Think Tanks and Christian Conservative Politics
Think Tanks and Christian Conservative Politics
Think tanks occupy an important position between religious communities, political movements, elected officials, courts, government agencies, academics, activists, and the broader public. Within American Christian conservative politics, organizations such as the Heritage Foundation, Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), Family Research Council (FRC), Sutherland Institute, Institute for Family Studies (IFS), American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and the Witherspoon Institute's Public Discourse develop research, legal arguments, policy proposals, intellectual frameworks, and communications strategies touching religion and public life.
The organizations represented in this material are not interchangeable. Some are broad conservative policy institutions; some concentrate heavily on religion, family, sexuality, or bioethics; some conduct empirical research; some participate in litigation or legislative advocacy; and others operate primarily as intellectual or educational institutions. Their differences are significant, but collectively they illustrate how ideas rooted in religious belief, natural-law reasoning, social conservatism, parental authority, traditional family structures, constitutional interpretation, and religious liberty can move from intellectual debate into public policy.
The material also includes research and journalism from organizations outside the Christian conservative movement, including Pew Research Center, Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), Reuters, Associated Press, Brookings Institution, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Christianity Today, and others. These sources provide outside perspectives on the constituencies, institutional relationships, public controversies, political effects, and internal disagreements surrounding Christian conservative policy organizations.
Heritage Foundation and National Conservative Policy
The Heritage Foundation is one of the most prominent institutions represented in the material. Its work links traditional conservative principles with contemporary debates concerning religion, family, education, abortion, reproductive technology, parental authority, religious liberty, and the role of government.
Heritage's intellectual framework frequently emphasizes natural law, moral order, religious freedom, limited government, civic virtue, patriotism, marriage, and the family. Its publications portray families and religious institutions as important sources of social order that exist alongside government rather than merely as private associations.
Family policy has become particularly prominent in Heritage's recent work. Publications address marriage, fertility, child care, motherhood, fatherhood, IVF, egg freezing, commercial surrogacy, reproductive technology, and broader questions concerning demographic decline. This approach reflects a debate within modern conservatism over whether government should simply avoid interfering with families or should adopt affirmative policies intended to encourage marriage, childbirth, and family stability.
Heritage also connects education policy with religious liberty. School choice, education savings accounts, private-school autonomy, parental opt-outs, curriculum disputes, and the constitutional rights of parents are frequently treated as interconnected issues. Under this framework, education is understood not merely as academic instruction but also as moral and cultural formation.
Religious-liberty work extends into disputes involving abortion, healthcare, vaccination mandates, public religious expression, sexuality, and government regulation. Heritage publications often frame these controversies as questions concerning the limits of state authority and the ability of individuals and institutions to act according to religious or moral conviction.
Ethics and Public Policy Center
The Ethics and Public Policy Center combines public-policy research with moral, religious, legal, and philosophical analysis. Its work encompasses abortion, reproductive medicine, religious liberty, education, gender policy, family policy, technology, constitutional law, and the relationship between Christianity and political participation.
EPPC illustrates how think tanks can influence policy through several channels simultaneously. Scholars publish essays and research, testify or participate in political debate, file amicus briefs in litigation, propose model legislation, advise policymakers, and sometimes accept government appointments.
Religious-liberty litigation represents an important part of this work. EPPC scholars have participated in disputes involving contraception mandates, abortion coverage, parental rights, school policies concerning gender identity, classroom material, and clergy confidentiality.
EPPC's work on reproductive policy demonstrates that Christian conservative organizations do not necessarily agree with Republican administrations or politicians on every issue. Its scholars have criticized government efforts to expand IVF even when those proposals originated within Republican administrations, illustrating the distinction between a religiously informed policy organization and a political party.
The organization's publications also reflect natural-law reasoning: the view that political and legal questions can be evaluated according to claims about human nature, moral truth, family relationships, human dignity, and the common good rather than solely through individual choice or procedural neutrality.
Family Research Council and Christian Policy Advocacy
The Family Research Council occupies a particularly direct position at the intersection of Christianity, social conservatism, public policy, and political mobilization. FRC explicitly describes its work in terms of a biblical worldview and identifies faith, family, and freedom as central institutional themes.
Its policy work extends across abortion, sexuality, religious liberty, marriage, education, healthcare, courts, immigration, economics, and government. FRC also works directly with federal and state lawmakers and provides resources intended to encourage Christian participation in civic and political life.
The organization has long argued that political involvement can be part of Christian civic responsibility. Publications have addressed voting, candidates, political parties, moral issues, the responsibilities of pastors and congregations, and biblical principles for political participation.
FRC Action operates as an affiliated organization with a more explicitly political role, including legislative advocacy, grassroots mobilization, engagement with elected officials, and electoral activity. The distinction illustrates a broader feature of the Christian conservative institutional ecosystem: research organizations, religious organizations, lobbying organizations, political-action networks, and educational institutions can perform different legal and organizational functions while working on overlapping issues.
Sutherland Institute and State-Level Policy Networks
The Sutherland Institute demonstrates the importance of state and regional think tanks within Christian conservative politics. Based in Utah, Sutherland emphasizes faith, family, freedom, parental authority, religious liberty, limited government, and the role of civil society.
