CASPER, Wyo. — I first noticed it whereas working the rope line at a monster-truck rally in the course of the 2016 marketing campaign by my husband, Tim, for Wyoming’s lone congressional seat. As Tim and I and our boys made our means down the road, shaking palms and passing out marketing campaign materials, a burly man sporting a “God bless America” T-shirt and a cross round his neck stated one thing like, “He’s acquired my vote if he retains these [epithet] out of workplace,” utilizing a racial slur. What adopted was an uncomfortable grasp class in racism and xenophobia as the person decanted the explanations our nation goes down the tubes. God bless America.

I now perceive the ugliness I heard was a part of a present of Christian nationalism fomenting beneath the floor. It had been there on a regular basis. The rope line rant was a mission assertion for the disaffected, the missed, the frightened. It was additionally an expression of solidarity with a candidate like Donald Trump who gave a reputation to a perceived enemy: individuals who don’t appear to be us or share our beliefs. Immigrants are taking our weapons. They’re bringing medication. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. You aren’t secure in your house. Non secular freedom is on the gallows. Vote for me.

The messages labored. And largely, it’s my religion group — white, rural and conservative — that acquired them there. I’m a white conservative lady in rural America. Raised Catholic, I discovered that my religion deepened after I married and joined an evangelical church. As my religion grew, so did Tim’s political profession within the Wyoming Legislature. (He served within the Home from 2008 to 2017.) I’ve straddled each worlds, religion and politics, my total grownup life. Usually there was little or no daylight between the 2, one informing the opposite.

What’s modified is the rise of Christian nationalism — the idea, as not too long ago described by the Georgetown College professor and creator Paul D. Miller, that “America is a ‘Christian nation’ and that the federal government ought to preserve it that means.” Gone are the times when a lawmaker is likely to be circumspect about utilizing his or her religion as a automobile to garner votes. It’s been a drastic and damaging departure from the boring, substantive lawmaking to which I used to be accustomed. Christian nationalists have hijacked each my Republican Social gathering and my religion group by blurring the traces between church and authorities and within the course of rebranding our state’s identification.

Wyoming is a “you do you” state. When it’s a blinding snowstorm, the tractor’s in a ditch and we want a neighbor with a winch, our variations disappear. We don’t care what you appear to be or who you like. Maintain a clear fence line and present up throughout calving season, and we’re good.

However new sheriffs on the town are very a lot up of their neighbor’s beeswax. Laws they’ve proposed appears intent on stripping us of our autonomy and our potential to make choices for ourselves, all within the identify of morality, the definition of which is unclear.

Rural states are notably susceptible to the promise of Christian nationalism. In Wyoming, we’re white (greater than 92 p.c) and love God (71 p.c recognized as Christian in 2014, in accordance with the Pew Analysis Middle) and Mr. Trump (seven in 10 voters picked him in 2020).

The result’s unhealthy church and unhealthy legislation. “God, weapons and Trump” is an omnipresent bumper sticker right here, the brand new trinity. The evangelical church has proved to be a supplicating viewers for the Christian nationalist roadshow. Certainly, it’s unclear to me many Sundays whether or not we’re listening to a sermon or a stump speech.

Christians electing candidates who mirror godly values is an efficient factor. Tim, who ran in opposition to Liz Cheney within the 2016 Republican main, has little question been a recipient of votes from our associates within the religion group. But Christian nationalism has nothing to do with Christianity and the whole lot to do with management.

In final yr’s elections, candidates operating on a Christian nationalist platform used concern plus the promise of energy to draw votes. Their adverts warned about authorities overreach, non secular persecution, masks mandates, threats from immigrants and election fraud. A candidate for secretary of state, an election denier named Chuck Grey, hosted at the very least one free screening in a church of the roundly debunked movie “2,000 Mules,” about alleged voter fraud within the 2020 presidential election. (He received the overall election unopposed and is now subsequent in line to the governorship.)

None of these issues had been actual. Our faculties largely remained open in the course of the pandemic. Companies remained open. The border is an nearly 1,000-mile drive from my residence in Casper, and the foreign-born inhabitants within the state is simply 3 p.c. Wyoming’s violent crime charge is the bottom of any state within the West. Wyoming’s electoral course of is extremely secure. So what are we afraid of?

But concern (and loathing for Ms. Cheney, who voted to question Mr. Trump and dared to name him “unfit for workplace”) led to a document voter turnout within the August main. The Trumpist candidate, Harriet Hageman, trounced Ms. Cheney. Virtually half of the Wyoming Home members had been new. Not less than one-third of them align with the Freedom Caucus, a loud group unafraid to control Scripture for political achieve underneath a banner of preserving a godly nation.

