Since the Ronald Reagan years, there is objective collusion in U.S. politics between religious archaism and market fundamentalism. How did this dynamic come to be and what makes it so powerful?
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According to a thorough study published in 2017about Americans’ religious identity, more than one-third (35%) of all Republicans identify as white evangelical Protestants, and three-quarters (73%) belong to a white Christian religious group.1 Even though white evangelicals represent roughly 15% of the population, their energetic activism has a definite influence on public policies and plays a pivotal role in elections. As shown in the table below, 84% voted for the Republican candidate in 2020.
The reason why Evangelicals have embraced the Republican political establishment may seem unclear at first, particularly given the expectations of high-tech marvels and unbridled capitalism professed by the GOP. This unholy alliance between two kinds of fundamentalism has worked pretty well, nevertheless, since Ronald Reagan thought it would be an appropriate strategic move on the part of political conservatives. As Sheldon Wolin notes, “The American zest for change coexists with fervent political and religious convictions that bind the identity of the believers to two ‘fundamentals,’ the texts of the Constitution and the Bible and their status as unchanging and universal truths.” The contradiction is thus only apparent. This chapter examines how constitutional and religious archaisms bind with market fundamentalism in their quest for power.
“Archaism,” in the sense Sheldon Wolin uses the word, means referring in absolute terms to what is supposed to make sense in human life. Unlike scientific discoveries, which are cumulative and regularly superseded, archaist beliefs are fixed, and impervious to evidence. Whether seen from the political or the religious side, the mental configuration is the same: “What is the doctrine of ‘the framers’ original intent’ and ‘constitutional originalism’ but a variant of creationism and the denial of historical evolution?” Archaism is, therefore, to hold one’s core beliefs as true and superior to rival beliefs specifically because they cannot be subjected to the relativity of critical thinking. The unchanging quality of absolute truths is what makes them valid in the believer’s eyes. In other words, the feeling of certainty is substituted for rationality.
In its religious version, archaism can only bend toward proselytism. “Born again,” the former unbeliever will be saved not only from error but from the consequences of errors that can corrupt one’s existence and, ultimately, decide the fate of one’s soul. Archaic truths are powerful because they are transforming truths. By extension, they are deemed to save a nation since the political changes called for by the faithful will fundamentally restore the natural order of things wanted by God.
Since the Ronald Reagan years, the Republican party has echoed the white evangelicals’ ideal of a United States theocracy.2 This theocratic ideal is a familiar cultural background in the United States: “Along with other religious groups, [Evangelicals] have actively pushed to dismantle the so-called wall separating church and state. They want prayer and other religious activities to be a part of public education—the latter arguably the heart of democracy; they want public funds for the charitable activities of religious groups and for the support of religious schools; they want the Bible’s account of ‘creation,’ or a covert version of it, taught in science courses; and they want public acknowledgment and recognition of the ‘fact’ that, from its beginnings, America was understood by its Founding Patriarchs to be a ‘Christian nation.'”3
Footnotes
- America’s Changing Religious Identity, Public Religion Research Institute, Daniel Cox, Robert P. Jones, 09.06.2017
- Even though some Republicans may feel that this might not be such a good strategy, after all. See, for instance, Reagan tied Republicans to White Christians and now the party is trapped. Washington Post March 22, 2021.
- See Sheldon Wonlin’s essay, America’s Civil Religion, democracy 2, no. 2 (April 1982); 7–17. For historical background, see Charles Norris Cochrane, Christianity and Classical Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1944), chaps. 8–9