{"id":959,"date":"2014-01-15T21:20:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T21:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/spiritual-but-not-religious-a-rising-misunderstood-voting-bloc.html"},"modified":"2014-01-15T21:20:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T21:20:00","slug":"spiritual-but-not-religious-a-rising-misunderstood-voting-bloc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/spiritual-but-not-religious-a-rising-misunderstood-voting-bloc.html","title":{"rendered":"‘Spiritual but Not Religious’: A Rising, Misunderstood Voting Bloc"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Spirituality is a big story in politics. Maybe as big a story as religion. It\u2019s been more than a decade since evangelicals helped George W. Bush win the White House, and we\u2019ve gotten used to the idea of the \u201cvalues voter,\u201d of religion as a political force. But while\u00a0the evangelical bloc seems to have frayed a bit<\/a>\u00a0and liberal mainline religion continues to lose influence, another major religious category is gathering force and deserves politician and pundit attention\u2014the \u201cspiritual but not religious\u201d vote.<\/span><\/div>\n

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A\u00a0fifth<\/a>\u00a0of Americans check \u201cnone\u201d on surveys of religious preference. Among the young adults under 30 who helped propel Obama into office, a full third check \u201cnone.\u201d Atheist pundits are\u00a0quick to claim<\/a>\u00a0these gains for their own, but that is not the case\u2014nearly 70 percent of \u201cnones\u201d report belief in God or a universal spirit, and\u00a037 percent describe<\/a>\u00a0themselves as \u201cspiritual but not religious.\u201d This may or may not be the story of the decline of \u201creligion,\u201d but it is clearly also the story of the ascent of \u201cspirituality.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

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Smart politicians and media observers will pay attention to this trend. There is the potential for spiritual voters to exert major influence this year and in 2016. Religiously unaffiliated voters are\u00a0strongly Democratic in national elections<\/a>, and amajority are socially progressive<\/a>\u00a0on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. But there is growth possibility for Democrats. While religious nonaffiliation has expanded rapidly in recent years, \u201cnones\u201d account for a flat 12 percent of voters in presidential contests since 2008. Over the same period, the percentage of \u201cnones\u201d identifying as Democrats fell slightly, while the percentage identifying as independents increased to half\u2014good news for Republicans and third-party candidates. Republicans are unlikely to wring much from spiritual voters; but Democrats stand to gain significantly, or lose out, depending on their ability to inspire them.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spirituality is a big story in politics. Maybe as big a story as religion. It\u2019s been more than a decade since evangelicals helped George W. Bush win the White House, and we\u2019ve gotten used to the idea of the \u201cvalues voter,\u201d of religion as a political force. But while\u00a0the evangelical bloc seems to have frayed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n'Spiritual but Not Religious': A Rising, Misunderstood Voting Bloc<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Spirituality is a big story in politics. Maybe as big a story as religion. It\u2019s been more than a decade since evangelicals helped George W. 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