A major theme in its work is that families and religious institutions are independent social institutions that should possess substantial authority over matters such as education, child development, healthcare, and religious formation. Government, from this perspective, should recognize and protect these institutions rather than displace them.
Sutherland's work also illustrates the role think tanks can play in constitutional litigation. Its involvement in parental-rights and religious-liberty cases shows that state-focused organizations may influence national legal debates through amicus briefs and other forms of legal advocacy.
The organization is also useful for understanding disagreements within conservatism itself. Recent discussion surrounding Sutherland contrasts its institution-oriented, policy-focused conservatism with more populist and nationalist approaches associated with other portions of the contemporary right.
Institute for Family Studies and the Growth of Family Policy
The Institute for Family Studies concentrates heavily on marriage, fertility, parenting, child development, education, technology, demographic change, and family formation.
Its work illustrates the growing importance of family policy within American conservative thought. Issues once treated primarily as cultural or private matters—including marriage rates, fertility decline, child care, homeschooling, gender differences, and family formation—have increasingly become subjects of explicit policy debate.
This development has created disagreements among conservatives. Traditional limited-government conservatives may be reluctant to use government intervention to shape family life, while newer family-policy advocates argue that tax policy, childcare programs, labor policy, housing, education, and other government decisions already influence families and therefore should be designed deliberately to support them.
IFS also seeks to make its research available directly to legislators and public officials, demonstrating another route by which research institutions can influence government without themselves becoming political parties or government agencies.
American Enterprise Institute, Public Discourse, and Intellectual Infrastructure
Not every organization in the Christian conservative policy ecosystem concentrates primarily on electoral politics or lobbying. Institutions such as the American Enterprise Institute and Public Discourse contribute to the intellectual environment in which political arguments develop.
AEI publications in the material address religion in American history, Catholic political thought, constitutional theory, antisemitism, religion's social role, and the philosophical foundations of religious liberty.
Public Discourse, associated with the Witherspoon Institute, emphasizes natural law, marriage, family, religious liberty, bioethics, education, sexuality, parental rights, and constitutional government. Its role is especially illustrative of what might be called intellectual infrastructure: developing philosophical and moral arguments that can subsequently influence scholars, lawyers, activists, politicians, judges, and policy organizations.
This intellectual layer matters because political movements generally depend on more than campaign organizations. They also require institutions capable of producing concepts, arguments, research, legal theories, policy proposals, and trained personnel.
Religious Liberty, Parental Rights, and Education
Religious liberty emerges as one of the strongest common themes across the material.
Christian conservative institutions frequently connect religious liberty with education. Debates over school choice, public-school curricula, private and religious schools, homeschooling, parental opt-outs, gender and sexuality education, and education savings accounts are often presented as questions concerning who possesses primary authority over children's moral and intellectual formation.
The centennial of the Supreme Court's decision in Pierce v. Society of Sisters became an important reference point in these debates. Conservative policy organizations have used the case to emphasize the principle that children are not solely under government authority and that parents possess substantial rights concerning education.
These arguments extend beyond schools. Parental authority is also invoked in disputes concerning healthcare, gender identity, reproductive questions, and the relationship between families and administrative agencies.
Religious-liberty arguments similarly extend into healthcare mandates, abortion coverage, contraception, professional conscience, vaccination requirements, clergy confidentiality, and public religious expression.
Abortion, IVF, and Bioethics
Abortion has historically been one of the central issues linking Christian conservative organizations with electoral politics, constitutional litigation, and public-policy advocacy.
Following the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade, conservative institutions have debated how anti-abortion politics should proceed in a decentralized legal environment. Some sources emphasize legislation and regulation; others argue that long-term cultural change, family support, marriage, motherhood, and social norms must accompany legal restrictions.
IVF and reproductive technology have emerged as increasingly important issues. Heritage and EPPC publications examine embryo destruction, fertility treatment, commercial incentives, egg freezing, surrogacy, and the moral status of embryos.
These debates also expose divisions inside conservative politics. Republican politicians may support expanded access to IVF while religious conservative policy scholars criticize aspects of the same policies on bioethical grounds.
The result is a more complicated landscape than a simple alignment between Christian conservative organizations and Republican policy.
Family, Fertility, and Demographic Policy
The uploaded material shows a notable expansion of conservative policy attention to fertility and family formation.
Think tanks and scholars discuss declining birth rates, child care, marriage, motherhood, fatherhood, family taxation, reproductive technology, homeschooling, economic incentives, and the relationship between family structure and social stability.
Some organizations argue that government should remain limited while protecting the autonomy of families. Others increasingly support affirmative family policy, including government programs designed to reduce the economic cost of raising children or encourage marriage and parenthood.
This debate represents a broader transformation within the American right. A conservatism historically associated with skepticism toward government intervention now includes influential thinkers who argue that public policy should actively sustain institutions considered socially valuable.
Project 2025 and the Think-Tank-to-Government Pipeline
Project 2025 provides a prominent example of how think tanks can attempt to translate policy ideas into governing programs.
Coordinated by the Heritage Foundation with participation from numerous conservative organizations, the project developed extensive policy recommendations, personnel networks, agency proposals, and plans concerning executive-branch administration.
The project illustrates several functions that think tanks may perform before and during political transitions. They can develop detailed policy manuals, recruit potential government personnel, propose regulatory changes, train future officials, coordinate allied organizations, and provide administrations with policy proposals that can be implemented quickly.
