Driven by the righteousness of their cause and a sense of cultural besiegement, Christian conservative elites have mobilized countless foot soldiers for social and political causes over the last three decades into a movement known as the New Christian Right. The Evangelical Right provides much of the political force of this movement, motivating evangelicals at the pew level to engage in battle against their pet issues: same-sex marriage, abortion rights, science education in public schools, the separation of church and state, secular humanism, and atheists. Recent examples of the Evangelical Right’s influence abound: from public school groups like the Good News Club proselytizing elementary school children across the nation – to fast-food chicken moguls crusading on issues of same-sex relationships – to major conservative male political candidates pontificating about the reproductive processes of women who are victims of sexual violence.

Why are evangelicals so fanatically motivated about particular political issues? What fuels this exclusivist worldview? Sociologist Christian Smith has written extensively on what animates the psychology of the Evangelical Right. He has developed a theory called subcultural identity theory that explores how conservative evangelicals construct symbolic boundaries with the outside world that 1) reinforce their theological and political beliefs within the community, and 2) designate outsiders that must be opposed at all costs. Evangelical leaders constantly create an embattled “tension” within the evangelical subculture through their rhetoric – a tension that mobilizes their adherents to invest themselves in an existential struggle against forces that threaten their faith and their very existence. Inside this worldview, evangelicals see themselves as constantly under attack; they are persecuted victims of continually menacing forces. Regardless of the enemy’s label – Satan, demonic forces, the secular media, the liberals, the atheists, the homosexual agenda, public schools devoid of God’s presence, rebellious America, enemies of God, or some other constructed adversary – the Evangelical Right always sees itself (and God’s will) as under siege.

Whether or not a large-scale culture war truly exists in America, it certainly exists in the evangelical mind. The rhetoric of cultural embattledness is what gives the Evangelical Right strength. It produces and reinforces a collective identity that is durable and transferable to the next generation of unwitting targets in church Sunday School classes throughout the Bible Belt and beyond. The stark distinctions made with the outside world give evangelicalism a wall to keep enemies out and proselytes in. By wrapping the gift of social acceptance and esteem into the requirement of theological conformity with their community, evangelical churches make it extremely difficult for members to question the theology. The threatened psychological and emotional costs of the system frequently make it too costly for adherents to ask the intellectual questions necessary to break free from the fold.

By better understanding the ideological system, key theological tenets, and moral language of the embattled world of the Evangelical Right, secular Americans can gain insight into informed strategies for opposing evangelical influence in the United States. An integrated approach can combine not only legal, political, and scientific opposition, but also an even more targeted moral rhetoric that strikes at the center of the Right’s ideology. This approach can help freethinkers to turn the tide against the stringent worldview of evangelicalism and undermine the ugly discrimination, psychological harm, and political consequences that come from the Evangelical Right’s continuing agenda.

The Embattled World of the Evangelical Right

by Jeff Satterwhite

Freethought Views March 2013

Jeff Satterwhite is a former minister, current member of the Clergy Project, and is a doctoral candidate in religious studies at the University of Denver