By Lianne Kolirin
In 1802 Thomas Jefferson wrote of the importance of “building a wall of separation between church and state”.
Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and who served as the third US president from 1801 to 1809, was responding to the Danbury Baptist Association which had congratulated him on his recent election to office, praised him on his views on religious liberty, and sought assurance on this commitment.
Jefferson was stressing the importance of the First Amendment to the US constitution, which prohibits the establishment of a state faith and protects freedom of religion.
While those two principles remain key to the American way of life, Jefferson might have some thoughts on the role faith plays in US politics today — and the impact it is having on the presidential election campaign.
Alistair Dawber, the Washington correspondent for The Times, told the Religion Media Centre: “Faith plays a huge role in US elections. It’s unusual to go to a political event, a rally or a speech, and not have some sort of religious figure on the stage, offering a prayer for the candidate, or the outcome of the election — it can often be quite political.”
Neither candidate is stressing their personal faith in the campaign, yet Dawber suggests that both know it is something they cannot avoid.
With polling day fast approaching, both sides continue to jet around the country wooing prospective voters — often in places of worship. This weekend the Democrat candidate Kamala Harris visited two churches in Atlanta as part of a nationwide push to mobilise African-American voters, known as souls to the polls.
At the first, she shared a stage with Stevie Wonder, who rallied congregants with a rendition of Bob Marley ‘s Redemption Song, while she referred to the scriptures in her second and later that day sat for an interview with the civil rights activist the Rev Al Sharpton.
Meanwhile, on Thursday last week, Donald Trump delivered a half-hour speech at a meeting of faith leaders in North Carolina, in which he cast himself as the protector of Christians, while days earlier he told guests at a fundraising event hosted by Catholic Charities of New York that Harris was “disrespectful” for not attending.
Religion is all important in the US when compared with many other countries in the western world. Two-thirds of Americans identify as Christians, according to the most recent census of American religion carried by the Public Religion Research Institute.
But when it comes to Christianity, the church could not be more broad. Catholics are outnumbered by Protestants but these are divided into countless sub-sectors.
Meanwhile the number who define themselves as “non-religious” has been steadily growing. In 2013 more than a quarter (27 per cent) were found to be religiously unaffiliated, compared with 21 per cent a decade earlier.
Here the Religion Media Centre examines the religious facets of the 2024 election campaign.
PERSONAL AFFILIATIONS
Kamala Harris
The Democratic candidate‘s diverse religious history has been regarded as representative of a changing, diverse nation. She was raised by a Baptist father and Hindu mother and attended a temple and church. As a child she sang in the choir at Twenty-Third Avenue Church of God in Oakland. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish.
Harris has previously talked of having been inspired by the work of the Rev Martin Luther King Jr, and influenced by the religious traditions of her mother‘s native India as well as the Black Church.
The Religion News Service says Harris has an ease about navigating different religious traditions and it quotes Anthea Butler, the African-American professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania, saying “nobody grows up in a straight line with religion any more”.
Donald Trump
In a 2020 interview with the Religion News Service, Donald Trump said his parents “taught me the importance of faith and prayer from a young age” and that he was confirmed as a Presbyterian during childhood. However, he added: “I now consider myself to be a non-denominational Christian.”
Running mates
Tim Walz, who is running to be Harris ‘s vice-president, has said that he was brought up Catholic but today refers to himself as a “Minnesota Lutheran”, according to a report by the Religion News Service.
J. D. Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, had a loosely evangelical upbringing. He at one point identified as an atheist but converted to Catholicism. His wife Usha Vance is a practising Hindu.
Hugh Tomlinson, also a reporter at The Times’ bureau in Washington DC, believes personal faith is of limited relevance in this campaign as compared to previous elections:
“Harris has emphasised her background as the child of immigrants but has trodden cautiously on the question of faith.
“Trump of course is a unique conundrum. He doesn’t appear to practise at all, famously refused to name a favourite line of scripture and is flogging his own personally-endorsed Bibles to raise campaign funds”.
LATEST POLLING
Although the number of Americans who define themselves as Christian has been falling in recent years and the number of those who do not affiliate with any religion has been growing, the links between faith and political affiliation remains fairly strong, according to the Pew Research Center.
In a study they published in April, it emerged that Protestants — the largest religious group in the country — continue mostly (59 per cent) to support the Republican Party. It showed the party has a modest majority with Catholics — about half, compared with 44 per cent who identify either as Democrats or lean towards the party. Three-quarters of Mormons support the Republicans, the data showed.
The Democrats were found to be more popular with Jewish voters at 69 per cent — an increase of eight percentage points since 2020. Likewise, two-thirds of Muslims consider themselves Democrats or independents who lean towards Democrat ideals.
The growth in non-religion has largely benefited the Democrats, according to the survey. Seven out of 10 people with no religious affiliation support the party of the current vice-president, compared with 27 per cent who favour the Republicans.
