Religion plays a larger part in the lives of Republican voters than in the lives of their Democratic counterparts, according to a new survey. A report from the Pew Research Center released late last month found that two-thirds (66%) of Republicans believe “with absolute certainty” in God, compared to only 41% of Democrats who said the same — a 25-point difference. Roughly half of Republicans also said that religion is “very important” in their lives (48%) and that they pray daily (52%), while only 28% of Democrats described religion as “very important” and just over one third (35%) said that they pray daily. Regular church attendance (at least once a month) scored lower among both groups: 41% among Republicans and only 24% among Democrats.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, shared his insights on the data, “I think there are a couple things happening here that are related. First, modern progressivism is inherently secular,” he explained. “It is based on the idea that personal fulfillment is the greatest good, feelings determine truth, and the satisfaction of personal desires is the only path to happiness. It stands in opposition to the idea that we are ultimately to submit to the will of a power greater than ours.” Backholm continued, “So the more progressive you are, the less you will see the idea of God as true or helpful, so the more likely you are to be secular. Of course, there are people who try to be both religious and progressive, but they end up worshipping a God that requires nothing of them and agrees with them about everything, so it’s the same as not having a God at all.”

“There’s a chicken-and-egg component to the relationship between religion and politics,” Backholm said, addressing whether Republicans are more religious than Democrats because their political views foster faith or whether the more religiously-devout tend towards Republican politics because they align more nearly with their faith. “There’s no doubt that political beliefs shape religious beliefs. In fact, in recent years, we’ve seen people’s journey to Christianity begin with a realization that leftism doesn’t work and wanting to understand why. So, politics can influence religion,” the Biblical Worldview scholar explained. “But sometimes our politics becomes our religion. If we don’t believe truth exists outside of us, once we make up our mind politically, we create a community and even a religion that affirms our political convictions,” he continued.

“In this sense,” he explained, “our politics becomes our religion because it is the north star around which we orient everything else. This can happen on the Right and the Left, but it’s more common on the Left, because the Left is philosophically opposed to the idea of fixed truth,” Backholm posited. “Conservativism, at least in the sense that I understand it, requires us to acknowledge an authority above us and encourages us to submit to that authority. Secularism denies an ultimate higher power.”

The Pew Research study also discovered that while Republicans tended to maintain similar religious trends when examined by racial demographic — for example, 48% of white Republicans and 49% of both black and Hispanic Republicans say that religion is “very important” to them — Democrats differ more widely on religious matters depending on their race or ethnicity. Among white Democrats, 29% said that they believe in God, 24% said that they pray daily, and only 17% described religion as “very important” or said that they attend church services regularly. Among black Democrats, however, 75% said that they believe in God, 65% reported that they pray daily, 60% classified religion as “very important,” and 42% said that they attend church services regularly. Hispanic Democrats fell in between the two demographics but were still almost twice as likely to believe in God, pray daily, describe religion as “very important,” and attend church services regularly as white Democrats.

Backholm suggested that “cultural realities partially explain the ethnic difference. Being a Democrat was not always so closely related to hostility to God in the way it is today.” He explained, “Black and Hispanic communities were Democrats for different reasons than white communities, and that relationship became personal and emotional as much as anything else. So, while the Democratic Party is hostile to the religious values many of them still hold, they find it difficult to leave the party for some of the same reasons it would be hard to leave your family and say you’ll never see them on Christmas again.”

“White secular people and religious black and brown people end up in the same place, but it’s often for different reasons,” Backholm expounded. “Those reasons are not reconcilable, which is why we’re seeing a fracture of the traditional Democratic base. The rich white secularists are moving over the Democratic party while poor and middle class black and brown people are finding their beliefs increasingly incompatible with the Democratic Party and leaving as a result.”

In the 2016 presidential election, for example, 82% of black men voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. By 2020, only 79% of black men voted for the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, and only 77% voted for Biden’s deputy, Kamal Harris, in 2024. “These kinds of cultural shifts don’t happen all at once, but they are happening because they must happen,” Backholm postulated. “Biblical Christianity is incompatible with modern progressivism. Of course, that doesn’t mean the Republican Party is a paragon of virtue, but its principles are not antagonistic to God and the creation order.”

According to the Pew Research Center, 78% of white Republicans, 61% of black Republicans, 70% of Hispanic Republicans, and 41% of Asian Republicans identified as Christian, as did 42% of white Democrats, 76% of black Democrats, 63% of Hispanic Democrats, and 28% of Asian Democrats. In total, 74% of surveyed Republicans identified as Christian and 20% as “religiously unaffiliated,” while 50% of Democrats identified as Christian and 40% identified as religiously unaffiliated.