What The Changing Religious Landscape Means For American Politics

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Recent polls show that America’s religious landscape is changing, with changing attitudes in parts of the country critical to future elections. The importance of religion in the lives of Americans is decreasingaccording to a new report from the Institute for Research in Public Religion (PRRI). Only 16% of people surveyed said religion is the most important thing in their lives, up from 4% a decade ago.

Melissa Deckman, CEO of PRRI, said NPR that the data reflect another growing trend in American religious life. “Americans are increasingly likely to be religiously unaffiliated,” he said. The rise of “noes,” or people who identify as atheists, agnostics, or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religious identity, has sparked discourse about what this might mean for politics in the US in the future.

Politicians should pay attention

The shift away from religion in the United States is “a development of tremendous impact, which will affect the political landscape at every level,” especially in the presidential election, Ryan Burge told Politician. Republicans and Democrats alike have reason to worry and celebrate that voter mindsets about religion are shifting in critical parts of the country. Burge notes that the 2020 religious census showed that religion is “taking a beating” along the Rust Belt in states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Conversely, religious observance has increased in Florida and Texas. Still, both sides “have been slow to react to this changing religious landscape” and “ignore these changing dynamics at their peril,” Burge added.

Tina Wray, a professor of religious and theological studies at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island, said the increase in the number of “bosses” will affect the influence of the evangelical voter base. “Nonsense interest will soon surpass that of the religious right in a matter of years,” Wray said in a statement. CNN. “They will vote as a bloc, and they will be quite powerful.” At some point, white evangelicals “will be eclipsed by the unaffiliated,” Wray posited.

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Religion is changing, but its influence remains

Regardless of the apparent downward trend, “declining church membership does not automatically translate into declining influence,” John Blake said in an analysis for CNN. White evangelicals helped get former President Trump elected. The recent passage of state laws targeting the transgender community and the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe V. Wade are seen as victories for conservative Christian groups.

“Christianity still has a lot of capital in this country,” Lee M. Jefferson, associate professor of religion at Center College in Kentucky, told Blake in an interview. Some assume “that the strength or influence of a religious community is related to numbers and attendance,” Jefferson said. Despite declining attendance, “Christianity will still have a strong relevance in different US landscapes.”