How Trump Has Helped the Christian Right Return to Its White Nationalist Roots @alternet:
"But getting in bed with Trump wasn’t as big of a jump for the Religious Right as some might think. The GOP presidential nominee’s appeals to racial resentments and immersion in the world of far-right conspiracy theories line up quite nicely with the Religious Right’s worldview. While the movement has told its supporters that it started as a response to abortion rights and the separation of church and state, the modern Religious Right movement actually started as a reaction to integration. Decades before the current paranoia about LGBT and women’s rights somehow contributing to anti-Christian persecution, right-wing activists employedrhetoric about religious liberty and government overreach to defend their private segregated academies and deride efforts to “redefine” marriage to include couples of different races. Evangelists such as Jerry Falwell and Bob Jones explicitly preached racial separation and opposition to the civil rights movement. Falwell opened a segregated school in response to efforts to integrate Virginia’s education system. Jones’ university openly practiced racial discrimination for decades, citing the Bible."