Outside analysis of Project 2025 also highlights debates concerning executive authority, the civil service, education, gender policy, federal agencies, and administrative power.
The movement of individuals between think tanks and government further demonstrates that these institutions can serve not merely as producers of ideas but also as personnel networks.
Think Tanks, Churches, and Political Communication
Think tanks and churches perform different institutional roles.
Public-opinion research indicates that many Americans distinguish between churches discussing moral or political issues and churches formally endorsing candidates. This creates a space in which policy organizations can engage more directly in legislative, legal, and political advocacy than many congregations choose to do.
Think tanks may therefore function as intermediaries. Religious communities generate beliefs, social networks, moral concerns, and constituencies, while policy organizations translate related concerns into white papers, legislation, court briefs, regulatory proposals, polling, media appearances, and political strategy.
This does not mean that churches and conservative policy institutes form a single coordinated system. Congregations vary enormously, denominations disagree, and many Christians oppose Christian conservative political movements. The material nevertheless demonstrates substantial overlap among some religious constituencies, advocacy organizations, intellectual institutions, and conservative policy networks.
Christian Conservative Constituencies
Research from Pew Research Center provides an empirical perspective on the political constituencies to which many Christian conservative organizations speak.
Pew's political typologies identify highly religious and socially conservative portions of the Republican coalition while also demonstrating significant differences among conservative voters. Religious conservatives differ in political style, attitudes toward government, willingness to compromise, foreign policy, abortion, nationalism, and attitudes toward political leaders.
This diversity is important because "Christian conservatives" should not be treated as a politically uniform population. Organizations may advocate similar policies while appealing to constituencies with substantially different priorities and political temperaments.
Research on religion in public life also suggests that Americans distinguish among different forms of religious influence. Attitudes toward religious moral leadership, churches discussing political issues, churches endorsing candidates, biblical influence on legislation, church-state separation, and establishment of an official religion are not identical.
Christian Nationalism and Public Opinion
PRRI's research adds another dimension by measuring attitudes associated with Christian nationalism.
Its state-level research examines differences in Christian-nationalism support by geography, religious affiliation, political identification, worship attendance, demographic group, media use, and attitudes toward government.
The research also explores relationships between Christian-nationalist beliefs and immigration, political authority, national identity, voting behavior, and views of American society.
Christian nationalism is related to Christian conservative politics but should not be treated as synonymous with it. The organizations in this material include institutional conservatives, religious-liberty advocates, natural-law theorists, family-policy researchers, national conservatives, populists, and other ideological tendencies. Some overlap with Christian-nationalist ideas; others distinguish themselves from nationalist or populist approaches.
Progressive Christian mobilization against Christian nationalism further demonstrates that Christianity itself does not produce a single political orientation.
Internal Conservative Debates
One of the clearest themes in the material is that conservative institutions disagree among themselves.
Contemporary disputes involve nationalism, populism, institutional conservatism, the role of political rhetoric, antisemitism, executive power, family policy, reproductive technology, the appropriate use of government, and the relationship between conservative institutions and political leaders.
Debates involving the Heritage Foundation and Sutherland Institute demonstrate competing approaches to the future of conservatism. One tendency emphasizes movement activism, populism, institutional confrontation, and aggressive use of political power. Another emphasizes policy expertise, institutional stability, evidence, constitutional norms, and traditional conservative civil-society arguments.
Other disagreements concern whether conservatism should remain strongly oriented toward limited government or embrace a more active role for public policy in supporting families, industrial policy, demographic goals, cultural institutions, and national identity.
These divisions complicate descriptions of a single unified "Christian conservative movement."
Historical Development
The institutional relationship between conservative Christianity and public policy predates current controversies.
Material from the 1990s and early 2000s documents the Family Research Council, Heritage Foundation, EPPC, and allied organizations participating in discussions over family policy, welfare reform, abortion, civil society, churches, Republican administrations, and the appropriate political role of Christians.
During this period, think tanks helped translate the priorities of the emerging Christian Right into language suitable for legislative and administrative policy.
Over subsequent decades, the agenda expanded. Abortion, marriage, and religious liberty remained central, while education, gender identity, reproductive technology, parental rights, fertility, technology policy, administrative government, nationalism, and broader questions of American identity became increasingly important.
The result is an institutional network considerably broader than the electoral organizations traditionally associated with the Christian Right.
Think Tanks as Political Infrastructure
The material collectively illustrates several ways think tanks can exercise political influence.
They conduct research and publish reports. They formulate policy proposals. They provide intellectual and moral arguments. They draft or inspire legislation. They participate in litigation. They advise lawmakers. They communicate ideas through media. They organize conferences and professional networks. They cultivate experts and future government personnel. They help political administrations prepare policy agendas before taking office.
They can also give political movements institutional continuity. Candidates, administrations, and election cycles change rapidly, while think tanks can spend decades developing policy expertise and preserving intellectual traditions.
This makes them an important part of political infrastructure even when they do not directly campaign for candidates.
Relationship to Political Parties
Christian conservative policy institutions have substantial historical connections with Republican politics, but the relationship is not identical to party control.
