How can a movement sincerely embrace a moral cause while misremembering the conflict that originally brought its institutions into politics?
Welcome to Crisis in Perception, where we examine the systems shaping our world.
Using Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right by Randall Balmer as our lens, this episode investigates the historical origins of the Religious Right and the political construction of its public identity.
Balmer challenges the familiar claim that Roe v. Wade awakened evangelical political activism. Drawing on archival research and the testimony of conservative organizers, he argues that the decisive catalyst was federal action against racially discriminatory Christian schools and the threatened loss of their tax-exempt status.
The investigation traces how institutional self-protection was reframed as religious liberty, how abortion later became an effective and sincere mobilizing cause, and how repetition transformed that later issue into the movement’s accepted origin story. The central systems include political coalition-building, institutional incentives, historical memory, public subsidy, racial hierarchy, and feedback loops that reinforce movement identity.
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This content was created using AI-assisted tools for research synthesis, structuring, and narration support. All analysis, framing, and editorial decisions are guided by human judgment as part of the Crisis in Perception project.
