I originally wrote this column two decades ago.

By mid-2005, the cultural and political lines in America had hardened. The Bush administration’s second term was riding high on confidence and power, and evangelical leaders were claiming partial credit. Phrases like “Christian nation” and “moral mandate” echoed through the airwaves.

This 20-year-old essay warned that American Christianity had been hijacked and re-engineered to create a new, powerful political force hidden in the guise of “conservatism.” Two decades later, little has changed — except that Christian nationalism has now hitched itself to Donald Trump’s power, dictating everything from faith-based medicine to tax favors for the super-rich with hands on levers behind the scenes.

Let’s take a walk through history, May 16, 2005:

The Conservative Christian Coup

“Extra, extra! Read all about it! Religious radicals seek to restrict our freedom and dominate our public agenda!”

Expecting to read about Osama bin Laden? Some Middle Eastern terrorist group? No, those bad guys may toss bombs, but they’re not the ones passing laws and lobbying away our rights. The folks rolling back the progress of modernity and conspiring to restrict our freedoms are the very ones engineering a coup against the mainstream Republican Party. Using Christianity as a scalable platform, they’ve fueled their assault with the rhetoric of fear and divisiveness.

These folks toss barrages of incendiary bombs into politics sufficient to have otherwise mutually respectful citizens tearing at each other’s throats. TV and radio........

© Santa Clarita Valley Signal