Thank yod someone finally said it!
I mean, the article refers to them having “retrieved ‘non-human’ biological matter from the pilots of the crafts.” It seems somehow even more farfetched to assume it was animals flying a UAP than aliens or some future descendant of humanity, at least to me. There’s a Gary Larson comic for this though, I’m sure.
You’ve gotten some great answers already, with the most direct answer to the question you are probably interested in being this one from TropicalDingDong about the Southern Strategy. And then people also commented on the further context in US history of religious fundamentalists from Europe coming to the US, establishing settlements, and “spreading the good word,” so to speak.
But all of that kind of begs the question - how long has politics been mixed up with religion? And from what I’ve read, that seems to date back nearly as far as people can trace human civilization. Namely, all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia. It seems people, from very early on, were quick to identify that politics and religion are very effective tools in exercising control over a population.
https://www.historyonthenet.com/mesopotamian-governments
It’s also covered some on the Ancient World podcast, skip ahead to about 7:30 for the part relevant to this post. https://ancientworldpodcast.com/2012/04/episode-1-climb-stone-staircase/