The Politics of Religious Nones

Abstract

Americans with no religious affiliation (aka religious “Nones”) are not a politically homogeneous community. Just as there are political differences between groups of Christians, there are political differences between groups of religious Nones. I use nationally representative survey data to examine the political activities and perspectives of atheists, agnostics, and those who are “nothing in particular.” Results show that Americans who report that their religion is nothing in particular are relatively uninterested in politics and unlikely to be politically active; atheists are relatively liberal and likely to experience political conflict and follow political news; and agnostics are particularly likely to vote and feel politically isolated from their families. In many ways, the “softer” secularism of those who are nothing in particular is politically more similar to religious affiliates than the “harder” secularism of agnostics and especially atheists. These results have important implications for the future of American politics as Nones now have the potential to rival evangelical Protestants as a politically relevant constituency.

Unchurched Christian Nationalism and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

“…Our findings may seem incongruous with evidence that a backlash against the fusion of religion and conservative politics fueled the rise in religious "nones" (i.e., religiously unaffiliated individuals) (Djupe, Neiheisel, and Conger 2018). However, nones are politically complex and theistic nones are more likely than non-theistic nones to affiliate with the Republican party or have a conservative identity (Baker and Smith 2015;Schwadel 2020). Further, while nearly onequarter of nones report that they attend religious services on some regular/periodic basis, nearly half of people who report they never attend religious services nevertheless report some type of religious affiliation.…”

How Religion, Social Class, and Race Intersect in the Shaping of Young Women’s Understandings of Sex, Reproduction, and Contraception

“…Religious affiliation and levels of some practices and beliefs vary by social class (Schwadel 2020;Wilde et al 2018). Furthermore, some aspects of social class do not relate uniformly to religiosity.…”

Finding the Missing Atheists

“…Ninety-five percent of atheists say that religion is not at all important in their lives, while 72.3% of agnostics, and just 36.1% of nothing in particulars respond in the same manner. On dimensions of political partisanship and public opinion, the same order emerges -atheists are further to the left, followed by agnostics, and nothing in particulars are more in the center of the political spectrum (Schwadel 2020). One could assume from this that if atheists were left to pick their second choice of religious affiliation, then agnostics would be the clear choice.…”

“…Regardless, the religious "nones" represent a different type of religious belief and affiliation. This is noted by Schwadel who argues that having no religious affiliation changes the way people move through the world, and it can dramatically alter their political views and participation (Schwadel 2020).…”