David Mislin

David Mislin is an Assistant Professor of Intellectual Heritage at Temple University.

How Vietnam War Protests Helped Mold America’s Modern Christian Right

For decades mainline Protestants united liberal leaders with more conservative churchgoers. That union proved unsustainable in the wake of 1968.

David Mislin
By David Mislin
** FILE ** Rev. William Sloane Coffin, center, followed by his sister Mary Lindsey, left, arrives at the Federal Building in Boston in this May 20, 1968 file photo. Coffin and four others including Dr. Benjamin Spock were preparing to go on trial on charges of conspiring to counsel young men to evade the draft. Coffin was a former Yale University chaplain known for his peace activism during the Vietnam War and his work for social justice. (AP Photo)

In May of 1968, a high-profile trial began in Boston that dramatically illustrated a larger phenomenon fueling the rise of conservative Christianity in the United States. Five men had been charged with conspiracy for encouraging Americans to evade the draft. One of the prominent defendants in the trial was a Presbyterian minister and Yale

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