Historically, the church has wielded the kind of power over society that authoritarian governments use. America has never accomplished the separation of church and state that we like to claim we did. Churches influence public policy, laws, cultural identity, and socially acceptable morality. From divorce, to biracial marriages, to discipline of our children, to sexual standards, religion has had the final word on cultures across the world. There’s a reason these Fascist leaders joined forces with the evangelicals.