Religion
In reply to the discussion: Rising atheism in America puts 'religious right on the defensive' [View all]LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)association with right-wing politics.
Possibly the fact that the Republican frontrunner belongs to a religious minority is bringing out the fundie Right even more than normal. But I think that religious right attitudes in the USA stem very largely from right-wing politicians trying to co-opt certain religious believers; particularly in connection with Reagan's 'Southern Strategy'.
In the UK, the much less numerous but still troublesome Christian right seems to reflect (1) an increasing collaboration between the Tory Right and American Republicans; and (2) right-wing rebellions against the mainly relatively liberal church leadership in the UK. Also, there are some people who think that religion is a useful tool for enforcing authoritarian morality and social and economic conservativism (400 years ago this perhaps reached its zenith in the doctrine of the 'Divine Right of Kings'). In the UK, there are indeed a number of pundits who are prepared to admit that they themselves are not Christian believers, but still value Christian traditions as a means of enforcing old-fashioned 'morality'; I suspect that this may also be true in America, but such people would be less likely to admit their own nonbelief. However, there are also genuine religious extremists in the UK: both Christian and Muslim.