The People’s Revival

In the decades after the civil-rights movement, a seismic shift occurred in American politics and theology. The old segregated order roared back under a new cloak. Many white evangelical churches in the South didn’t merely sit out the struggle for justice — they opposed it. They built theological defenses of segregation and sanctified social hierarchy in the name of “order.”

Into that soil entered the conservative political machine. The Republican Party, once the party of Lincoln and abolition, began a calculated realignment. The so-called “Southern Strategy” was designed to channel white racial backlash into GOP votes — using coded language about “states’ rights,” “law and order,” and “family values.”

By the late 1970s and into the Reagan era, the evangelical right had been weaponized into a political bloc. The Moral Majority and similar groups fused the cross with the flag, transforming the pulpit into a podium for partisan power. What began as a faith of liberation became a franchise of control.

II. The Hijacked Christianity

The Church was meant to be the presence of the Kingdom of God — overturning injustice, lifting the oppressed, redistributing mercy. But this political-Christian alliance became a bulwark of privilege, a handmaiden to economic elites, and a legitimizer of racial and social hierarchy.

When a movement claims to follow Christ yet champions deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, and policies that strip workers of dignity — it’s not the Gospel. It’s idolatry dressed in religious language.

The hijacking shows itself in familiar ways:

Reducing sin to private morality while ignoring systemic evil. Portraying Jesus as a mascot for national power instead of a liberator of the poor. Elevating culture wars while abandoning compassion. Weaponizing “family values” to shame rather than to heal. Using church attendance as a political roll call rather than a call to repentance.

III. Why Their Policies Are Not Compatible with Christ

Let’s be blunt. The policies championed by this alliance are antithetical to the Gospel.

Christ identified with the poor. He said the first shall be last, and the last first. A politics that blames the poor for needing help while excusing corporations for underpaying workers is not Christian — it’s Pharisaical. Christ proclaimed justice. He overturned tables, called out hypocrisy, and stood with the outcast. Policies that preserve racial hierarchy and economic exploitation mock His message. Christ called for sacrifice. Not comfort, not domination, not self-interest disguised as faith. The Kingdom’s power is found in service, not supremacy.

When a movement waves the Bible to defend the rich, cage the stranger, or scapegoat the broken, it is no longer following Christ — it’s reenacting empire in His name.

IV. The Prophetic Charge

If your party or pulpit blesses policies of greed, exclusion, and oppression — repent.

If your Christianity has become a voting bloc instead of a living Gospel — repent.

If you can watch the hungry go unfed and call yourself “pro-life” — repent.

The Kingdom of God is not Republican or Democrat. It is an entirely different order. It feeds the hungry. It pays the worker. It welcomes the stranger. It confronts the empire, not crowns it.

Let the Church remember who she is. Let the people reclaim the Gospel from those who sold it for influence. Let’s build something better.