The rise of the religious right has profoundly shaped American political and social life for the past 30 years, and Chuck Donovan has been a participant in it all. The 58-year-old Virginia resident worked as a writer in the Reagan White House before going on to help craft and then lead the influential Family Research Council. Since 2009, Donovan has been a senior research fellow in the Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society. He spoke with The Washington Examiner about the faith that has helped to form and guide his views throughout a movement and a career. Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?

I’m Catholic, and I don’t generally put an adjective in front of that. I have expressed, though, the idea of evangelical Catholicism because I believe that the Scriptures are true and necessary for eternal salvation.