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In 1980 Ronald Reagan was elected in a landslide victory over Jimmy Carter at a time when America was at a crossroads. Our country had seen the assassination of a president (John Kennedy), his brother (Senator Robert Kennedy), and the most well known civil rights leader in the nation (Martin Luther King, Jr.), followed by a long period of Ennui, or a sense of meaningless drifting.

Reagan rekindled the hopes and dreams of political and religious conservatives who once again had reason to believe that all had not been lost and a new American revolution was dawning.

Jerry Falwell had already founded the Moral Majority (what Richard Nixon called “the silent majority”) that had thrown all its resources and influence behind getting Reagan elected. Reagan rewarded them by giving them a seat at the Republican Party’s table, and often an invitation to White House events.

Reagan himself had never been an openly religious man, but he was conservative enough to give at minimum his silent approval to the Moral Majority’s anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-Soviet Union, pro-Israel agenda, and at times his open support.

But Reagan’s legacy left its imprint far more on the Republican Party than the nation. Since his presidency the Christian Right, whose roots are the history Kevin Kruse tells in One nation Under God, has become a power base with which Republican candidates have to deal, especially those seeking the Party’s presidential nomination.

The great irony is that this is precisely what Mr. Conservative himself, Barry Goldwater, had feared would happen. “Mark my word,”, he said, “if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.” (quoted in John Dean’s book, Conservatives Without Conscience, 2006)

It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch as far as I am concerned, but the damage wasn’t done just to the Republican Party. The Christian Right has become “a terrible damn problem” for Christianity as well.

That “damn problem” is the loss of credibility, something that was as predictable as it was inevitable. While James Fifield and Billy Graham were running around the country proclaiming that the nation’s recommitment to Faith, Freedom, and Free Enterprise would usher in a “spiritual revival,” at exactly that same time they paid absolutely no attention to the nascent social issues of racism, segregation, and growing economic disparity that demanded the country’s attention.

I wonder how many signs that said “Whites Only” and “Coloreds Served In The Back” Billy Graham saw when he ate in North Carolina restaurants?

I wonder if Fifield ever took notice of the racial, social, and economic inequities at the doorstep of the mansion he and his wife lived in while he was Senior Minister at First Congregational in Los Angeles?

I wonder how Jerry Falwell could have called for America “to wake up” to its moral decline while founding a segregated school?

Indeed, how could any clergy then or any clergy now make themselves believe that personal morality is the only concern God has in light of the great prophetic tradition in scripture that dares to proclaim God’s passion is for peacemaking, justice seeking, and community building?

A myopic view of morality is what lies behind conservative Christians being obsessed with gay marriage, ignoring racist remarks about President Obama, and listening to Fix News ideologues categorize poor Americans as moochers and freeloaders and then deny ever doing so.

The retired Canadian defense attorney was talking about our criminal justice system when he remarked that “America has a long way to go until it becomes the country it thinks it already is.”

Not only was he right about the flaws in our judicial system, however, he was right about almost every aspect of American life. Which is why defending American exceptionalism as today’s political and religious conservatives seem determined to do serves no good purpose, but often stands in the way of our country making the kind of progress on social issues we could make if we had the will.

The simple truth is that Americans who believe in judicial, social, economic, and environmental justice and want peace in the world should be suspicious of conservative politics and conservative religion, most especially when the two are in bed with each other.