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Through an analysis of alliances between secular and religious actors in the US politics and a specific case study on anti-trafficking policy, we show that the intertwining of religion and politics in the USA comes from two sources: 1) the secular political and cultural institutions of American public life that have developed historically out of Protestantism and which predominantly operate by presuming Protestant norms and values; and 2) the direct influence on American politics of religious groups and organizations, particularly in the last quarter-century of lobby-groups and political action committees identified with conservative evangelical Christianity. The sources of policies that promote gender and sexual inequality in the United States are both secular and religious and we conclude that it is inaccurate to assume that religious influence in politics is necessarily conservative or that more secular politics will necessarily be more progressive than the religious varieties.