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The Republican Christianity Ronald Reagan inspired that dominates politics and society came from occult theories by a guy named Manly P. Hall about America that involved Atlantis, ancient conspiracies, and hokey short stories written by one of Edgar Allan Poe's best friends.
It's really bizarre, but the basis of the modern Republican Party, their veneration of Reagan, their symbols they rely on, are largely occultish in nature and were the result of a weird synthesizing of New Age California and white evangelicalism.
Reagan's first address of CPAC, a speech that largely coined the rhetorical idea of the City Upon The Hill pays credit to Manley Hall and a completely absurd idea that a divine entity saved the Declaration of Independence, a myth Hall lifted from George Lippard, Poe's friend.
In another story, Lippard posited that George Washington was raised from the dead. That never took off in Reagan's sphere, but it was meant to tie the US to Christianity, which certainly happened. It's something to imagine if that particular legend would have been mainstreamed.
But this is one of the reasons why so many of us growing up in the church in the 1980’s dealt with so much occult stuff, including Atlantis, secret societies, and apocalyptic fear. It was at the very heart of it and largely unknown.
