Religion and Politics, some interesting facts...

[Solon]

See, I get curious sometimes, and wanted to figure out a few things about the Demographics of the United States in regards to religion. Mostly to see if the pandering to Christianity is justified. So, this is what I found, apparently, as of the year 2001, Christians composed of about 75% of the population in this country, down from 86% in 1990, a decline of almost 1% per year. Even more interesting is Church attendance, which is pretty high for an industrialized nation, about 44% of those in the United States go to church weekly, problem is, over half lied about it.

The amount of people who do not follow organized religion at all is about 14.1%, almost doubling since 1990, and over twice as many as self identified Evangelicals who consist about 7% of the population.

Given these facts, my question is why do Democrats try to pander so hard for what is basically a small minority of people. I'm not talking about mainline, or nominal Christians, who take up the majority, but the Evangelicals, who take up less than 10% of the country and only 12% of them vote for Democrats to begin with?

[Critters2]

1. Just curious. Are you equating "mainline" and "nominal" Christians? nt

[Solon]

2. I guess I could clarify...

Most Christians in this country do not go to any church on a regular basis, with lack of any qualifiers, I used "nominal". This isn't a reflection on beliefs, but practice, there is a distinct correlation between Church attendance and political affiliation. To be honest, many Christians can be very religious but completely "unchurched" as it were, not liking ANY particular denomination or Church, but still pray, probably everyday, or read the Bible, etc. The actual amount of these Christians is somewhat hard to pin down.

[orpupilofnature57]

3. You did ,your distinction was with them and evangelical Christians.

And I agree totally.

[patrice]

4. Democrats do that because, as you point out even though the overall %s aren't

as high as one might think, "Christians" are more consistently organized through their churches and, hence, more powerful.

[LiberalFighter]

5. They can influence their families and friends.

And then there is the guilt feeling that some may have if they don't do what is "right".

[patrice]

6. I think you are right about how important doing what is "right" is.

People aren't sure how to figure out what is right, so they think they NEED churches to tell them and if their church says it, it must be right.