I originally wrote this column two decades ago.
By mid-2005, the cultural and political lines in America had hardened. The Bush administration’s second term was riding high on confidence and power, and evangelical leaders were claiming partial credit. Phrases like “Christian nation” and “moral mandate” echoed through the airwaves.
This 20-year-old essay warned that American Christianity had been hijacked and re-engineered to create a new, powerful political force hidden in the guise of “conservatism.” Two decades later, little has changed — except that Christian nationalism has now hitched itself to Donald Trump’s power, dictating everything from faith-based medicine to tax favors for the super-rich with hands on levers behind the scenes.
Let’s take a walk through history, May 16, 2005:
The Conservative Christian Coup
“Extra, extra! Read all about it! Religious radicals seek to restrict our freedom and dominate our public agenda!”
Expecting to read about Osama bin Laden? Some Middle Eastern terrorist group? No, those bad guys may toss bombs, but they’re not the ones passing laws and lobbying away our rights. The folks rolling back the progress of modernity and conspiring to restrict our freedoms are the very ones engineering a coup against the mainstream Republican Party. Using Christianity as a scalable platform, they’ve fueled their assault with the rhetoric of fear and divisiveness.
These folks toss barrages of incendiary bombs into politics sufficient to have otherwise mutually respectful citizens tearing at each other’s throats. TV and radio “voices for God” pound away — and they’ve finally fractured our nation’s cohesion, splintering us into defined groups of the righteous and the godless, the “Conservative Christians” and … everyone else.
Certainly, Christianity and conservatism have long held broad appeal in America — but this “Conservative Christianity” is something altogether different. The very label is a marketing ruse. Since when was Jesus of the New Testament ever “conservative”?
As McDonald’s seduces hungry stomachs with calls of “I’m loving it,” hard-right leaders employ the words “conservative” and “Christian” to reap pliant soldiers for their political battles. Some faithful Americans buy into this deceptive campaign. Yet the name is only a confusing label for a stealthy rising militant third party in America.
“Conservatism” once stood for financial prudence, less government intrusion, upholding traditional moral values, and cautious military commitment. In today’s reactionary “conservative Christianity” anything goes — intrusive laws, reckless spending, corrupt media and upside-down morality of its leaders. The movement’s prime agenda is old-fashioned accumulation of power.
Faith, recast as conservative Christianity, polarized issues around absolutism instead of reason — dividing and conquering our common interests. A destructive, religiously charged battleground now exists where civil discussion and debate once resided. On this field, leaders and issues are deemed righteous or godless, loyal or enemies. And through this battle, hard-right leaders reap enormous power, influence and wealth.
Suddenly, under invented moral siege, our nation’s traditional practices are made to appear insufficient — necessitating rollbacks of rights and revisions of scientific education to “keep us safe and pure.”
The conservative Christian neo-god must be inserted into all governmental functions if we are to save America from threats abounding. In the process, conservative Christian leaders gain acceptance as God’s Enforcers — morality police for a trembling republic.
Stripped of its faith-adorned veneer, the movement is a puppet front for the hard-right dismantling of the traditional Republican Party. You and I are its hostages along the way.
Aspects of this movement shared frightening similarities with oppressive regimes of the Middle East: leaders held up as inspired godly men; tolerance seen as weakness; religion used for control; moderates purged.
Such thinking disrespects the personal rights and interests of the vast majority of Americans — traditional conservatives, moderates, and progressives alike. Our common interests far outweigh the divisive wedge issues these demagogues spew at us.
Despite the orchestrated divisiveness, most of us are far more alike than different. Humble, cooperative leaders could resolve our desires for clean air and water, good medical care, and sound infrastructure. But we are divided and conquered by partisan warfare and culture wars — eliminating our power to stand united and demand effective governance.
We’re becoming hostages of partisan terrorists abusing our system in their drive for power.
Will Americans yet see through these tyrannical power grabs and unite for the good of all?
Twenty Years Later
What was foreseen 20 years ago is reality in real time today.
Science is pushed to the back seat as if the Dark Ages never ended. Research, choice, diversity — even simple party affiliation — are under attack. Culture wars are stoked, not extinguished. A president hurls insults and real threats at all but the loyal and faithful, while his shock troops invade cities staging imaginary war zones.
Once theoretical, the movement now writes manifestos, both defies and drafts laws, and blesses authoritarianism. The hijacking of faith for power is no longer the fear of tomorrow; it’s the operating system of today.
During the campaign, Donald Trump claimed he knew nothing of the Christian-nationalist blueprint called Project 2025. Today we’re in the throes of it, hoping to run out the clock to midterms yielding checks, balances and normalcy.
Let’s hope the majority can remember who we once were, when we were rational, collaborative, and truly compassionate.
But we can’t say we didn’t see this coming.
Gary Horton is chairman of the College of the Canyons Foundation board. His “Full Speed to Port!” has appeared in The Signal since 2006. The opinions expressed in his column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Signal or its editorial board.