With each day, Americans are becoming more aware of a burgeoning and seemingly insurmountable political divide. In previous generations, Americans generally disagreed over what would now seem to be minor issues like tax rates, level of spending, and priority of national defense. We were generally in agreement over the other fundamental issues, like corporate belief in God, importance of family, and respect for the importance of freedom.
Those days appear to be over, as even families are coming apart over political disagreement. Many have tried to break down the political divide as solely a Blue (Democrat) State versus Red (Republican) State dynamic, but that it too simplistic. Closer to the truth is the divide being an urban (Democrat) versus rural (Republican) split. That’s closer to what’s happening but not most critical.
By newly published data, the most important factor is religion, and the religious divide best explains the political polarization we witness growing. The answer is for America to turn back to religion or lose everything.
Every ten years, the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) produces a religious census report on the number of members of religious denominations during the previous decade. At the end of 2021, the religious census for 2010-2020 was published and provided the most valuable insight into the connection between religion and politics in modern America.
Most are aware that religious belief among Americans plummeted during the past decade. What the ASARB report shows, in shocking detail, however, is the close connection between the non-religious and identification as a Democrat. Additionally, the decline of religion is happening quickest in the mid-west and Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania (Note: the Blue areas Pacific Northwest and New England had already declined significantly).
According to Politico’s analysis of the 2020 ASARB report: “religion is taking a beating across the middle part of the country. When comparing the rate of religious adherents in 2020 versus 2010, a fascinating pattern emerges, illuminating the political relevance of the shifting religious landscape: Democrats are making gains in areas where religion is fading (the census defines non-religious as the percentage of a county’s population that does not show up on the rolls of any religious organization in that county) and Republicans are increasing their vote share in places where houses of worship are gaining new members.” Of note, this helps explain Presidential election gains for Democrats, as the number of battleground states are losing religious fervor and simultaneously becoming more Democrat leaning.
“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”—James 1:8
One example of how this dynamic plays out politically at the County level. Bucks County of Philadelphia is both the fourth largest in Pennsylvania and a national bellwether. Religious membership dropped by a whopping 18 points in Buck County, the most of any large county in PA. At the start of that drop, President Barack Obama barely won the county by under a percent in the 2012 election, yet by 2020, Biden won Buck County by over 5 points.
In Michigan, 65 of 83 counties saw a religious decline during the 2010s, and Biden was able to more than double the margin of Obama’s 2012 win. This, despite the razor thin 2020 election of Biden compared with the clear win for Obama in 2020. The religion dynamic in politics plays out in reverse and explains the political metamorphosis of Miami-Dade County. During the 2010s, Miami-Dade saw a 10% increase in the religious, and a 30% margin of victory for Clinton in 2016 dropped to only a 7% margin for Joe Biden in 2020.
If nothing changes, the non-religious Democratic voter is the future. In the past 30 years, the overall number of “nones” (non religious and unaffiliated with a religion) has quadrupled, driven by the younger generations. Almost half of Generation Z, for example, identify as religious nones.
Unsurprisingly, based on the data of ASARB, Joe Biden’s primary voting block in the 2020 election was the 46% of nones who voted for him. Those being primarily white progressive non-religious. Conversely, a number of new immigrants to America are religious and cut across the perceptions generated by mainstream media and the Democratic Party by voting Republican. Miami-Dade, various Texas counties, and Maricopa County, Arizona have shown that religious legal resident Hispanic voters are voting Republican in increasing numbers.
The political future of the Republican Party and the nation will rise or fall on religious belief. With the increasing stridency of Liberal Democrat attacks on gender, family, fatherhood, freedom, and religious belief, it’s critical not to allow them a monopoly on power. We all see the results with the Biden administration. Founding father John Adams spoke presciently about the importance of religion to our system: “This Constitution was made for a moral and religious people, it is wholly unsuited for the governance of any other”.
More to the point, George Washington admonished us in his farewell address of the importance of religious belief: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness” Either we listen to the founders, and unabashedly encourage belief in God throughout all of America. Or we lose everything on the pillar of apathy and Godlessness.
Bill Connor is an Orangeburg, S.C. attorney, Army Infantry Colonel and author of the book “Articles from War.” The Standard newspaper is available in print and online. You may find videos available on at TheStandardSC on Rumble. The bulk of TheStandardSC video media channel has been censored by dominant social media groups like YouTube. YouTube, owed by Alphabet (Google), removed and destroyed almost all of our video work without permission or remuneration. That has stopped all potential donations from our many supporters on that venue. If you want to continue to see independent thought and reports please “like”, comment, share with a friend, and donate to support The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is ignored too often by the dominant media.
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