Organizations may provide research or personnel used by Republican administrations, promote policies favored by Republican lawmakers, or study constituencies heavily concentrated within the Republican electorate. At the same time, they sometimes criticize Republican politicians and administrations for departing from their religious, moral, constitutional, or policy principles.
This distinction matters analytically. A think tank may belong broadly to the conservative movement while retaining its own institutional agenda, donors, scholars, priorities, and philosophical commitments.
The relationship is therefore better understood as an overlapping network than as a simple hierarchy directed by a political party.
Broader Ideological Context
Christian conservative think tanks operate within larger debates concerning liberalism, post-liberalism, national conservatism, pluralism, constitutionalism, natural law, religious freedom, political authority, and the role of Christianity in public life.
Some conservative thinkers defend traditional American constitutional pluralism and argue principally for strong protections for religious institutions. Others contend that ostensibly neutral government inevitably promotes particular moral assumptions and therefore advocate a more explicitly substantive conception of the common good.
National-conservative and post-liberal arguments have intensified this debate by questioning whether liberal neutrality provides adequate support for family, religion, community, or national cohesion.
These intellectual disputes influence practical policy questions concerning education, family law, reproductive policy, administrative government, speech, religious exercise, immigration, and national identity.
Conclusion
Christian conservative politics in the United States is supported by an extensive and varied institutional ecosystem rather than by churches, political parties, or electoral campaigns alone.
Think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Family Research Council, Sutherland Institute, Institute for Family Studies, American Enterprise Institute, and institutions associated with Public Discourse perform different but overlapping functions. They produce research, develop intellectual arguments, participate in litigation, formulate legislation, advise policymakers, communicate with political constituencies, and sometimes provide personnel for government.
Across the material, several recurring themes connect these organizations: religious liberty, family authority, marriage, abortion, reproductive ethics, parental rights, education, natural law, constitutional government, and concern about the relationship between religious institutions and state power.
At the same time, the sources demonstrate substantial disagreement within conservatism over populism, nationalism, government intervention, political strategy, reproductive technology, institutional norms, and the meaning of Christian political engagement.
Public-opinion research from Pew and PRRI adds an important qualification: the religious and political constituencies associated with Christian conservatism are themselves diverse. Support for religious influence in public life varies depending on the form that influence takes, and Christian political participation includes both supporters and critics of Christian nationalism.
Taken together, the material portrays Christian conservative think tanks as part of a broader network connecting ideas, religious traditions, research, law, political constituencies, advocacy organizations, and government. Their influence lies not only in particular policy victories but also in their capacity to develop concepts, train experts, sustain networks, shape debates, and translate moral and religious arguments into forms that can enter legislative, judicial, administrative, and electoral politics.
Heritage Foundation
It's Time for Biblical Clarity | Emma Waters | The Heritage Foundation | September 24, 2026
Discusses IVF, embryo destruction, and reproductive technology from a conservative Christian and pro-life perspective while calling for clearer ethical standards.
Give the Federal Childcare Subsidy to Parents, Not Daycare | Corey DeAngelis | The Heritage Foundation | September 17, 2026
Advocates directing childcare assistance toward parents rather than institutional providers, illustrating Heritage's growing emphasis on family-centered social policy.
The Heritage Foundation First Principles | Jay W. Richards | The Heritage Foundation | August 19, 2026
Describes the philosophical framework underlying Heritage policy, including natural law, belief in God as a source of moral order, religious liberty, family, limited government, virtue, and patriotic citizenship.
The Future of America Depends on Flourishing Families | Delano Squires | The Heritage Foundation | May 15, 2026
Argues that marriage and family stability should become central concerns of conservative policymaking rather than peripheral cultural issues.
Democrats Take Black Christian Votes for Granted | Delano Squires | The Heritage Foundation | May 15, 2026
Discusses religion, African American voters, social values, and partisan politics from Heritage's conservative perspective.
Fixing the Failures of the Pro-Life Movement | Scott Yenor | The Heritage Foundation | May 8, 2026
Argues that conservative abortion politics should place greater emphasis on motherhood, marriage, parenthood, and cultural norms.
School Choice Is About Religious Liberty, Not Just Better Test Scores | Jason Bedrick | The Heritage Foundation | February 27, 2026
Links education choice directly to parental rights and religious liberty and argues that families should be able to choose schools reflecting their beliefs.
Public Comment on Parental Rights, Substantial Equivalency, and School Choice | Jason Bedrick | The Heritage Foundation | January 26, 2026
Urges policymakers to protect parental authority and the autonomy of religious schools from government regulation.
A Pro-Life Agenda for the 119th Congress and the Administration | Melanie Israel | The Heritage Foundation | July 2, 2025
Offers detailed recommendations for abortion, conscience, healthcare funding, regulation, and executive-branch policy.
Faith, Freedom, and Child Formation | Jason Bedrick and Thomas Jipping | The Heritage Foundation | June 6, 2025
Uses the centennial of Pierce v. Society of Sisters to discuss parental rights, religious schooling, and limits on government authority over children.
Pierce at 100: The Legacy of Pierce v. Society of Sisters | The Heritage Foundation | The Heritage Foundation | May 29, 2025
Convened legal scholars and religious-liberty advocates to examine the Supreme Court's protection of parental authority and religious education in Pierce v. Society of Sisters.
