The LSE Faith Centre invited Religion & Diplomacy editor Judd Birdsall to contribute an essay surveying the past decade of religion and politics in the United States. The essay will be a part of a series of articles on religion in American society leading up to a 15 June LSE Public Lecture titled Religious Freedom under the Biden Administration.
Never a Dull Moment: How an intense decade of religious politics divided Americans and Biden’s Catholicism can bring unity
What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago Baptist pastor and future Trump promoter Robert Jeffress disparaged Mitt Romney’s Mormonism as a ‘cult’ and denounced Islam as a ‘violent religion’. Fast forward to 2021 and the lavish loyalty of many of Jeffress’ fellow evangelicals to the now former President Trump has been described as ‘cult-like’ and Christian rhetoric and symbols fueled the insurrectionist violence at the US Capitol.
During the Trump era, white conservative Protestants experienced something of a ‘moment’—a period of heighted attention and scrutiny from journalists, scholars, and the general public. Looking back over the past decade, this evangelical moment was preceded by a post-9/11 Muslim moment, a Mormon moment surrounding Romney’s 2012 presidential bid, and a ‘nones’ moment in the early to mid 2010s. And now we’re seeing what may be a Catholic moment with the election of Joe Biden, America’s second Catholic president.
We can think of the past decade of American religious politics as a series of moments. These moments are somewhat sequential but of course also overlapping, ongoing, and interconnected.
Read the full article at Religion & Global Society