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Freedom vs. Liberty: Why Religious Conservatives Have Begun to Chose One Over the Other

Religious "freedom" and "liberty" have always had different connotations.
An American flag flying in front of a large Christian cross.

The Religious-Liberty Attack on Transgender Rights

Conservative Christians are out to restore their historical legal privileges.
Bob Jones University sign.

The Real Origins of the Religious Right

They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.
Thomas Kinkade

The Painter of the Right

Thomas Kinkade’s paintings show conservatives a world they have already won.
The word "god" is visible, chiseled into the wall behind a statue of Thomas Jefferson.
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Why the Founders Fought for Separation of Church and State

Establishing freedom of religion was a hard-fought success of the American Founding. Today we are still fighting.
Abandoned church in Coaldale, Pennsylvania, with an American flag hanging upside down over its door.

The Decline and Fall of Christianity in America

If we imagine religion as a technology, argues Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith, we can better see the cause of its decline: obsolescence.
Anita Bryant speaking at microphone.

She Launched the Modern Antigay Movement in America. It Worked—Just Not as She Intended.

Anita Bryant’s legacy is not what she hoped—but her destructive message lives on.
Jimmy, Rosalynn, and Amy Carter at the Baptist church in Plains, Georgia, 1976.

How Jimmy Carter Lost Evangelical Christians to the Right

The Baptist Georgia governor won evangelical Christian voters in the 1976 presidential election. Next time around, those voters changed sides—for the long haul.

The Late Great Hal Lindsey

The ideas he popularized will continue to shape evangelicalism for generations to come.
Sen. Joe McCarthy confers with Roy Cohn during a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

A Not-So-Hostile Takeover

Long before the rise of Trump, the American conservative mainstream enjoyed a complex partnership with the Far Right.
Co-founder of Moms for Liberty Tina Descovich speaks during the 2024 Joyful Warriors National Summit.

From the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s ‘Body of Liberties’ to Today’s ‘Moms for Liberty’

The "parental rights" movement, rooted in colonial theocracy, has evolved into a political force resisting racial, gender, and educational equality.

How ‘Left Behind’ Got Left Behind

A changing political mood among evangelicals has many believers imagining the end of the world differently than they used to.
Drag queen reading book to children.

Censorship Through Centuries

A new book examines battles over drag story hours and book bans through the lens of LGBTQ history.
People seated at town hall meeting.

What We Get Wrong About White Workers

Deindustrialization has helped create a right-wing turn in many Midwestern towns. Long traditions of labor militancy can explain why it hasn’t in others.
Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, beneath a red GOP elephant logo.
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How Conservatives Changed the Whole Point of American Political Parties

The rise of the right remade the GOP—and fundamentally changed how parties operated in American politics.
Ronald Reagan campaigns in Houston ahead of the Republican Convention in 1976.
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How Abortion Took Over the Republican Party

Ronald Reagan proved instrumental to Southerners bringing their cultural conservatism to center stage for the Republican Party.
A burning candle in front of the American flag.

The Origins of Conservatism’s ‘Gnostic’ Meme

You can thank Eric Voegelin for the right’s clichéd catchall critique for the left.
Demonstrator holding a Christian nationalist sign with a cross painted like the American flag.

The Peril Radicalizing Some Evangelicals Goes Beyond Christian Nationalism

Christian supremacists are plotting the end of America as we know it.
Joe Biden, with a nervous expression, campaigning in Wisconsin.
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How Trump Captured the Rust Belt—And What Democrats Can Do

History not only explains how the industrial Midwest became Trump country, but also how the area's politics may shift again.
Alexander I
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Why Early American Conservatives Loved Russia

A conspiracy theory among New England Federalists led some to contemplate separating from the U.S. during the War of 1812.
Donald Trump speaks to the Pastors Leadership Conference at New Spirit Revival Center on September 21, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio.

Spreading the Bad News

Right-wing evangelicalism’s moral and religious descent into Trumpism has been near-total. Is there a way out?
Donald Trump in Alabama.
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To Understand Trump's Appeal, Look to Alabama History

The transformation of Alabama politics in the 1960s and 1970s reflected the rise of a new version of Republicanism that Trump has perfected.
Manifest Destiny painting by Gast.

'Pure White' Examines the White Supremacist Origins of Evangelical Purity Culture

The new podcast discusses how purity is woven into many of the myths that have fed White supremacy in the nation’s past and continue to do so today.
Cover of "Outrageous," with tomato on face of man holding microphone

Endless Culture Wars

On Kliph Nesteroff’s book, “Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars.”
Women's Care Center.

(Still Being) Sent Away: Post-Roe Anti-Abortion Maternity Homes

In the years before Roe v. Wade, maternity homes in the United States housed residents who, upon giving birth, often relinquished their children for adoption.
A sign in Alabama reading "Thank God We Are Deplorable", 2018.

Christianity's Place in the Left and the Right

A conversation with historian David Hollinger about the rise of evangelicalism, the decline of mainline Protestantism, and the nature of America's secularism.
Billy Graham leading a prayer at the Republican National Convention, Miami, Florida, August 1968; Richard Nixon is at right.

Victimhood and Vengeance

The contemporary rise of Christian nationalism in the US is a reactionary response to the country’s liberalization over the past half-century.
Margaret Sanger in 1928.

The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Ghost of Margaret Sanger

Religious conservatives see “anti-eugenic” laws as the most promising path to establish a federal ban on abortion.
Black-and-white photograph of Jacob Schiff, banker and philanthropist, from a side profile

The Sanitizing of Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism’s origins lie in a donor plan to neutralize and refine the radical Jewish immigrant masses.
Illustration of a Christian church cracking into two pieces.

A Religious Movement Divided Against Itself (Probably) Cannot Stand

Liberal Protestants built a global elite in the 20th century. Its fracturing holds a caution for evangelicals today.

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