One in five Americans is not affiliated with any religion. The number of these Americans has grown by 25% just in the past five years, according to a survey released last Thursday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
When said differently, 33 million Americans now have no religious affiliation, with 13 million in that group identifying as either atheist or agnostic, according to the Pew survey.
The religious divide is clearly seen between political party lines. Of the 13 million people who call themselves atheist or agnostic, 73 % are Democrats or lean toward Democratic policies, compared to only 16 % who favor Republicans and conservative ideology. For those who are considered "unaffiliated," 63 % side with Democrats and only 26 % lean toward Republicans.
Greg Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life and a co-author of the study, points out that in each of the past three presidential elections, big majorities of the religiously unaffiliated voted for the Democratic candidate. In 2008, as many of the unaffiliated went for Obama as evangelical Christians went for John McCain.
"The 'nones' (the 63% that lean toward the Democratic Party) seldom or never attend worship services or pray, are more likely to have at least some college, and are roughly split between those who call themselves "spiritual but not religious" (37 %) and those who say they are "neither spiritual nor religious" (42 %).
Smith says, "One of the ways that the religiously unaffiliated are most distinctive is with their views on things such as same-sex marriage and abortion - the religiously unaffiliated tend to be quite liberal in their views on those kinds of issues." According to Smith, "about 75% of them say that abortion should be legal in all cases. A similar number favor same-sex couples to marry."
The Pew survey suggested that the Democratic Party would do well to recognize the growth of the unaffiliated, since 63% of them identify with or lean toward that political group. John Green, a senior research adviser at Pew, predicted that "in the near future, if not this year, the unaffiliated voters will be as important as the traditionally religious are to the Republican Party collation.”
Green points to the 2008 exit polls as evidence for that prediction. That year, Republican presidential nominee John McCain beat President Barack Obama by 47 points among white evangelical voters, while Obama had a 52-point margin of victory over McCain among the religiously unaffiliated. According to exit polls, the proportion of religiously unaffiliated Americans who supported the Democratic presidential candidate grew 14 points from 2000 to 2008.
In announcing the survey’s findings at the Religion Newswriters Association conference in Bethesda, Maryland, Green said the growing political power of the unaffiliated within the Democratic Party could become similar to the power the Religious Right acquired in the GOP in the 1980s.
The Pew study doesn't say what were the causes of atheism in politics, however, David Campbell, a political science professor at the University of Notre Dame, thinks he knows. "There is considerable evidence suggesting that the 'nones' have actually been caused by politics," says Campbell, co-author of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. "Many people have pulled away from the religious label due to the mingling of religion and conservative politics."
Others believe that younger voters in particular are frustrated with the failure or refusal of traditional denominations to change with the times and embrace broader ideas on marriage and the environment. For instance, some Democrats are more amenable to social and environmental issues that do not appear to require religious endorsement.
However, because of the tacit relationship between Christians and the Republican Party, it is more difficult to align the party with issues that are inimical to the Christian worldview.
In light of the current voting trends, it would seem easy to conclude that one political party is more religious than the other. One has to be careful in coming to such conclusions. In November, America will not be electing a Pastor-in-Chief. Neither will America be deciding on a theocratic form of government.
However, we must still ask the question – should Christians participate in non-religious or even antagonistic political systems? Certainly!
- we must maintain righteousness within the system
- we must not be defiled by the system
- we must seek to improve the system
- we must pray for others who lead the system
- we must ensure that the system reflects balance in the issues covered.
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