The Conservative Vision of Education | Ryan T. Anderson | The Heritage Foundation | April 2, 2025
Presents education as fundamentally connected to human nature, natural law, virtue, patriotism, family, and belief rather than ideological neutrality.
A Pro-Life Progress Report for the 118th Congress | Melanie Israel | The Heritage Foundation | March 24, 2025
Reviews congressional and executive actions involving abortion, conscience protections, reproductive policy, and government funding.
Gender Ideology Threatens Religious Freedom and Endangers Children | Thomas Jipping | The Heritage Foundation | January 23, 2025
Argues that government policies concerning gender identity can conflict with the religious beliefs of foster parents and other citizens, illustrating the overlap between social policy and religious-liberty advocacy.
Pro-Life Laws Do Not Threaten Religious Freedom | Thomas Jipping | The Heritage Foundation | July 31, 2024
Argues that abortion restrictions are compatible with constitutional and statutory protections for religious exercise.
Proxy Wars over Religious Liberty | Ryan T. Anderson | The Heritage Foundation | March 30, 2020
Argues that disputes described as religious-liberty controversies often reflect deeper disagreements over abortion, marriage, sexuality, and moral truth.
The Meaning of Religious Liberty | Matthew Spalding | The Heritage Foundation | December 5, 2007
Presents Heritage's historical interpretation of religious liberty, emphasizing the Founders' belief that religion and morality support republican self-government.
Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC)
2025 Annual Report | Ethics and Public Policy Center | EPPC | March 17, 2026
Documents EPPC's efforts to shape abortion, IVF, education, religious-liberty, gender, technology, and family policy and provides a useful institutional account of its influence.
EPPC 2025 Annual Report | Ethics and Public Policy Center | EPPC | March 2026
Summarizes EPPC initiatives in abortion policy, IVF legislation, religious liberty, education, gender policy, court cases, and federal appointments.
Ryan Anderson: The March for Life Is Needed "to Rejuvenate the Pro-Life Grassroots" | Ryan T. Anderson and Zelda Caldwell | EPPC/National Catholic Register | January 22, 2026
Discusses the political challenges confronting the anti-abortion movement after Dobbs and strategies for sustaining conservative grassroots activism.
Democrat Witness Lies About the Abortion Pill's Dangerous Side Effects | Ryan T. Anderson and Jamie Bryan Hall | EPPC | January 19, 2026
Defends EPPC research on mifepristone and illustrates how think-tank studies can enter congressional, regulatory, and partisan debates.
EPPC Scholar Files Amicus Brief in the Third Circuit Arguing to Uphold Religious Exemption to Federal Contraception Mandate | Eric Kniffin | Ethics and Public Policy Center | December 19, 2025
Supports a religious exemption from the federal contraception mandate and illustrates how EPPC participates directly in litigation affecting conservative Christian institutions.
EPPC Scholar Files Amicus Brief in the Tenth Circuit on Overnight School Assignments | Eric Kniffin | Ethics and Public Policy Center | November 26, 2025
Argues that parents have constitutional rights when schools assign students to overnight accommodations according to gender identity rather than sex.
Trump's IVF Policy Could Be Worse, But It's Still Bad | Ryan T. Anderson | Ethics and Public Policy Center / First Things | October 17, 2025
Critiques federal efforts to expand IVF access from a conservative bioethical perspective and illustrates internal policy disagreement between Christian conservatives and Republican officials.
EPPC Fellow Secures Court Victory for Religious Freedom | Ethics and Public Policy Center | EPPC | October 10, 2025
Describes litigation challenging a Washington state law affecting clergy confidentiality and the sacramental seal of confession.
Did SCOTUS Just Transform America's Schools? | Stanley Kurtz | Ethics and Public Policy Center / National Review | July 9, 2025
Discusses the potential broader consequences of Mahmoud v. Taylor for curriculum transparency, religious objections, and parental opt-outs.
EPPC Scholar Files Amicus Brief in Support of Father's Suit Against School District | Eric Kniffin | Ethics and Public Policy Center | June 16, 2025
Supports a father's parental-rights claim concerning a school's handling of his daughter's gender identity, reflecting EPPC's focus on education and family authority.
EPPC Scholar Files Amicus Brief in Support of Mother's Suit Against School | Eric Kniffin | Ethics and Public Policy Center | June 12, 2025
Argues that parental rights should constrain school policies concerning a child's social gender transition without parental knowledge.
President Trump Appoints EPPC's Ryan T. Anderson to Religious Liberty Commission | Ethics and Public Policy Center | EPPC | May 1, 2025
Documents the movement of a prominent think-tank president into a federal advisory role involving religious-liberty policy.
A Maturing Political Conscience | Andrew T. Walker | EPPC/WORLD Opinions | April 25, 2025
Discusses changes in evangelical political engagement and argues for a Christian political approach grounded in moral order rather than political power alone.
EPPC Scholar Files Amicus Brief Urging Ninth Circuit to Protect Church's Religious Convictions Against Facilitating Abortion | Eric Kniffin | Ethics and Public Policy Center | April 14, 2025
Supports a church challenging state requirements involving abortion coverage, placing abortion policy and religious conscience within a single constitutional dispute.
