Why Conservatives Need Religion

The precipitous decline of religious practice by Americans over the last decade has raised questions about religion’s relevance to conservatism in general and to Republican politics in particular. The former National Review staff writer Nate Hochman and the founder of American Compass Oren Cass have argued not only that current culture war skirmishes over race, gender, and parental rights are being contested as secular instead of religious conflicts but also that a new social conservatism that is Trumpian and secular is succeeding where the old religious conservatism failed. The triumph of the LGBTQ movement and the consequent retreat of religious conservatives under the defensive banner of religious freedom plainly illustrate this failure.