all along, shaping and shaped by the rise of the Religious Right.