Beyond the pulpit: The NGOisation and strategic mobilisation of religious norm entrepreneurs in Romania

In the contemporary study of Central and Eastern European (CEE) politics, anti-gender mobilisation is frequently characterised as a sudden, reactionary "turn" or a disruptive, external import from global culture wars. This paper challenges these single-axis frameworks by arguing that contemporary value-based conflicts do not represent a shift in core normative values, but rather a profound structural and tactical transformation in the repertoires of collective action employed by institutional religious actors. This is achieved through conceptualising this process as the “professionalisation of tradition,” characterised by the strategic "NGOisation" of clerical agency and the deployment of "institutional camouflage". By adopting the organisational grammar of secular civil society — incorporating formal bylaws, professional board structures, and human rights-based rhetoric — religious actors successfully navigate the legal and political frameworks of the European Union. This allows them to bypass the traditional church-state divide (and its associated legal obligations) and exert significant influence within secular judicial systems and public policy without formally entering the partisan political arena. Using Romania as a primary illustrative case, the paper analyses how these religious NGOs utilise strategic mimicry, employing the proceduralism of liberal democracy to protect and entrench an illiberal normative core. Two primary repertoires of action are exemplified: plebiscitary mobilisation (the 2018 "Referendum for Family") and religious lawfare in secular courts (as exemplified by the landmark ECHR case Sindicatul Păstorul Cel Bun v. Romania). Furthermore, tracing how these domestic actors are embedded within transnational advocacy networks (such as Alliance Defending Freedom International, Mathias Corvinus Collegium, and Ordo Iuris), utilising a "reverse boomerang model" to import legal resources and campaign templates. To systematically analyse these dynamics, a multi-method framework is proposed that combines process tracing, social network analysis (SNA), and political discourse theory (PDT). Ultimately, the NGOisation of religious actors is a proactive mechanism for normative maintenance, functioning as a primary driver of the rise of "un-civil society" and the broader trajectory of democratic backsliding across the broader CEE region.