Since I founded the Pagan Educational Network in 1993, I have kept a close eye on the religious right (or “evangelicals”). I thought it was pointless to reach out to them since they had such strong prejudices and felt we’d have much better luck with moderates (which was true). But the religious right is dangerous to Pagans, from efforts by Senator Jesse Helms and Representative Bob Barr to strip us of constitutional protections to church-motivated violence against Pagans and damage to Pagan businesses.

The religious right helped elect Trump in 2016 for one major reason: abortion. They want to see Roe overturned and believe Trump can do it. In a larger scope, they want the judicial system packed with conservative judges and they want tax breaks (I’m not kidding). Even though Trump is not a regular church-goer and doesn’t even seem to be Christian, the right wanted these things badly enough that they have been willing to overlook that.

This has been a pattern for the Republicans since the mid-20th century when the religious right did a 180 and went from disdaining politics to diving in and seeking to take over the whole system, starting with school boards and going all the way up to the presidency. However! With the last congressional election in 2018, things began to change. Millennial evangelicals left the church in droves and voted independent or Democrat. The religious right had gone too far right for them.

It turns out Millennials are Millennials aside from everything else. They tend to be very socially liberal, and for those in the religious right, they just couldn’t agree with the agenda anymore. According to Newsweek, only 10 percent pf Americans under the age of thirty identify as white evangelicals. Demographers now predict that evangelicals will likely cease being a major force in presidential elections by 2024.

This is great news for Pagans, as it should result in less discrimination and persecution. Aside from that, most Pagans are on the liberal side of the political spectrum, which means they’ll start seeing social policies going their way. Millennial ex-evangelicals are supportive of LGBTQ+ rights and are disgusted by the rejecting of evangelical principals just to gain an alliance with Trump. While older members of the religious right (those over 60) support the building of the wall across the southern border, Millennials reject that. They view their elders as blatantly power-hungry and morally corrupt. After over 20 years of monitoring this movement, I’m finally seeing some change for all of us!