The 2020 U.S. Religion Census, which was released late last year, reveals that religion is taking a beating across the middle part of the country. When comparing the rate of religious adherents in 2020 versus 2010, a fascinating pattern emerges, illuminating the political relevance of the shifting religious landscape: Democrats are making gains in areas where religion is fading (the census defines non-religious as the percentage of a county’s population that does not show up on the rolls of any religious organization in that county) and Republicans are increasing their vote share in places where houses of worship are gaining new members. …
Across the industrial Midwest, in former Rust Belt states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that are absolutely essential to the Democrats’ firewall in 2024, there is good news for the party — each of those states is much less religious today than it was just 10 years ago.
For instance, of Michigan’s 83 counties, 65 experienced a drop in religious adherents between 2010 and 2020. In populous Oakland County, which encompasses the far northern suburbs of Detroit, the share of people affiliated with a religious congregation dropped two percent in the prior decade. That drop in share coincided with a rise in Democratic fortunes: President Joe Biden won the county by 108,000 votes, more than double Barack Obama’s margin eight years earlier. …
But that’s not to say that the Republicans don’t have reasons for hope in the Religion Census.
There are 67 counties in Florida — and religious adherents grew in forty-nine of them. One of the true shocks on election night 2020 was just how poorly Biden did in Miami-Dade, which Clinton won in a landslide in 2016. Just four years after Clinton beat Trump by nearly 30 percentage points, Biden ran only seven points better than Trump. The Religion Census offers an insight into why that happened. In 2010, about 40 percent of residents of Miami-Dade County were connected to a religious group. In 2020, that was 52 percent. …
The other shift in American religion that may be working against the Democrats is in the state of Texas. …
In many counties that are close to the border with Mexico, religion saw big gains between 2010 and 2020. The one that grabbed national headlines in 2020 was heavily Hispanic Zapata County. Clinton took it by 44 points in 2016, while Biden only bested Trump by 11 points in 2020. The Religion Census indicates that the share of Zapata County that was part of a congregation was 31 percent in 2010. Just 10 years later, it had risen to 65 percent — the rate of religious adherents doubled in less than a decade. …
The overall sense that arises from the Religion Census is that the Democrats will continue to gain ground in suburban counties that are predominantly white and where religion is fading in size and importance. In so-called Blue Wall states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, Republicans will have a harder time winning over voters in suburban Milwaukee, Detroit, or Philadelphia with messaging about six-week abortion bans. On the other hand, the shifts in the religious landscape make it more likely that the GOP can hold off Democratic advances in important states like Texas and Florida. …
Where the remaining religious Americans live and vote is a crucial question for the electoral map in 2024 and beyond. Both parties are ignoring these changing dynamics at their own peril.
How are you praying for a return to God and godly principles in America? Share this article to encourage others to pray.
(Excerpt from Politico. Photo Credit: Canva)
Comments
Our GOD tells us in HIS WORD that we can became a partaker of their evil deeds when we join wicked people. The Democrat party voted to take GOD off of their platform in 2008 or 2012 and the party has become 10 times more evil and wicked supporting the most vile things! FATHER GOD please deal strongly with the leadership of the democrat party on their evil words and actions. Please send laborers and deliver them from evil! Let the membership know who the party is serving (satan) and let them renounce their denial of CHRIST and come back to HIM in JESUS NAME!
I am wondering if people don’t carefully enough consider James 5:16-17. I have looked at 6 versions, KJV, NKJV, NIV, NASB, NLT, CJB. I see 2 kinds of religion. KJV, vain religion, vs pure and undefiled religion. NKJV, useless religion vs pure and undefiled religion. NIV worthless religion vs pure and faultless religion. NASB worthless religion vs pure and undefiled religion. NLT worthless religion vs pure and lasting religion. CJB (religion that) counts for nothing vs pure and faultless. In all of these versions, I do see a type of religion that is not to be rejected by our popular Christian view. In each one, if we say all religion is bad, then we wouldn’t we be saying caring for widows and orphans, keeping ourselves unpolluted from the world is also bad. Think about it. I won’t ever be able to agree with the statements, all religion is bad. God hates all religion. I read otherwise in these verses.
LORD, we repent of our complacency when it comes to ministering YOUR WORD , YOUR mercy, to those around us. LORD circumcise the hardness on our hearts. Fill us to overflowing in YOUR mercy, peace beyond understanding, exceeding joy based on YOU and YOUR unshakeable truth.
Cause us to live differently. We know that no one comes to YOU unless JESUS is lifted up and HOLY SPIRIT removes the veil from the eyes of pre-believers. Stir us up to lift JESUS high at all times. HOLY SPIRIT go forth urging back-slidden, and pre-believers to repentance and joyous reunion with YOU. Let this revival not be a stage show, but like revivals of old where masses on the street felt convicted of sin, acutely aware of need for the SAVIOR. Let everyone cry out “What must I do to be saved”. Let us be ready to minister JESUS faithfully Let this be a revival that is followed by huge drops in illness, death, addiction, depression, gender dysphoria, abuse, theft, illiteracy. Let pornography sites, and abortion mills close due to lack of traffic and therefore finances. Let every sex slave be delivered , wounds tended and step into their inheritance before the LORD. Let the WORD be publicly preached as in the days of Ezra causing tears of joy and repentance. Let your people as living stones be reassembled into a spiritual temple worthy of YOUR inhabitation. Let government proceed only on the wisdom from above. All else is demonic. Rise up O LORD and let your enemies be scattered. Be glorified in these days. Let the scales fall from our eyes that we might see YOU as YOU truly are. Let us be a true reflection of YOUR goodness, mercy, love , and power.
“Let this be a revival that is followed by huge drops in illness, death, addiction, depression, gender dysphoria, abuse, theft, illiteracy. Let pornography sites, and abortion mills close due to lack of traffic and therefore finances. Let every sex slave be delivered , wounds tended and step into their inheritance before the LORD.”
Please Abba Father, strengthen our families and for all the rebellious, break their hearts. Your word says, ” You are near to the brokenhearted and save the contrite in spirit.” “You heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.” As Kurt prayed Father, “Let us be a true reflection of YOUR goodness, mercy, love , and power.” Show all these mentioned their worth in Christ. Amen
A country is only as Godly as its citizens. As faith in God slips away, people become more deceived. They vote for other deceived people. Only the full armor of God, properly clothed on a believer, can shield the believer from deception from the enemy. The battle is in the minds of every human being. The rules !aid out in Eph 6, show that to battle the rulers and principalities over our nation, we are to simply stand, fully protected by the armor of God. We have the power to pull down strongholds in our minds when the enemy attacks us. The people in the world do not have this ability without faith in Christ. How do we change the nation? By focusing on all that is wrong with it? Or do we change it one person at a time by demonstrating the living Christ in us to this fallen nation? The battle that we can influence is in the mind. The battle in the heavenly places is between the cosmic forces of God against the cosmic forces of evil. That battle out there is not in our jurisdiction. If it was, Paul would have addressed it in Eph 6. Also, read all the prayers in the New Testament. Google it. Not one was directed against these forces of evil. In Eph 3:10, the Ekklesia is to demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God to these cosmic forces of evil, not battle to destroy them. In the end, Jesus will destroy them. Something to ponder.
These issues are for God to deal with. Not for us to worry. We, as believers must let God deal with the unbelievers. God is taking care of his chosen people. It is our duty to only obey and fear God, our creator. Do not let your heart be troubled.
God has this. Fear not.