Speaking to his flock in Columbus, Rev. Tim Ahrens starts a recent sermon on the issue of Christian Nationalism.
“Christian nationalists want to define America as a Christian nation, and they want the government to promote a specific cultural template as an official culture of the country. It can't be done," Ahrens said.
Ahrens is no stranger to stepping into the political fray. He ignited backlash after appearing in an ad last year in support of Ohio's new reproductive rights amendment.
"I got pushback, major pushback. Hundreds of people from across the state, and I'm sure beyond, who basically called me every name under the sun. And I need to say that all of the people who who specifically spoke to me spoke as Christians. So I'm getting blowback from my own people, right?"
Issues like abortion illustrate the deep divides that have galvanized the electorate in Ohio and across the country.
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Alan Cooperman has followed trends in Americans' attitudes toward religion for the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. For the past several election cycles, Cooperman said, researchers have seen a phenomenon commonly referred to as the "God Gap."
"The more often that people say they attend religious services, the more likely they are to be on the conservative or Republican side of the aisle. The less often they go to religious services in general, the more likely they are to be on the Democratic side of the aisle," Cooperman said.
But it wasn't always this way.
Cooperman said when Jimmy Carter ran for president in 1976, he got a majority of the white evangelical vote as a Democratic candidate. More recently, white evangelical Christians have increasingly voted overwhelmingly Republican in presidential contests.
That includes Mitt Romney, who is Mormon, and this year's nominee, former President Donald Trump.
"...despite what people who oppose Trump see as his moral failings, which which some see as not very Christian behavior," Cooperman said.
With the electorate increasingly voting along strict party lines, politicians and lobbyists are seizing on the opportunity to advance their causes.
The Associated Press reports Ohio's fight over abortion rights last November cost campaigns a combined $70 million.
Ohio's EdChoice program, which gives public school students taxpayer-funded vouchers to attend private religious schools, was expanded last year to make every family eligible for enrollment.
There have been fights, too, over transgender people's healthcare and whether they can compete in women's sports.
WOSU reached out to a number of national conservative lobbying groups, including the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Alliance Defending Freedom and Moms for Liberty.
None made a spokesperson available for comment.
One Ohio organization that did agree to an interview is the Center for Christian Virtue, which has been heavily involved in these legislative efforts in Ohio. .
“We recognize that not everybody agrees with us about who Jesus Christ was and is. But we do think that the timeless principles that He stood for, and that the reality of the world that we live in, requires us to speak out on some very important issues today," said Aaron Baer, the center's president.
On the Issue 1 abortion campaign and why it passed, Baer said opponent organizations like his were met with overwhelming amounts of campaign cash and struggled to get their message across.
“I certainly don't think the majority of Ohioans are where this abortion amendment is. But when they were presented with sort of a binary choice — and I think a lot of the choices that they were presented with actually weren't true in our exit poll — showed a lot of folks believe things about the current status of Ohio's abortion law that wasn't true. You know, I think that they probably would not be so far down the abortion line as what's in our state constitution right now, but that's the reality of where we are," Baer said.
Baer praised efforts to advance conservatism at the national level, including the controversial plan known as Project 2025, which, among other things, calls for replacing civil servants with political appointees and consolidating much of the federal bureaucracy under the executive branch.
"You can replace the people up top, as every president does. But if the people down below are still driving a certain political agenda, there's really no accountability and you can't deal with the massive problems in the administrative state," Baer said.
Another key player in Statehouse policymaking is the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. Gary Daniels is the organization's chief lobbyist.
“[Religious conservatives] see society is changing, and they see much of society's becoming more tolerant towards people with different ideas and beliefs and religions and faiths. And I think, to a certain extent, that scares them, that worries them," Daniels said.
When it comes to religious issues, Daniels said much of the ACLU's legal work hinges on the First Amendment.
"The idea there is the government can neither advance nor inhibit religion. We shouldn't have the government taking sides or being used for one side to impose its religious beliefs on another," Daniels said.
One area where the limits of that standard have been tested is in education, from fights over school-led prayer, to more recently, a bill introduced last year that would allow Ohio public schools to employ chaplains as counselors.
"The concern is that you would have clergy in a public school trying to proselytize to students, regardless of what those students’ religious beliefs are or what those families are," Daniels said.
That bill is strikingly similar to Texas legislation passed into law last year. Daniels said such model bills are common on both sides of the aisle.
“Because it's much easier to go into a statehouse and testify before a committee or meet with a legislator or group of legislators and say, 'Hey, look, Ohio's not going to be the first ones to do this.' Because many legislators don't want to stick their necks out in that regard. But if you can say, 'Hey, look, this passed in Florida and it passed in Texas and it passed in Idaho or whatever, you know... We're all doing this. Water's great. Everybody jump into the pool,'” he said.
As that pool gets ever more crowded, researchers are seeing a growing number of people not wanting to take the plunge.
"I think one of the issues that we're facing as a country is declining trust in institutions," said Alan Cooperman with Pew Research. "People who are turned off from public life. People who are turned off from religious life. People who are turned off from civic life."
As people disengage from each other and run to their political corners, Cooperman said there has also been an increase in what's known as "partisan antipathy."
“It's not just thinking the other side is wrong. It's thinking the other side is evil," Cooperman said.
It's an idea that worries Ahrens, denying the humanity of people with different political views or faith traditions.
"My hope and prayer is that we will figure out a way to sit down with one another and find a common language and a common path forward, because that's our only hope. The one we're on right now is just sheer madness, and it's not going to lead us to the promised land," Ahrens said.
