How Christian Fundamentalism Eroded American Democracy

On January 6, 2021, an armed mob of militant Trump supporters launched an Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution-style self-coup attempt on the United States Capitol building. But where exactly did this attack on America’s democracy come from? Was it a random event that the president randomly decided to pull off out of nowhere? Was it merely being angry with the nation’s election results that lead to this event? Or is there something more to this scenario that might actually reflect a bigger problem with American democracy? Enter Christian Fundamentalism: The scourge of American civil liberties!

But how have Christian Fundamentalists set up this problem to happen? Well, that’s a long story. To understand how the Religious Right, especially the Christian Right, have been sabotaging the basic values of a constitutional republic, we must first understand the importance of televangelism and its power of influence on the news media and American politics. What do individuals like Billy Graham, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Paula White, Pat Robertson, Steven Anderson, John Hagee, Mark Driscoll, James David Manning, and so many others have in common? They are all demagogues with little or no accountability for they’re actions just because they happen to be religious leaders. And our problem with holding religious leaders accountable for what they say and do from the pulpits of their churches, as well as from the institutions of their organizations has been a major concern that has been haunting American society’s democracy up until now. But how did Christian Fundamentalists rise to power? And how did they manage to hijack American politics so successfully?

To start, televangelism has been under-regulated by the FCC since the 1970s and the 1980s, the same era when televangelism exploded. And because of this under-regulation of Church doctrine, millions of people, including prominent public figures have effectively been groomed in the process. And it is these groomed individuals who are a threat to the country’s national security. Pastors like John Hagee, Paula White, James David Manning, Benny Hinn, and many others began to influence the decisions of politicians by negotiating with the Neo-Conservative movement and encouraging the Right to support laws based on religious doctrine. This eventually lead to the rise of Donald Trump. Trump was popular with Christian conservatives, especially Evangelicals, specifically because of the fact that he was willing to support the policies that the clergy of various ministries have been advocating for years. And it didn’t even matter that he did things that could be seen as repulsive, or even ungodly for that matter. Trump was their guy. And their guy, combined with the support of his right-wing Christian base, is what brought us here.