The Growing Power of Godly Progressives?

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/04/the-growing-influence-of-godly-progressives/361245/

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Is religion the most important thing in your life? This is one of the questions people had to answer in a 2013 Public Religion Research Institute/Brookings survey as researchers tried to figure out how much faith influences people's views on culture and the economy. They got pretty striking results: More than half of people who they considered to be "religious conservatives" said yes, while only about 10 percent of people classified as "religious progressives" said the same. This means that on a whole host of issues, ranging from abortion and gay marriage to welfare and the minimum wage, faith probably has more of an influence on how conservatives think than it does for liberals.

It's tough to get inside people's heads and understand how their beliefs about God affect their views on culture, but a new report from Brookings hints at why researchers might want to: In terms of numbers, religious progressives are gaining on religious conservatives. According to the researchers, "religious progressives" are people of faith who have typically "liberal" opinions on a range of issues: They want more government support for the poor, rather than less; more freedom to have pre-marital sex and drink, rather than less, etc. From this break-down of age and race, you can see that religious progressives dominate America's growing populations:



Blacks, hispanics, and people of mixed race are all more likely to be religious progressives than conservatives; these groups are also among the fastest-growing demographics in the United States. Similarly, Millennials are more than twice as likely to be religious progressives than religious conservatives; in fact, people older than 50 make up more than 60 percent of those who are considered to be religious conservatives. Although it's impossible to talk to an 18-year-old about her views on culture and predict what she'll think in two decades, these demographic trends suggest that the religious right is about to start shrinking.

But the question of influence is a little fuzzier. Although more than a third of Millennials are considered religious progressives, roughly 40 percent don't have any faith at all: A growing number of young people don't identify with a particular religion. That, along with the fact that an overwhelming majority of religious progressives don't see religion as "the most important thing in their life," suggests that faith is losing its overall influence over how people think about social and cultural issues.

[Kath1]

1. Interesting post.

I was a church-going Catholic until about 10 years ago and I still have friends who identify as Catholic and attend mass regularly. They also have no problem supporting pro-choice, pro-contraception and same-sex marriage positions with their votes. I guess it is safe to say that, although faith may be important to them, religious dogma does not control their thinking or their vote, and I say Thank God for that.

[Starboard Tack]

2. Progressives and unaffiliated

Dogma tends to lose traction in the information age. I think the progressives are mostly focused on social issues and less on biblical quotes.

[cbayer]

3. Really interesting data and good news.

Do you understand the numbers in the colored parts of the graph? They don't seem to make much sense.

[xchrom]

4. other than the first 4 breaking out by race

and the last 3 by age?

[cbayer]

5. No, the 66 - 11 - 14 in the first bar, for example.

The link to the actual study seems to be broken, but I'm sure I could find it.

I just found those numbers to be confusing.

[xchrom]

6. ah! you'll need some one smarter than me. nt

[okasha]

8. Every time I think I've got it

it gets away again.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. It's a report we did mention about a month ago

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1218&pid=119173

http://publicreligion.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/2013-Economic-Values-Report-Final-.pdf

The first bar says that the ethnic make-up of All Americans is 66% white, 11% black, 14% Hispanic, and 8% other. Also, the age make-up is 27% 18-33, 25% 34-48, 34% 49-67 and 14% 68+.

The Atlantic article is not a good analysis; the graph it gives does not show "you can see that religious progressives dominate America's growing populations". That graph doesn't tell you the overall proportions of 'religious progressives' to conservatives, etc., and doesn't even acknowledge the existence of the 'religious moderates' group - which is actually the largest one of all (the article doesn't even mention 'moderate' once!).

Annoyingly, even the full report doesn't specify the Hispanic, black and mixed proportions in the 'religious moderate' group, though it does give the splits for each category (you have to hunt in the text for some of these)

'Theological' splits:
Hispanic: 28% theologically conservative, 38% moderate, 23% liberal, 11% nonreligious
Black: 49% conservative, 30% moderate, 14% liberal, 7% nonreligious

And the 'economic' splits:
Hispanic Catholic: 7% economic conservative, 53% moderate, 40% liberal
(note: text says 'Hispanic' (no religious modifier) is 7% conservative, 39% liberal)
Black Protestant: 3% conservative, 45% moderate, 52% liberal
(text for just 'black': 4% conservative, 50% liberal)

'Social' splits:
Black: 30% social conservative, 48% moderate (strictly a 'Black Protestant' figure, though 100-30-21 would give 49% anyway), 21% liberal
Hispanic: 25% conservative, 67% moderate (strictly a 'Hispanic Catholic figure, though 100-25-18 would give 67% anyway), 18% liberal

What this actually shows, despite the Atlantic claim, is that moderates tend to dominate the black and Hispanic groups, except for the black figures for economic (mostly liberal) and theology (mostly conservative). But that may well end up saying 'religious moderates' (a combination of the 3 categories) dominate the black group too.

[trotsky]

11. 66+11+14+8=99

The first bar, left half, displays the ethnic identification of all Americans. Due to rounding errors, I presume, it totals 99% instead of 100%.

The first bar, second half, displays the generational identification of all Americans. 27+25+34+14=100%

The other bars are broken down similarly.

[MisterP]

7. the religious right was an opportunistic late-70s creation--quite artificial

the religious left (draft resistance, Central America) has worked on its own, without billions in funding, and in the teeth of, what, 6 decades of FBI harassment?

[cbayer]

9. That's exactly right.

Add to the list civil rights movement, anti-Viet Nam war movement.

And I know all too well about the surveillance and harassment.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. the religious right was a creation of the late roman empire and has been around in force for 1700

years.

[rug]

13. Pat Robertson is old but not that old.