American Strategic Studies

American Strategic Studies

Sacred Rebellion: The Return of Political–Religious Fundamentalism at the Heart of United States Politics

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Assistant Professor, Department of Iran and World Studies, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Research on fundamentalism has predominantly focused on Islamic societies or the West Asian region, while fundamentalist formations within the Christian–political tradition of the United States have received comparatively limited systematic examination. Focusing on the Tea Party movement, this article demonstrates how a segment of what initially emerged as an economic–fiscal protest movement evolved, within the context of the cultural conflicts of the 2010s and the institutional weaknesses of the Republican Party, into a distinct form of political–religious fundamentalism. The central question of the study is: What mechanisms contributed to the politicization of religion and the radicalization of Christian–conservative identity within the Tea Party movement? Employing process tracing and drawing on three sources of data—discourse analysis of Tea Party leaders and activist networks, a critical review of scholarly and media literature, and the use of nationally representative survey data—the research investigates the movement’s discursive and organizational transformation. Within the theoretical framework of “revival–reaction–politicization,” the findings indicate that three principal mechanisms played a decisive role in this transition: the revival of religious identity among White Evangelicals, a growing sense of cultural threat in response to social change, and the absence of effective religious representation within the formal structures of the Republican Party. The study concludes that political–religious fundamentalism is a global phenomenon and not one confined to a particular religious tradition; rather, it emerges from the complex interaction of identity, institutions, and political competition. Such an understanding enables a reconsideration of dominant frameworks for analyzing fundamentalism and provides broader perspectives for the study of religion in contemporary politics.
Keywords

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Volume 6, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
Serial number 22 - Summer 2026
Summer 2026

  • Receive Date 01 November 2025
  • Revise Date 24 July 2026
  • Accept Date 19 August 2026
  • Publish Date 23 July 2026