Shyam Sriram, programme director for the department of political science at Canisius University in Buffalo, New York, specialises in refugee resettlement, immigration, religion and race.
He said the role of faith in US politics could not be overestimated. “Faith has a huge role in American politics and more than most Americans are willing to admit,” he told the RMC. “That comes from an insistence that we have a ‘separation between church and state’ and the First Amendment of our constitution, which includes protections for the individual practice of religion (free exercise clause) and protection from the government endorsing a religion (establishment clause).
“But the paradox here is that Americans are religious people — though polling shows that younger Americans are more likely to say their religious affiliation is ‘none’ or ‘none of the above’.”
Appealing to religious identity is all-important to both sides, Dr Sriram said. “Both parties see themselves as representative of the needs of the people, but Republicans focus a lot on ‘Christian values’ whereas we see more attempts by Democrats at appealing to minorities and minority religions,” he said.
RACE
Political affiliation is a complicated matter that is not simple to predict — especially along religious lines. US society is massively diverse and while the country may be overwhelmingly Christian, there are many divisions within the faith — and many of these are influenced by race.
Trump is known to enjoy support from white evangelicals and this is backed up by the Pew Research Center which says 85 per cent of white evangelical voters identify with, or lean towards, the Republicans. More than half of white non-evangelicals (58 per cent) and white Catholics (61 per cent) align with the Republicans.
Hugh Tomlinson said: “It’s very common to hear Trump supporters claim that he was chosen by God, something he has done nothing to discourage. At times, his Truth Social feed has been filled with images of himself as a religious icon, or with Jesus looking over his shoulder, often with a nod to supporters of QAnon, who see him as America’s saviour.
“That air that Trump was anointed from above has only increased since the assassination attempt in July. There was a quasi-religious fervour around the Republican convention that week and that has carried into the campaign.”
A large majority (84 per cent) of black Protestants identify as Democrats. However, that is down by nine points on 15 years ago, according to Pew.
The picture is more complicated when it comes to the Hispanic community, however. Six in 10 Catholic Hispanic voters favour the Democrats, though this is a drop on 15 years ago. There is more of a split within the Protestant Hispanic community, with 49 per cent leaning towards the Republicans compared with 45 per cent for Democrats.
APATHY
Other research has shown that voter apathy among religious communities could have an impact on the results of the upcoming election.
Published earlier this month, a report from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, led by Dr George Barna, revealed a significant fall in enthusiasm among religious voters. The research suggests that about 104 million people of faith — including 32 million regular churchgoers — could abstain from voting next month.
For the purposes of the survey, people of faith were described as someone who self-describes as such — or who is associated with a faith such as Christianity, Judaism, Mormonism and Islam. As such, the survey found that 79 per cent of Americans fell into that category. Of those, only half (51 per cent) said that they would be likely to vote.
Among the reasons given for not voting, the respondents cited a lack of interest in politics and elections (68 per cent) and a dislike of the candidates (57 per cent).
Interestingly, the study found that congregants at black churches are likely to be more politically engaged than at other churches. The study showed that these places of worship are more than twice as likely (55 per cent) to register people to vote than all other Christian churches (25 per cent).
Dr Barna said that it was not too late to make a difference. “The 32 million Christians sitting in the pews each week who refuse to vote are a gamechanger,” he said. “It’s low hanging fruit for pastors as they try to motivate those congregants to carry out their civic duty and honour God through their influence for things that matter in our culture.”
MORALITY
Some commentators have observed that religion is taking a back seat in this election when compared with others over the past few decades. This may, in part, be explained by the growth of religious “nones”.
But while voters may not expect their president to be religious, they are keen to elect a “moral” candidate. According to research carried out by the Pew Research Centre this year, almost all Americans (94 per cent) said it was at least somewhat important to have a president who personally lives a moral and ethical life. This was almost double the proportion (48 per cent) who said that it was at least somewhat important that the president has strong religious beliefs, even if these beliefs were different from their own.
The definition of a moral and ethical life is, however, unclear. Trump ‘s legal woes, including his conviction over hush money paid to a porn star, appear to have done little to dent his popularity with many Christians.
A poll for the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs found that 70 per cent of evangelical Christians view Trump favourably, along with about half of white Catholics and half of white mainline Protestants.
Hugh Tomlinson described the links between Trump and the religious right as a “curious alliance”. Referring to a recent rally in Pensylvania, he said: “When Trump called Harris a ‘shit vice president’ at a rally the other day, he told the crowd that evangelical leaders had written to him, personally pleading with him not to swear at campaign events, and then said ‘What the hell’. Because most evangelicals will vote for him anyway and he knows it.”
ABORTION
The Roe v Wade ruling, which made abortion a constitutional human right, was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2022 — leaving individual states free to legislate on abortion. Subsequently, 17 states have outlawed nearly all abortions. Another eight states allow some access to the procedure.
