On Monday, Jeff Sessions stood before the assembled crowd at a "Religious Liberty Summit" in Washington and assured the largest and most powerful demographic group in America that their years of suffering unimaginable cruelty at the hands of the federal government would soon come to an end. "This Department of Justice is going to court across America to defend the rights of people of faith," he declared, announcing the formation of a Religious Liberty Task Force to ensure that the DOJ effectively implements its guidance on the subject, both in the office and also in court. "As our nation grows older, we must not let it depart from this noble tradition."

Sessions's speech, on its face, does not pertain only to Christianity. But in his descriptions of "our great tradition of religious freedom," the subtext is text: He bemoaned the inability of "ministers" to "affirm...holy writ from the pulpit," and applauded the legal battle over contraceptives waged by the Little Sisters of the Poor. He excoriated judges for refusing to hold that "morality" can be the basis for secular laws. He fondly name-checked Pilgrims, Catholics, Presbyterians, and other Christian groups who settled this country after fleeing persecution in Europe. And he invited Jack Phillips, the bakery owner who refused to serve a same-sex couple in Colorado, to speak as a panelist. Thanks to President Trump, he reminded the audience, we say "Merry Christmas" again.

In his prepared remarks, Sessions explicitly acknowledges the existence of other religions three times: when touting DOJ's efforts to prosecute men who burned down mosques and threatened mosque members; when highlighting its suit against a New Jersey town that has allegedly refused to sell land to an Orthodox Jewish group for construction of a synagogue; and when announcing its support for a Hindu temple in Maryland that has encountered similar bureaucratic roadblocks. Otherwise, his address was a 17-minute hymn to the hegemony of Christianity, reaffirming its rightful place as the dominant force in American life. "Religious Americans are no longer an afterthought," said the attorney general. "Since day one, this administration has been delivering on that promise."

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The Trump administration has long been adept at blowing on this sort of dog whistle, praising cherry-picked democratic values that just happen to align with a chief grievance of its core constituency. For centuries, many Christians were fine with "freedom of religion" when that phrase, in practice, referred to slightly different iterations of their religion—most of which were espoused by people who look like them—existing alongside one another in peace and harmony. Now that the status quo is threatened by something resembling actual religious diversity, the enactment and enforcement of faith-neutral statutes becomes an imposition on the soft power to which they have grown accustomed.

Making overtures to religious voters has always been a tricky task for this White House, given that it is helmed by a thrice-married serial sexual harasser with a spotty pro-life record and a well-documented history of philandering with porn stars. Yet the president has maintained his support among the Republican Party's evangelical base by functioning as a flawed vessel for a divine agenda. Accepting his personal shortcomings is a high price, but because he speaks directly to their insecurities and makes them feel heard—and will appoint conservative Supreme Court justices in the meantime—many of them are begrudgingly willing to pay it.

For now, at least. As Roy Moore's Senate defeat in deep-red Alabama demonstrated, there are limits to the depravity that voters will tolerate in their prospective elected officials. And as the midterms draw nearer—and as Donald Trump's re-election bid looms in 2020—he really doesn't want to find those limits the hard way. By casting itself as the only thing standing between evangelical Christianity and ideological extinction, the Trump administration makes any wavering voters feel as if they have no choice but to hold their noses and stand with him again.

"A dangerous movement, undetected by many, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom," Sessions warned on Monday. "It must be confronted and defeated." For people who have been convinced that their most cherished beliefs hang in the balance, there is no sense in discriminating among those who claim to be saviors.