There’s been some discussion about how evangelicals in the U.S. didn’t start opposing abortion until the late 1970s – several years after Roe v. Wade in 1973. There’s a lot more nuance to that history. A 🧵: As background, evangelicals’ late opposition to abortion is typically attributed to Randall Balmer who argues that evangelicals seized on opposition to abortion in 1979 because “it was more palatable than the religious right’s real motive: protecting segregated schools.”

A THREAD on the political links between religious liberty and nationalism. In public opinion there are clear nationalist links to religious liberty, suggesting that impulses are often about the preservation of cultural status. But certainly all advocacy isn't nationalistic. Let me be clear: conservative religious freedom claims are not simply cover for nationalism. There are real issues at stake, and some are complicated. But the politics of religious liberty often have links to Christian and white nationalism. This legal/political dynamic matters.