Religion has played a central role in shaping American society and culture, in particular the notion that America has a special mission in the world as part of a divine plan to create a godly world. During the journey to New England in 1630, Puritan Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony John Winthrop told the settlers they were to create a "City upon a Hill" that would serve as a model for the rest of the world. In 1974, at the First Conservative Political Action Conference, Ronald Reagan invoked the same metaphor, one he repeated as president, to explain America's historic mission in winning the Cold War. Evangelical Christians embrace the idea that America has a special mission, but differ as to whether it is to be fulfilled by example or by action.

A common stereotype of conservative Evangelical Christians in America is of...