Religious conviction has been at the heart of this debate, with many of those calling for a ban, believing that human life begins at conception and that the unborn have a right to life. A study for the Pew Research Center this year showed that 73 per cent of white evangelicals think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, while 86 per cent of religiously unaffiliated Americans said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Kamala Harris is strongly in favour of overturning the bans and has described the restriction of a woman’s right to an abortion as “immoral”.
Trump is responsible for the appointment of three of the six Supreme Court judges who helped to overturn Roe v Wade. However, while he is no doubt conscious of his pro-life Christian supporters, he has also tried to remain ambiguous on the issue in this campaign — no doubt conscious of trying to pull in votes from women.
Alistair Dawber said: “Trump, since winning the Republican nomination with the help of evangelical Christians, has moved towards the centre ground on issues like abortion. This has angered some Christian groups who say that he has let them down.
“They wanted Trump to limit abortion access even further, arguing that the next step after the scrapping of Roe v Wade would be a nationwide, federal abortion ban. It is something that Trump doesn’t want to do because he knows it alienates more moderate voters.”
THE MIDDLE EAST
As in many places around the world, the conflict in the Middle East has divided US society and had an impact on domestic politics. Both the candidates are broadly supportive of Israel but the reality is far more complicated.
Evangelical Christians are among Israel’s fiercest supporters and as such they had considerable influence over Republican policy in this area.
By contrast, many Muslim voters feel angry at the Biden administration’s support for Israel. Where this may be felt most keenly is in the swing state of Michigan where there is a large Arab-American population.
The Jewish community has traditionally leant towards the Democrats and that support remains in place, as the Pew Research Center has shown. Its studies reveal that 65 per cent of Jewish voters are backing Harris. Yet the conflict and the growth of antisemitism have suggested that some support is moving towards the Republicans.
Alistair Dawber explains: “Harris is caught between Muslim and Jewish voters – both groups traditionally Democratic party supporters in large numbers.
“Many Muslims in key swing states like Michigan are angry with the White House for failing to check Israel’s war in Gaza, which they argue has come at too great a cost in terms of civilian lives.
“At the same time, many Jewish voters feel that the administration has not done enough to stop a huge rise in antisemitism since the attacks on October 7 last year. They worry that the Democrats will limit military and security assistance to Israel as a way of placating Muslim voters.”
Trump has been trying to exploit this with comments that have proved controversial. He has previously said that Harris “doesn’t like Jewish people” despite being married to one. Then, addressing the Israeli-American Council National Summit in Washington last month, Trump said that Israel would “cease to exist” under Harris — and that would be largely because Jews had voted for her.
He said: “If I don’t win this election — and the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens because if 40 per cent, I mean, 60 per cent of the people are voting for the enemy — Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years,” Trump told the crowd.
HISPANIC COMMUNITY
The Hispanic vote is viewed as vital by both candidates. But this is no homogenous group. According to the most recent census, the US is home to 63.7 million Latinos — making them the nation’s largest racial or ethnic minority at 19.1 per cent of the total population.
Until fairly recently the Latino vote was split between the two contenders, but last month Pew reported that Harris had taken the edge — with 57 per cent saying they would vote for her over 39 per cent opting for Trump.
It said 65 per cent of Latino Protestants plan to vote for Trump, while the same percentage of Hispanic Catholics will vote for Harris — as will 67 per cent of unaffiliated Hispanics.
HINDU VOTERS
Hindus are a relatively small minority in the States, numbering about 2.5 million, which is 0.7 per cent of the population, according to data site World Population Review.
They are a highly educated group and have the highest retention rate of any religion in the US, with eight out of 10 adults who were raised as Hindus continuing to adhere to the faith.
Harris’s mother, a Hindu, emigrated alone from her home in southern India at the age of 19. The Democratic candidate has spoken often of her mother’s influence on her life and wrote in her memoir: “Our classical Indian names harked back to our heritage, and we were raised with a strong awareness of and appreciation for Indian culture.”
But while that back story may appeal to some, it certainly doesn’t mean an instant win for Harris among the nation’s Hindus. Earlier this month the Religion News Service (RNS) wrote on why Harris might not be able to count on Hindu voters.
US Hindus — many of whom are first-generation Indian immigrants have traditionally voted Democrat, but data from the Carnegie Endowment and Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote show that support for the party among that sector has been falling since 2020.
In common with other immigrant groups, they are initially drawn to the party for their welcoming attitude to minority groups. But that is starting to change.
One reason might be the conservative values of the Republican Party, while reports of a growing number of hate crime incidents directed at the community and vandalism of Hindu temples is also causing concern.
Rishi Bhutada, treasurer of the nonpartisan Hindu American PAC, told the RNS: “We’ve been so strongly Democratic that I think sometimes we’ve been taken for granted. The polling data is showing that a shift is starting to happen. It’s one of those things where, if you’re not paying attention to it as a political observer, it will surprise you.”
