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practice. Although the number of religious categories may appear excessive,
it barely taps the diversity of American religion, and it illustrates the com-
plexity of faith-based politics.
Religious Traditions. The basic building blocks of these categories (and
the major sections in the table) are the major religious traditions, measured
by self-reported denominational affiliation. These religious traditions
include Evangelical, Mainline and Black Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and
two composite categories of smaller traditions, Other Christians (such as
the Latter-day Saints and the Eastern Orthodox) and Other Faiths (such as
Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus). Latino Protestants and Catholics are
also separate categories because of their political importance (although
they might be better thought of as ethnic sub-traditions). The final cate-
gory is the Unaffiliated, representing the special case of the absence of affili-
ation with a religious tradition. Cruder references to these religious
traditions are a staple of political discourse, such as the perennial interest
THE FAITH-BASED VOTE IN THE UNITED STATES 43
TABLE 1
RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES AND THE PRESIDENTIAL VOTE, 2004
Size Two-Party Vote
Percentage Percentage Percentage
of Population for Bush for Kerry
Evangelical Protestants
Traditionalist Evangelical 10.7 87.9 12.1
Centrist Evangelical 9.7 70.4 29.6
Modernist Evangelical 3.3 57.1 42.9
Nominal Evangelical 1.5 56.5 43.5
Mainline Protestants
Traditionalist Mainline 4.5 65.6 34.4
Centrist Mainline 5.5 49.1 50.9
Modernist Mainline 4.4 43.1 56.9
Nominal Mainline 2.0 31.0 69.0
Minority Protestants
Latino Protestant 2.6 62.9 37.1
Traditionalist Black Protestant 4.2 18.2 81.8
Less Traditional Black Protestant 5.1 17.5 82.5
Catholics
Traditionalist Catholic 4.2 73.9 26.1
Centrist Catholic 7.4 52.3 47.7
Modernist Catholic 3.8 38.1 61.9
Nominal Catholic 2.1 28.9 71.1
Latino Catholic 4.5 31.4 68.6
Other Traditions
Other Christians 2.8 80.0 20.0
Jews 1.9 26.7 73.3
Other Faiths 2.6 22.0 78.0
Unaffiliated
Unaffiliated Believers 4.8 37.0 63.0
Seculars 9.0 29.5 70.5
Atheists, Agnostics 3.4 20.0 80.0
ALL 100.0 51.2 48.8
SOURCE: Fourth National Survey of Religion and Politics, Bliss Institute University of Akron, 2004,
available at http://pewforum.org/publications/surveys/green-full.pdf.
NOTE: N=4,000 overall, 2,750 post-election.
44 RELIGION AND THE AMERICAN FUTURE
in the Catholic vote and the turnout of black Protestants. But without
doubt the most common focus is on the religious Right and fundamen-
talists of one kind or another. Indeed, even the harsh rhetoric about faith-
based voting takes for granted the importance of religious affiliation, albeit
in a pejorative fashion.
Religious Traditionalism. The religious traditions in table 1 are further
divided where practicable into four categories based on traditional religious
beliefs and practices. As the name implies, traditionalists are the most
likely to hold traditional religious beliefs (such as belief in a personal God
and in heaven and hell) and to engage in traditional practices (such as reg-
ular worship attendance and frequent prayer). In contrast, modernists are
the most likely to hold modern beliefs and to engage in fewer traditional
practices. Centrists fall in between the traditionalists and modernists in
these regards, while nominals report few religious beliefs or practices of
any kind. The unaffiliated population is divided into three roughly analo-
gous categories based on other criteria, producing Unaffiliated Believers,
Seculars, and self-identified Atheists and Agnostics.
Due to the small number of respondents, Black Protestants are divided
into two categories, traditionalist and less traditional (combining cen-
trists, modernists, and nominals). For the same reason, the four remaining
religious categories were not subdivided at all, but there is reason to believe
that the traditionalist-nominal distinctions may occur within some of these
groups, such as Jews. (For more detail on the definition of these categories,
see the appendix.)
The impact of religious traditionalism on the vote has been widely
recognized by political observers, most famously in the form of the God
gap in voting.5 There is a good bit of truth behind the God gap, but
religious traditionalism includes religious practices as well as beliefs. In
any event, the God gap has helped fuel the fierce rhetoric about faith-
based politics.
The first column in table 1 lists the relative size of these religious cate-
gories. These data quantify the religious diversity of the American public.
For instance, the largest group, Traditionalist Evangelical Protestants,
accounts for only about one-tenth of the adult population. Most of the cate-
gories are one-half this size or smaller. In fact, many of these categories must
THE FAITH-BASED VOTE IN THE UNITED STATES 45
be viewed with caution because of the small number of cases. Clearly, there
is no simple religious majority in the United States, and as a consequence,
faith-based electoral politics is inherently a process of coalition building.
Religion and the 2004 Presidential Vote. The remaining two columns in
table 1 report the two-party presidential vote in 2004. These patterns illus-
trate the usefulness of these religious categories in understanding the presi-
dential vote. To begin with, there are consistent differences within the three
large Christian traditions based on traditionalism: the traditionalists always
voted most for Bush and the nominals always voted most for Kerry with
the centrist and modernists always falling in between. For example, nearly
nine of ten Traditionalist Evangelicals backed Bush, compared to a bit more
than one-half of the Nominal Evangelicals. Similar divisions occurred
among Mainline Protestants and Catholics, and even among the unaffili-
ated, where Unaffiliated Believers were seventeen percentage points less
likely to vote for Kerry than Atheists and Agnostics.
However, religious affiliation also mattered to the presidential vote: Tra-
ditionalist Evangelicals (87.9 percent) were more Republican than Tradi-
tionalist Catholics (73.9 percent) or Traditionalist Mainline Protestants (65.6
percent). Likewise, Modernist Evangelicals (42.9 percent) were less Demo-
cratic than Modernist Mainliners (56.9 percent) or Modernist Catholics
(61.9 percent). Affiliation was particularly important for religious minorities.
For instance, Traditionalist Black Protestants hardly differed from their less
traditional counterparts in terms of the Democratic vote. Note also the dif-
ferences between Latino Protestants (62.9 percent for Bush) and Latino
Catholics (68.6 percent for Kerry). Distinctive presidential preferences were
also displayed by the Other Christians (80 percent for Bush) as well as by
Jews and Other Faiths (73 and 78 percent for Kerry, respectively).
Of course, this simple table does not take into account other demo-
graphic factors that also affect the vote, such as income, education, and gen-
der. However, taking these factors into account does not eliminate the
connection between these religious distinctions and the vote. In fact, most
of these demographic factors had an independent impact in 2004, with reli-
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