Jason DeRose reports on the recently published finding of PRRI that people in the U.S. are leaving churches in record numbers, and about a quarter of Americans now identify as religiously unaffiliated, "a number that has risen over the last decade and is now the largest single religious group in the U.S."
PRRI asked those leaving churches why they are leaving:
"And nearly half (47%) of respondents who left cited negative teaching about the treatment of LGBTQ people.
Those numbers were especially high with one group in particular.
'Religion's negative teaching about LGBTQ people are driving younger Americans to leave church,' [Melissa] Deckman [of PRRI] says."
"We found that about 60% of Americans who are under the age of 30 who have left religion say they left because of their religious traditions teaching, which is a much higher rate than for older Americans.'"
"Almost half of those who indicated that they are now religiously unaffiliated — nearly a fifth of the country — say their former religion’s hostility to LGBTQ+ Americans played a role.
Philip Bump looks at PRRI's latest report showing a slight movement in the US from 2002 to 2003 away from support for LGBTQ rights. He zeroes in on this finding:
A correlation can be seen between support for legal protections and the state’s 2020 election vote margin; states that voted more heavily for Biden are more supportive of protections than states that voted for Trump.
• At the national level, Christian nationalism is strongly linked to Republican party affiliation and holding favorable views of Trump.
• Christian nationalism is strongly linked to evangelical/born-again identity and frequent church attendance.
• Christian nationalists are more likely than other Americans to see political struggles through the apocalyptic lens of revolution and to support political violence.
• While there is little variation in support for Christian nationalist beliefs by race or ethnicity alone, Christian nationalist beliefs are refracted through racial and ethnic identity, which produces divergent political outcomes among white, Hispanic, and Black Americans.
Dan Diamond reports that on the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration announced new steps to protect access to contraception, abortion medication, and emergency abortions at hospitals. The efforts include issuing guidance making no-cost contraceptives more available and creating a new health department team dedicated to enforcing the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
The link in /1 opens to a gift reading of the Dan Diamond article, provided by PRRI iin its Morning Buzz newsletter today. My summary of the article above is also quoting PRRI's summary.
Robert P. Jones continues to be essential reading for anyone trying to understand why white US Christians adore Donald Trump. His experience growing up evangelical in the South combined with the stringent research he and PRRI do to ground their reports in real data make his testimony highly significant.
In this essay, he takes on the popular media meme that it's not really committed white evangelicals who are gung-ho about Trump.
This is the myth that will not die, and the media love it, because it shields 1) Republicans in general and 2) specifically their white evangelical base. It protects and gives privileged status to that white evangelical base by pretending that the white evangelicals adoring Trump aren't "really" evangelicals, but are unchurched and uncommitted, WEINOs (white evangelicals in name only).
Jones confronts this myth and the media shopping it around with facts.
"There is no basis for the claim that Trump’s support is higher among white evangelicals who are not connected to churches. In fact, the data have consistently shown the opposite: that support for Trump has been lower among white evangelical Protestants who seldom or never attend church."
"In both the 2016 and 2020 election years, white evangelical Protestants who attended church weekly or more were, by double digits, more likely than those who attended seldom or never to hold favorable views of Trump (66% vs. 50% in 2016; 78% vs. 54% in 2020)."
White evangelicals love Trump. Period. Not WEINOs. Not unchurched evangelicals. White evangelicals period love Trump — and are the base of the Republican party.
Thomas Zimmer's valuable commentary is always dense and rich, and that makes it difficult to choose excerpts to feature in social media snippets. I'd encourage readers to read the entire Zimmer essay I'm linking here.
He maintains that the American Values Survey whose results PRRI released at the end of October provides an important window into the current cultural-political mood in the US — an ominous mood.
The nation is in trouble, in short, because too many of us are willing to bend the rules of our democratic system to enshrine white Christian nationalism — and themselves as white Christians — as the law of the land. As PRRI subtitles its survey:
“State of the country: Pessimism, political violence, paranoia.”
This is the kind of ominous landscape into which strongmen wannabes, authoritarians, stride, as significant numbers of people clamor for authoritarian leaders to solve the clear up the chaos they have played a liberal role in spreading everywhere, and to punish their "enemies."
As Zimmer notes, the survey shows some three-quarters of Americans saying they are concerned about the future of democracy. But there's this to consider:
"Actually, those on the Right, very much including people who vote for Trump, are at least as concerned about what may happen to democracy in the next election as those in the anti-MAGA camp are. In fact, about as many Americans believe Biden winning reelection would 'threaten American democracy and way of life' as there are people thinking Trump coming back to power would endanger democratic self-government."
"The people who vote for Trump clearly don’t share the vision of egalitarian multiracial pluralism. What they worry about is losing their democracy: A restricted version of democracy that leaves entrenched hierarchies of race, gender, and religion largely intact. They are committed to defending their white Christian patriarchal democracy – and determined to prevent multiracial pluralism."
"Everything in American politics comes back to this fundamental reality: The conflict over whether America ought to forever remain a white Christian supremacy or be finally transformed into the egalitarian, multiracial democracy it never has been yet is a partisan battle. As long as the fault lines between those visions align with those in the fight between the two major parties, democracy itself is on the ballot in every election."
Philip Elliott looks at the findings PRRI released this week showing more Americans than ever approving of political violence to get their way:
"Put another way: the chaos unleashed on Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, is going mainstream. That has seismic consequences for the country in ways that neither party properly appreciates."
Jennifer Rubin on PRRI's findings released this week:
"Taking a step back, the overall picture here is a country that is inclusive, respectful of religious differences, pro-democracy and supportive of women’s rights — except when it comes to the largely Republican, mostly White evangelical Christians who reject these fundamental ideas."
"When a sizable portion of one of the major political parties, aided by a right-wing propaganda machine and infused with religious fervor, rejects the basis for multiracial, multicultural democracy, we face a severe crisis. Even if Trump does not return to the White House, this radicalized segment will not disappear."
Sarah Posner takes a close look at PRRI findings released this week which show that 60% of evangelicals doubt the legitimacy of the 2020 election, and yet they are the most determined demographic to vote (78% say they are certain they will cast a ballot in 2024). A third of white evangelicals say they are on board for political violence to secure their control of the country.
"According to PRRI, white Christians are 'notably more likely' to view immigrants as 'an invading force' than other religious groups, including 61% of white evangelical Protestants, 51% of white Catholics, and 46% of white mainline/nonevangelical Protestants."