The Secular Left: “Reason,” Religion, and the Threat of Theocracy

Abstract

Troughout the 1980s and 1990s, Democrats continued to lose Christian voters due in part to the rise of the Christian Right. The Republican Party, with the help of the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition, harnessed the language of evangelical Christianity and gained political dominance through it. The result has come to be known as the “God gap,” or the statistical fact that in recent years, the more one attends church, the more likely one will vote Republican.¹ This gap has had a profound effect on presidential races over the years. Ironically, it was Democrat Jimmy Carter who was the first president to use overtly evangelical language in his speeches and ever since, American presidents have publicly invoked God’s name in speeches, sought advice from religious advisors, prayed within the White House, and increased the public presence of Christianity (G. Smith 421).²