Let's face it, Democrats in the USA and religious folks in the USA..

[DavidL]

not exactly compatible.

A recent survey indicated most Democrats were either non-religious, or very liberal Cathoic, a few liberal Protestant, mostly not true-believers in a god.

Unitarians, Catholics, non-believer/agnostics, (most of them not weekly church-goers). These are the people who actually vote; many of them don't go to a church every week, many of them go to church less than five times a year, all self-described as "liberal" or "progressive" and mostly vote Democratic.

One has to wonder why Catholics, Episcopalians, Unitarians, and some Congregationalists make up the majority of Democrats who claim a Christian religious affiliation. And over 60% of Jewish folks. and over 80% of Muslims choose Democrats on the ballot.

By contrast, most of all of the self-described 25% of Christians do describe themselves as "conservatives" and vote Republican.

Less than 40% of Jewish folks describe themselves as "conservative" and often vote Republican.


Is there a common theme? Is there a message from religions that translates into votes?

[cbayer]

1. Link to survey?

[DavidL]

4. Do you doubt this?

Is your Google broken?

Dozens of studies since 2000.

http://pewresearch.org/topics/religion/


Have fun reading this evening. Litterally over a hundred studies to go through.

[cbayer]

5. Do you not have a link to the data that you are using in your op?

[cbayer]

9. You keep editing, but don't respond.

You cite a recent survey. I am only asking that you identify it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. Yes, we doubt this: Pew says 76% of Democrats belong to a religion

http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffiliated/nones-on-the-rise.aspx

[tularetom]

2. Organized religion only wants one thing from you

They want to scare the shit out of you about the afterlife so that you will give them money which which gives them the power to scare the shit out of more people who will give them money which gives them the power...

A lot of people who are Democrats are not susceptible to the scare tactics of religions. Because they operate on the basis of reason instead of emotion they aren't so easily motivated by fear.

[cbayer]

3. While true of some, it is not true of all.

There are many religious dems, including our prez and viceprez.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

12. Why is it that the anti-religion people here seem mostly to be bigots

And do not try to pretend that the statement

Organized religion only wants one thing from you, They want to scare the shit out of you about the afterlife so that you will give them money which which gives them the power to scare the shit out of more people who will give them money which gives them the power...

is not bigotry, pure and simple.

[mr blur]

13. Why is it that the religion people here seem mostly to be bigots?

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

14. Could you give some examples?

I gave an example of what can only be called bigotry -- ie, I backed up my claim. You have given nothing except your unsupported opinion.

[cbayer]

16. Who are the bigoted religious people here?

[cbayer]

15. Because there is a small group of anti-theists here, and that is, by definition bigotry, imo.

They should be distinguished from the many atheists who are not bigoted at all.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

18. OK, I'll buy that.

[Warpy]

6. Faith based dollars, chum

They've been rolling into those right wing churches since Stupid decided a payoff for all those crooked preachers was in order.

And yes, those preachers are crooks. If they weren't, they'd be telling people that starving the poor and working people to fatten a few rich guys isn't just sinful, it's against everything both testaments of the bible teach. They'd also know that Jesus had nothing to say about abortion or gay sex. Zero, zip, zilch. Nor did those things make the Ten Commandments, any version.

The problem is that mainstream religious leaders who have actually read the book those crooks have been thumping have seriously dropped the ball on calling them out, probably out of some mistaken sense of Christian solidarity.

They need to know one thing, though. Those preachers who tell their captive audiences to vote Republican aren't Christians.

They're crooks.

[cbayer]

17. I agree to some extent with your third paragraph.

I think the liberal/progressive religious leaders do hold some responsibility for countering the religious right. While many have, you don't hear much about it. There are a number of reasons for that. It's not very sexy so get very little press. The voice of the religious right was very loud and very well organized by the neocons, while the left has not had that kind of organization or support. Liberals/progressives in general are somewhat ambivalent about religion and some are overtly hostile towards believers, as can often be seen on DU (gee, right here in this thread, as a matter of fact). With limited support from within your own political community, it is difficult to find a voice.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. I don't agree with the whole premise

that Democrats are mostly not "true believers". At least where I live, most Democrats are Christians, professed and church-going. They have prayers at most of the Democrat functions.

The only difference I see in the Democratic religious people and the Republican religious people is how they interpret what the teachings of Christ are. I do know from talking to some of the ultra-conservatives that I know, that their preachers influence how they think about politics.....so that might be the message.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. During the early years of DU, one poster (I forget his name) was the son of

a retired Assemblies of God minister. He said that his father had noticed pretty blatant Republican infiltration of that denomination before his retirement, confusing Jesus' message with the Republican party platform.

(Traditionally, fundamentalists and Pentecostals--which is what the Assemblies of God are--were non-political, believing that it wasn't a good thing to get too involved in "the world." But that changed around the time of the Reagan administration.)

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Your categories are fuzzy and confusing

This recent survey (which you must link to, if you want credibility on this - your own description of it is inadequate) says "most Democrats were either non-religious, or very liberal Cathoic, a few liberal Protestant, mostly not true-believers in a god. "

Most Americans are either non-religious, Catholic, or Protestant. So that tells us very little. The 'liberal' adjectives you apply are subjective adjectives, and they don't make the people any more or less religious. Your "mostly not true-believers in a god" is ungrammatical, so we can't tell what you mean by it - do you mean that over 50% of Democrats do not believe in a god? If so, I think you are wrong, and we need to see the survey to see if you've misunderstood it.

"Unitarians, Catholics, non-believer/agnostics, (most of them not weekly church-goers). These are the people who actually vote"

What about them? They are a disparate grouping; there are difference in beliefs between Unitarians and Catholics, but why have you picked out those 2 groups but not, for instance, Methodists? They "actually vote" too.

"the self-described 25% of Christians"? Huh? There are a hell of a lof more than 25% of Americans who describe themselves as Christians. Again, your figures just don't match up with reality. Show us the survey that you think says this.

[moobu2]

11. Something in the water?

A map from Gallop showing religious states from 2011.

[IMG][/IMG]

Slave states VS free before the civil war.

[IMG][/IMG]

The 2008 electoral map.

[IMG][/IMG]

[hrmjustin]

20. This Episcopalian votes democratic all the time.