How Democrats became secular and Republicans became religious. (It’s not what you think.)

By John Sides
September 4 at 10:30 AM

Back in 2012, partisan battles over religion continued. The Republican Party platform accused the Democratic Party of waging a “war on religion.” News media paid attention to the absence of the word “God” from the initial 2012 Democratic Party platform.

How did we get here? Ryan Claassen is a political scientist at Kent State University and the author of a provocative new book called “Godless Democrats and Pious Republicans?” that seeks to explain the “God Gap” between the parties. He answered a few questions by e-mail. Below is an edited transcript.

JS: The “God Gap” means that people who are more religious have become a larger part of the Republican Party base, and people who are less religious have become a larger part of the Democratic Party base. What’s the conventional explanation for this trend?

RC: Conventional wisdom says that Christian Right organizations, such as the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition, mobilized religious activists on behalf of the Republican Party.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/09/04/how-democrats-became-secular-and-republicans-became-religious-its-not-what-you-think/



http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/american-government-politics-and-policy/godless-democrats-and-pious-republicans-party-activists-party-capture-and-god-gap?format=PB