Gary Andres, writing for The Weekly Standard, has an interesting take on the ties between religious preferences (if any) and political orientations in the American electorate. He summarizes several studies of religious orientation as follows:
It turns out the least pious among us are the fastest growing group in the country.For example, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) found:
The "Nones" (no stated religious preference, or atheist or agnostic) nearly doubled--from 8.2% in 1990 to 15.0% in 2008--a trend consistent with other major studies conducted over the past two decades.Andres points out that the Republican Party's close association with evangelical Christians in recent decades has tended to push the rapidly growing group of "seculars" away from the GOP. And he notes that many of these "seculars" are concentrated in the blue states: New England and the West Coast. He doesn't mention that this trend is consistent with what has happened in Europe, which is being described as post-Christian.