EPPC Supreme Court Amicus Brief Defends Parents' Free Exercise Right | Eric Kniffin | Ethics and Public Policy Center | March 10, 2025
Supports parents seeking religious exemptions from sexuality and gender-related classroom material in Mahmoud v. Taylor.
It's OK to Be a Christian Conservative | Andrew T. Walker | EPPC/WORLD Opinions | March 3, 2025
Defends the legitimacy of explicitly Christian conservative political participation and critiques evangelical efforts to distance Christianity from conservatism.
A Future for the Family: A New Technology Agenda for the Right | Clare Morell et al. | EPPC/First Things | January 29, 2025
Calls for conservatives to evaluate artificial intelligence, reproductive technology, and digital platforms according to their impact on human beings and families.
The Way Forward After Dobbs | Ryan T. Anderson | EPPC | October 2024
Assesses the political difficulties of the anti-abortion movement after the fall of Roe and argues for long-term legal and cultural strategies.
How Conservatives Can Promote Family Through Policy | Patrick T. Brown | EPPC/Institute for Family Studies | July 3, 2024
Explores tensions between limited-government conservatism and newer conservative efforts to use government policy to strengthen marriage and families.
Republicans Can Reset the Abortion Debate | Ryan T. Anderson | EPPC/Wall Street Journal | April 18, 2023
Addresses Republican abortion strategy after Dobbs and the challenge of translating pro-life principles into electorally sustainable policy.
Making Abortion Illegal and Unthinkable | Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis | EPPC/National Review | June 23, 2022
Argues that the anti-abortion movement requires cultural change alongside legal restrictions and family-support policy.
To Defend True Freedom, We Need to Know the Truth | Ryan T. Anderson | EPPC | 2023
Argues for grounding religious liberty, free speech, marriage, abortion, and sexuality policy in natural-law reasoning rather than purely procedural pluralism.
No, Overturning Roe Would Not Establish Theocracy | Ryan T. Anderson and Andrew T. Walker | EPPC | 2022
Rejects arguments that religiously motivated opposition to abortion is inherently theocratic and discusses religion's legitimate role in democratic moral reasoning.
Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing | Ryan T. Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis | EPPC | 2022
Connects abortion policy with marriage, family, media, corporations, social institutions, and conservative cultural politics.
EPPC Scholars Offer Comments on the Equality Act | EPPC Scholars | Ethics and Public Policy Center | 2021
Presents conservative Christian objections to federal LGBTQ nondiscrimination legislation based on religious liberty, conscience, abortion, and sexuality concerns.
Family Research Council and Christian Policy Advocacy
About Family Research Council | Family Research Council | FRC | Current
Explains FRC's institutional mission of influencing government, media, academia, business, and the public from what it explicitly describes as a biblical worldview.
Family Research Council Vision and Mission Statements | Family Research Council | FRC | Current
Defines FRC's mission as advancing faith, family, and freedom in public policy and culture from a biblical worldview.
Family Research Council Issues | Family Research Council | FRC | Current
Shows the breadth of FRC involvement in abortion, sexuality, religious liberty, education, courts, immigration, healthcare, economics, and government policy.
Legislation | Family Research Council | FRC | Current
Describes FRC's direct work with lawmakers at federal and state levels on life, marriage, family, and religious-liberty legislation.
Civil Society | Family Research Council | FRC | Current
Frames political and public-policy participation as one means by which Christians can fulfill responsibilities to their neighbors and society.
FRC Action | FRC Action | FRC Action | Current
Describes the legislative affiliate of FRC, whose stated work includes influencing elected officials, activating grassroots networks, and engaging elections.
Family Research Council Research and Policy | Family Research Council | FRC | Current
Provides an overview of FRC research touching education, family, sexuality, religious freedom, government, and civil society.
Politics: How Involved Should Christians Be? | David Closson | Family Research Council | September 21, 2020
Examines competing Christian arguments for political involvement and argues for political participation shaped by biblical principles.
Family Research Council and 21 State-Level Family Policy Councils Release Resource Outlining Biblical Principles for Political Engagement | Family Research Council | FRC | June 2, 2020
Documents coordination between FRC and state policy organizations to distribute guidance on voting and political involvement to Christians and pastors.
Biblical Principles for Political Activism in the 2020 Presidential Election | Family Research Council | FRC | 2019
Presents political participation as a Christian responsibility while discussing voting, parties, candidates, and moral issues.
Sutherland Institute
Sutherland Institute Mission, Vision & Principles | Sutherland Institute | Sutherland Institute | Current
Explains how the think tank seeks to influence citizens, journalists, policymakers, and cultural leaders around constitutional values of faith, family, and freedom.
Sutherland Institute Family Policy | Sutherland Institute | Sutherland Institute | Current
Describes the family as a foundational institution and argues that government should respect parental leadership and family autonomy.
Why Parental Authority and Religious Freedom Go Hand in Hand | William C. Duncan | Sutherland Institute | August 12, 2026
Argues that family authority and religious institutions are constitutionally and socially important limits on government power.
New Sutherland Institute Report: Parents, Not Government, Should Raise the Next Generation | Sutherland Institute | Sutherland Institute | August 12, 2026
Promotes parental authority in education, healthcare, religion, and child development as a guiding principle of government policy.
Sutherland Institute Announces Todd Weiler as New President and CEO | Sutherland Institute | Sutherland Institute | July 15, 2026
Highlights the organization's emphasis on faith, family, religious freedom, parental rights, and engagement with state policymakers.
