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In June 2003, a group of evangelical Christian leaders met in Arlington, Virginia, to map strategy for a clash they viewed as the political equivalent of Gettysburg, the most significant battle ever fought on American soil.

The group members—veterans of the culture wars and the birth of the religious right that followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling legalizing abortion—coalesced around an issue that they felt crystallized the depths of depravity to which America had sunk: same-sex marriage.

For Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell, the timing is perfect.