Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk has undergone a religious transformation. The 30-year-old, who first became known for his work mobilizing college-age Republicans with Turning Point USA, was once strongly critical of the evangelical political movement. Now, he helps lead it.

Kirk’s transformation embodies and reinforces a growing embrace of Christian nationalist thinking within the Republican Party in the era of Donald Trump, according to political and religious scholars. “I worship a God that defeats evil,” Kirk said last week while introducing the former president at a rally at an Arizona megachurch. “And we worship a God that wins in the end.”