How Utah's Premier Conservative Think Tank Plans to Navigate the GOP's Populist Moment | Brigham Tomco | Deseret News | July 15, 2026
Examines Sutherland Institute's effort to maintain a faith-and-family conservative identity while distinguishing itself from more populist trends within national conservatism.
U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Two Cases on Parents' Rights and Religious Freedom | Sutherland Institute | Sutherland Institute | July 1, 2026
Illustrates how a state-based think tank participates in constitutional litigation through amicus briefs involving parental rights and religious exercise.
Talking About Religion in a Secular Age: How Religious "Nones" Perceive the Value of Religion | Samuel J. Abrams | Sutherland Institute/AEI listing | December 1, 2025
Studies how religiously unaffiliated Americans understand religion's role in society, offering evidence relevant to conservative religious-liberty policy.
Why Religion Strengthens Families—and Why Policy Should Protect It | William C. Duncan | Sutherland Institute | September 3, 2025
Connects religious participation with marriage and family stability and argues that policymakers should protect religious institutions accordingly.
Sutherland Announces New Statement of Principles to Combat Political and Policy Division | Sutherland Institute | Sutherland Institute | 2024
Defines the organization's policy philosophy around faith, family, freedom, limited government, free enterprise, parental authority, and religious liberty.
Institute for Family Studies
Institute for Family Studies: About | Institute for Family Studies | IFS | Current
Describes IFS's mission of strengthening marriage and family life through research and public engagement.
Family Policy for Policymakers | Institute for Family Studies | IFS | Current
Describes IFS efforts to provide legislators and government staff with research on family formation, marriage, fertility, children, and technology.
Tribalism Will Triumph: The Politics of Fertility | Jonathan Anomaly and Filipe Nobre Faria | Institute for Family Studies | September 15, 2026
Examines fertility differences between political and cultural groups and their possible implications for long-term political coalitions.
How Conservatives Can Promote Family Through Policy | Patrick T. Brown | Institute for Family Studies | July 3, 2024
Examines disagreements between free-market conservatives and newer family-centered conservatives over whether government should actively promote family formation.
A New Agenda for the Pro-Family Movement | Josh McCabe | Institute for Family Studies | June 13, 2019
Reviews the political history of the pro-family movement and proposes policy goals for social conservatives.
American Enterprise Institute
Anti-Semitism Is Incompatible with Catholicism | Robert P. George | American Enterprise Institute | July 24, 2025
Addresses antisemitism from Catholic and natural-law perspectives and provides insight into internal debates within religious conservatism.
Constitutional Theory at a Catholic University | J. Joel Alicea | American Enterprise Institute | April 15, 2025
Discusses constitutional interpretation and the contribution Catholic intellectual traditions can make to American legal theory.
Taking Religion Seriously | Charles Murray | American Enterprise Institute | 2025
Examines religion as a significant component of social and cultural life within a broader conservative intellectual framework.
Religion and the American Revolution | Various Authors | American Enterprise Institute | 2024-2026 project
Explores religion's role in the American founding and the relationship between Christianity, political liberty, republican government, and constitutional institutions.
Public Discourse / Natural-Law Conservatism
Natural Law, Religious Liberty, and Conservative Policy | Various Authors | Public Discourse | Ongoing
Illustrates the intellectual infrastructure through which philosophical and theological arguments are translated into conservative public-policy debates.
Defending Parental Rights in the Modern Age: Pierce v. Society of Sisters at 100 | Robert P. George | Public Discourse | June 2, 2025
Defends parental authority using natural-law reasoning and argues that parents rather than government ordinarily possess primary responsibility for children's upbringing.
Journalism and Independent Analysis
Project 2025 Architect Paul Dans to Challenge Lindsey Graham for Senate | Amy B Wang and Niha Masih | Washington Post | July 2025
Illustrates movement between conservative policy organizations, government service, ideological networks, and electoral politics.
Trump Picks People Who Worked on Project 2025 Despite Distancing Himself | Patrick Svitek | Washington Post | November 20, 2024
Documents personnel connections between the Heritage-led policy initiative and appointments to the incoming Trump administration.
Project 2025 Ex-Director Condemns Heritage President's "Violent Rhetoric" | Isaac Arnsdorf | Washington Post | October 16, 2024
Covers internal conservative disagreement over Heritage leadership, rhetoric, political strategy, and movement identity.
Project 2025 Is a Huge Blunder from Trump's Allies | Aaron Blake | Washington Post | September 23, 2024
Analyzes public reaction to the Heritage-led policy program and its role in electoral politics.
How Democrats Made Project 2025 One of Their Top Anti-Republican Attacks | Ashley Parker and Maeve Reston | Washington Post | September 4, 2024
Traces how an initially specialist think-tank program became nationally prominent during the 2024 election campaign.
Project 2025 Director Leaves as Democratic Attacks Spurred Backlash from Trump | Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey | Washington Post | July 30, 2024
Examines tensions between a conservative think-tank network's policy agenda and presidential campaign strategy.
When Can a Ministry Count as a Church? | Daniel Silliman | Christianity Today | July 13, 2022
Investigates the Family Research Council's classification as an association of churches and the institutional boundary between political advocacy groups and religious organizations.
