Religious Right Radicalism Has Always Defined Evangelicalism for Me

It's frightening to see what was talked about decades ago coming to fruition today

Photo by Brian Wertheim on Unsplash

One of the defining things that made my brand of Christianity not just evangelicalism but fundamentalism was the radical political influence that emphasized an adversarial, us vs. them view of the world. While not as radical as other sects, we believed that only Christians like us had the right way and would go to heaven, and we viewed the rest of the world as a corrupting, dangerous influence. If we could make the world in our image, everything would be moral and godly.

Defining fundamentalism and evangelicalism

Fundamentalism rose to prominence in the United States in the late 19th / early 20th centuries as a backlash against modernism. Fundamentalists didn’t like the changes occurring in society and the liberal influences on Protestantism. They were uncomfortable with their religion being influenced by the sciences and biblical criticism (i.e. study of who wrote and how the Bible was written, not just believing it was directly from God). Fundamentalists wanted to go back to the “fundamentals” of faith. But with that, they decried modernism, belief in science (think: Scopes Monkey trial), and other impacts of the Enlightenment period.

Fundamentalists want to craft a society that matches their values. They have no interest in adapting to a society they perceive as immoral, or being content to live and let live. Some do this by separating from society (the Amish would be a more extreme example), and others do this by actively influencing social and political structures.

Evangelicalism came about in the 1940s as a response to — you guessed it — fundamentalism! Fundamentalists were getting a bad rap in society for their extremism, so evangelicalism was a way to essentially make the movement more “cool” and palatable. They were more open to societal influence (a little more “in the world” and a little less “not of it”). Much of the root theology was the same, but evangelicalism understood that to effectively influence society, one had to join it to some extent.

Turns out, as we’re seeing today quite clearly, cloaking fundamentalism in evangelicalism of skinny jeans and goatees, flashing lights and rock band music, does not change the heart of fundamentalism.

Radical fundamentalists¹ hold traditional conservative Christian views (the Bible is the word of God and should be taken literally, Jesus is the Son of God, at the Day of Judgment all will stand before God). But they also want to apply their Christian (which we will be referring to as christofascist) values to the whole country. We can call this subset of Christians “Christian dominionists,” a term you may be familiar with. They want to radically take over politics and impose theocratic rule on our (supposedly, previously) democratic society.

Traditional evangelicals believe the same theology as the fundamentalists but are not so interested in imposing theocratic rule. HOWEVER, as we are so clearly seeing now, even if they weren’t motivated to lay the grounds for theocracy themselves, they are more than happy to join the bandwagon when it serves their interests. When an immoral authoritarian wanna-be shows up and lies his face off but says he supports their beliefs, they lay aside any shred of ethics standing in their way and join the party towards christofascist theocratic rule.

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I came of age in the 90s and 00s. I was raised on language of “activist courts,” the “gay agenda,” the dangers of “secular humanism,” the evils of communism and socialism, fears of “one world government,” belief that the Euro was a sign of the end times, abstinence-only education, that belief in evolution caused moral corruption, that public schools were indoctrinating students. In essence, anyone outside our belief system was not to be trusted.

As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, I wasn’t able to find a strong sense of community in church. I went to an evangelical megachurch and couldn’t figure out how to fit in with the other youth group kids. I’m envious when writers like

Meg Conley

² describe receiving life lessons around their kitchen table that were inclusive and loving, providing something of an antidote to what they were receiving in church (even when parents were church members themselves!). I experienced the opposite: my kitchen table lessons were more radical and more exclusive than what I received in church.

Radical Right politics have defined my experience of evangelicalism, and I’m finding they also define my religious trauma experience. But it’s too dismissive, it feels, to simply call that religious trauma. We are living in an era where the dreams of wanna-be christofascist leaders in the 90s and 00s are coming to fruition. To me it feels like watching a play unfold where I read the script already, only I thought the script was just pretend and would never fly in real life. It’s a horrible sense of deja vu, but one where millions of people (queer and trans people, non-Christian people, women, people of color, on and on) stand in the crosshairs of this unreal reality.

I’m tired of softening words to not put people off. I’m tired of being afraid — both of whatever backlash may happen if we speak up, but more importantly, afraid of what world might be barreling toward us.

When we see things happening, we who have eyes to see must call it out for what it is. I’m the first to admit it’s much easier to share exactly what I believe online, and struggle to do it in-person. But others tell me that the act of writing these things is meaningful in itself, and I hope it’s my springboard for more real-life action as well. I hope it’s encouraging to you who also have eyes to see, and I hope it’s challenging to those who would rather stay asleep.

Anything you are resonating with here or that made you want to throw your phone/laptop out the window? How are you handling the impacts of our current social-political reality, especially in light of the environment I bet many of you also grew up in? Where are you finding room to speak truth, and where are you afraid to do so? I hope we can offer strength and encouragement to each other here in the comments, or don’t be shy to send a direct email to christinegreenwald [at] substack.com!

1. I am borrowing this language from

Chris Hedges

book American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. It’s written in 2006 but incredibly prescient and in my mind, prophetic. I’ll probably be citing it a lot in coming posts!

2. Meg is an amazing writer who is currently writing a series on LDS abuse; please check it out!