The Striking Correlation Between a State’s Religion and Its Politics

August 7, 2009 RSS Feed Print

Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

How much are the identities of the nation's different regions determined by their particular religious composition? Quite a lot, according to an intriguing set of faith-based U.S. maps released by Gallup today.

Compare these two maps that show states where Protestants and other non-Catholic Christians live and states where more Catholics tend to reside. The correlation between Protestants and red states and Catholics and blue states is striking:

Tags:
Gallup,
religion,
politics,
polls

Reader Comments Read all comments (19)

Add Your Thoughts
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

record lower per beta earth

alfridsong of HI 7:31PM November 23, 2009

Religion should not be a factor for senseless fighting. I personally belong to all accepted religion as I say in my book "Why I live". God is one. He is for the health of mankind in every possible way.

Lionel Maithri Perera of CA 10:51PM September 29, 2009

I just read the post about how "sensible" people end unwanted conceptions. Does eliminating unwanted babies sound sensible? I can tell you for certain that truly sensible people assuredly do not kill their own children while they are in the womb. If everyone were that "sensible," the entire human race would be wiped out in one generation.

Here is the kind of thinking that such "sense" would lead to: Why should anyone want to conceive and bring a life into the world that might believe there is a God and might want to honor God by paying tithing? Away with such a notion! Let's be "sensible" and kill the kids before they have a chance to displease us with their gratitude to God when we want them to be just as selfish and unethical as we are.

Sure. That's really sensible, isn't it?

kgdmwork of CA 12:54PM August 11, 2009

God & Country

U.S. News Weekly

Subscribe Now!

Order the new U.S. News Weekly digital magazine at a special low introductory price!

Dan Gilgoff covers religion for U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War, and is a former politics editor at beliefnet. E-mail Dan at godandcountry@usnews.com.

Is increasing access to healthcare a moral or faith-based cause?

View Results

Follow Dan Gilgoff on: Facebook | Twitter | MySpace

Photo Gallery

Faith Photo of the Day

See what's going on in the faith world across the globe every day.

SPECIAL REPORTS

Secrets of Islam

A guide to the world's fastest growing religion.

Sacred Places

Explore the significance, history, and enduring power of places people consider most sacred.

Women of the Bible

The "daughters of Eve" play many roles in the Old and New Testaments.