Pushing Bush Right | Sheryl Henderson Blunt | Christianity Today | March 5, 2001
Documents Heritage and Family Research Council policy proposals during the early George W. Bush administration and shows the longstanding role of think tanks in conservative governing coalitions.
Conservatives Debate Church's Role | Mark A. Kellner | Christianity Today | February 5, 1996
Reports on a Family Research Council conference examining churches, welfare reform, civil society, traditional family structure, and limited government.
The Christian Right in American Politics | PBS Think Tank | PBS | July 29, 1994
Features scholars and EPPC representatives debating the rise of the Christian Right, its relationship to the Republican Party, and its place in American political culture.
How Project 2025's Rightward Vision Became a Flashpoint in the Election | Associated Press | AP | 2024
Provides an overview of the Heritage-led coalition, its personnel database, proposed restructuring of government, and emergence as an election issue.
Heritage, Project 2025, and Conservative Governing Networks
What Is Project 2025 and How Is It Connected to Trump? | Reuters | Reuters | December 19, 2024
Explains the Heritage-led policy project, its coalition of conservative organizations, its personnel network, and the involvement of contributors who later entered government.
Project 2025 and the Department of Education | Jon Valant | Brookings Institution | September 3, 2024
Analyzes Project 2025 proposals involving the Department of Education, federal education programs, civil rights enforcement, parental rights, and school choice.
Internal Conservative Debates
Who Defines Conservatism Now? | Deseret News | Deseret Magazine | May 2, 2026
Examines ideological conflict within the Heritage Foundation and the broader conservative movement over nationalism, populism, antisemitism, institutional identity, and movement boundaries.
Pew Research Center: Religious Conservatism and Political Constituencies
Faith First Conservatives | Jocelyn Kiley et al. | Pew Research Center | June 10, 2026
Identifies a highly religious and socially conservative segment of the Republican coalition for whom religion has an unusually strong influence on political attitudes and voting.
Beyond Red vs. Blue: The 2026 Political Typology | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | June 10, 2026
Places religious conservatives within a nine-group political typology and distinguishes them from other Republican-aligned groups on religion, abortion, nationalism, and political style.
Pragmatic and Polite Right | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | June 10, 2026
Identifies another Republican-oriented constituency that is relatively religious but more supportive of compromise and less combative political behavior.
Faith and Flag Conservatives | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | November 9, 2021
Earlier typology research identified a highly religious Republican bloc combining social conservatism, small-government preferences, patriotism, and strong support for Trump.
Religion in Government and Public Life
What Political Issues Do Americans Hear About in Church? | Becka A. Alper | Pew Research Center | May 27, 2026
Examines political and social issues discussed by clergy and provides empirical context for understanding relationships between churches and political advocacy.
How Americans Feel About Religion's Influence in Government and Public Life | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 14, 2026
Measures public attitudes toward religion in government, church involvement in politics, Christian nationalism, Bible-based law, and church-state separation.
Big Partisan Differences on How Much Government Should Embrace Christianity | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 14, 2026
Documents substantial partisan differences over whether the Bible should influence American law.
PRRI: Christian Nationalism and Conservative Politics
Resistance to Christian Nationalism in All 50 States | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | September 24, 2026
Examines opposition to Christian nationalism across states and provides contemporary context for evaluating the constituencies targeted by conservative religious institutions.
Unpacking the White Christian Vote: Trends in Presidential and Congressional Voting Since 1960 | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | August 26, 2026
Examines long-term voting patterns among white Christian groups and places current Christian conservative politics within a broader historical context.
Progressive Christian Mobilization and the Discourse of White Christian Nationalism | Lauren Horn Griffin, Charles McCrary and Jelani Ince | PRRI | August 3, 2026
Examines how progressive Christian organizations organize politically in response to white Christian nationalism, providing a counterpoint to conservative Christian institutional networks.
Which Republicans Are Most Loyal to Trump? | Madelyn Snodgrass | PRRI | May 11, 2026
Compares pro-Trump and anti-Trump Republicans on ideology, religion, Christian nationalism, immigration, and democratic attitudes.
How Christian Nationalism Affects Views on Immigration | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | March 30, 2026
Examines correlations between Christian nationalist beliefs and attitudes toward immigrants, deportation, national identity, and citizenship.
Mapping Christian Nationalism Across the 50 States | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 17, 2026
Uses more than 22,000 interviews to measure Christian nationalism by state and connect it with religion, political affiliation, media use, and attitudes toward government.
A Closer Look at Christian Nationalism in Nine States | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 17, 2026
Provides detailed state-level profiles useful for examining where Christian conservative organizations may encounter particularly receptive or resistant constituencies.
Republican Support for Christian Nationalism | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 17, 2026
Reports that a majority of Republicans in PRRI's measurement qualified as either Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers.
Inside the Authoritarian-Christian Nationalism Link | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | November 7, 2025
Examines statistical relationships among Christian nationalism, support for strong leaders, traditionalist attitudes, cultural anxiety, and political violence.
Broader Ideological and Institutional Context
Political Ideas in the 21st Century | William A. Galston | Brookings Institution | 2024
Examines competing liberal, nationalist, post-liberal, and conservative ideas about pluralism, Christianity, public morality, and the role of government.
