The Christian Right Is Helping Drive Liberals Away From Religion

A few weeks ago, the Democratic National Committee formally acknowledged what has been evident for quite some time: Nonreligious voters are a critical part of the party’s base. In a one-page resolution passed at its annual summer meeting, the DNC called on Democratic politicians to recognize and celebrate the contributions of nonreligious Americans, who make up one-third of Democrats. In response, Robert Jeffress, a Dallas pastor with close ties to Trump, appeared on Fox News, saying the Democrats were finally admitting they are a “godless party.”

The Role of Politics in Religious Affiliation

This was hardly a new argument; conservative Christian leaders have been repeating some version of this claim for years, and have often called on religious conservatives and Republican politicians to defend the country against a growing wave of liberal secularism. However, blaming the Democrats doesn’t capture the profound role that conservative Christian activists have played in transforming the country’s religious landscape. “Politics can drive whether you identify with a faith, how strongly you identify with that faith, and how religious you are,” said Michele Margolis, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Some people on the left are falling away from religion because they see it as so wrapped up with Republican politics.

Statistical Shifts Among Liberals

Over the course of a single generation, the country has gotten a lot less religious. As recently as the early 1990s, less than 10 percent of Americans lacked a formal religious affiliation, and liberals weren’t all that much likelier to be nonreligious than the public overall. Today, however, nearly one in four Americans are religiously unaffiliated. That includes almost 40 percent of liberals — up from 12 percent in 1990, according to the 2018 General Social Survey.

Key changes in liberal religious behavior include:

Church Attendance: Since 1990, the share of liberals who never attend religious services has tripled.
Belief in God: The percentage of liberals who say they know God exists fell from 53 percent in 1991 to 36 percent in 2018.
Political Tethering: Most people’s political ideology is now more tightly tethered to their religious identity.

Demographics and Political Ideology

The biggest current demographic deals in American politics are race and religion. Research based on the Pew Ideological Consistency Scale shows that the most liberal profiles tend to come from college-educated folks who might reasonably worry about traditional discrimination. Conversely, the conservative side is mostly white Christians, especially when Born Again, non-poor, and/or male.

The following demographic highlights are based on data from over 58,000 respondents:

White Born Again Christians: Tend to benefit from the current conservative alignment of pro-discrimination and pro-wealth positions.
Lower-income white Born Again Christians: Are less likely to be consistently conservative because they are more likely to have liberal responses specifically on economic items involving government support for the poor.
Non-Christians: Includes Jewish, Buddhist, and “Nothing in particular” groups that align more closely with liberal positions.

The overlap is far from complete — there are still some secular conservatives and even more religious liberals. In fact, the majority of Democratic voters are religiously affiliated. But the more liberal you are, the less likely you are to belong to a faith; whereas if you’re conservative, you’re more likely to say you’re religious.