The influence of this new breed of lawmakers has been swift. Wyomingites acquired a really actual preview this previous legislative session of the hazards of one-size-fits-all nationalized insurance policies that ignore the nuances of our state. ‌Final yr, maternity wards closed in two sparsely populated communities, additional increasing our maternity desert. But in debating a invoice to supply some aid to new mothers by extending Medicaid’s postpartum protection, a freshman member of the State Home, Jeanette Ward, invoked a brutally slender view of the Bible. “Cain commented to God, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’” she stated. “The apparent reply isn’t any. No, I’m not my brother’s keeper. However simply don’t kill him.”

This complicated ‌mash-up‌ of Scripture (Ms. Ward acquired it improper: The reply is sure, I’m my brother’s keeper) is emblematic of a Christian nationalist who weaponizes God’s phrase to advertise the agenda du jour. We must always count on candidates who establish as followers of Christ to mannequin some concern for different individuals.

Rhetoric like Ms. Ward’s can have devastating implications when it ends in coverage change. Though the Medicaid invoice turned legislation, the hospital in Rawlins not delivers infants, that means Wyomingites about to offer beginning should now journey 100 miles over one of many nation’s most treacherous stretches of Interstate. Woe to these with a winter due date.

I’m adrift on this unnamed sea, untethered from each my religion group and my political get together as I attempt to reconcile evangelicals’ repeated endorsements of candidates who thumb their noses in any case of us. Christians are known as to serve God, not a political get together, to place our religion in the next energy, not in human beings. We’re taught to not bow to false idols. But idolatry is more and more outstanding and our foundational rules — humility, kindness and compassion — briefly provide.

“It was an amazing day!” considered one of our pastors proclaimed on social media final yr when Mr. Trump got here to city to marketing campaign in opposition to Ms. Cheney. Although many agreed with him, a few of his pastoral colleagues grieved, traumatized by the arduous proper flip of their congregations.

I not too long ago attended a convention dedicated to religious maturity. Of the attendees, a big proportion had been pastors. Some had flown in, in search of anonymity for concern of job loss or reprisal. Many had dared to boost arduous questions, difficult their congregation to suppose deeply about immigration, puzzle by means of the church’s therapy of the L.G.B.T.Q. group, to dive into Scripture and to seek out solutions.

For some, simply making the suggestion had put their neck on the road. One pastor was not too long ago fired. One other, who was nearing the tip of his profession, lamented: The place did I am going improper in my educating? Am I complicit on this motion? Have I created this monster? I’ve failed my flock.

I can consider no higher illustration of the calamitous pressure of Christian nationalism than a room full of religion leaders, remorse lined deep of their brows, expressing disgrace and disappointment in these they had been known as to guide.

In February, Gov. Mark Gordon hosted a prayer breakfast, a practice within the Wyoming Legislature through which leaders come collectively, learn Scripture and take heed to an inspirational message. The breakfast got here towards the tip of the Legislature’s session, one pockmarked with ugly exchanges between the Freedom Caucus and different right-wing legislators and the moderates, a home extra divided than ever.

The Senate president, Ogden Driskill, and the Home speaker, Albert Sommers, had been every invited to learn a passage from the Bible. They carried the shrapnel of the session of their slumped shoulders as they approached the dais. They had been drained. Weary. Each are veteran legislators, throwbacks to a time when lawmakers disagreed, then shared a drink on the finish of the day. This session was completely different. Meaner.

Mr. Sommers is the quieter of the 2. Earlier than studying, he stated he was not the most effective versed within the Bible however spoke of his expertise discovering religion and stated he considered his prayer and relationship with God as largely non-public. Mr. Driskill was equally humble: If anybody ever informed me I’d be on this place, standing in a room filled with political and enterprise leaders, he stated, I by no means would have believed it. And but right here I’m.

Each leaders have deep roots within the state. Mr. Driskill and Mr. Sommers are the faces of my beloved Wyoming, a spot so intent on preserving our live-and-let-live cowboy tradition, we enshrined it in our state code, Part 8-3-123. They’re earnest public servants who select service over self, who love the state and are keen to make unpopular choices on the threat of their political futures, who suppose nothing of leaving their properties to journey a whole lot of miles throughout the state for a steak dinner and a reasoned dialogue on carbon seize.

That is the state I can not stop. I depend on these gritty and brave leaders who maintain tight to our rural values. They’re the Davids within the combat in opposition to the Philistines. They’re our brother’s keeper.

Susan Stubson (@wyorodeoqueen) is a pianist, lawyer and member of the Wyoming Republican Social gathering.

The Instances is dedicated to publishing a variety of letters to the editor. We’d like to listen to what you consider this or any of our articles. Listed below are some ideas. And right here’s our e mail: letters@nytimes.com.

Observe The New York Instances Opinion part on Fb, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.