The Huffington Post has published the final segment of a 4-part series by Richard Hughes based on his book Christian America and the Kingdom of God.

The Christian Right in Context, Part 4: The Obama Years

“The election of Barack Obama in 2008 as the nation’s first African American president suggests that the Christian Right — at least as defined and shaped by leaders like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, D. James Kennedy, Paul Weyrich and James Dobson — was falling into disarray. . . .  It seems clear, however, that following Obama’s election, the Christian Right still exerts power by supporting and merging with other explicitly Christian organizations like Values Voters USA or with less explicitly Christian organizations like the Tea Party. People like Sarah Palin, a devout fundamentalist Christian, and Glenn Beck, a Mormon, now give the marching orders to the great army of the faithful that would still identify with the concerns of the Christian Right.”

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Richard T. Hughes is Senior Fellow in the Ernest L. Boyer Center and Distinguished Professor of Religion at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, and author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Myths America Lives By and How Christian Faith Can Sustain the Life of the Mind.