Americans who have abandoned their Christian faith tend to have more liberal political views than those who grew up with no religion at all. This ideological shift to the left appears to be closely related to how threatening these people perceive conservative Christian groups to be. The study was published in The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics.
The demographics of the United States are changing as the number of religiously unaffiliated people grows rapidly. Demographers predict that individuals who claim no religious affiliation will become the nation’s largest population group within the next 20 years. This segment includes atheists, agnostics, and people who simply select a blank option when asked about their faith. The group is rapidly expanding, so studying its internal divisions can help explain broader political trends.
Within this realm of non-religion, there are two distinct subcategories. Sociologists and psychologists often refer to people who have never been religious as “apathetic.” On the other hand, people who were raised in religious families but later abandoned their faith are called “completers.”
With increasing secularization, millions of Americans now belong to second- or third-generation families with no religious affiliation. At the same time, millions of people are actively turning away from organized Christian tradition every year. Researchers Ayse Basra Topal of the University of California, Riverside and Spencer Kiesel of the University of Cincinnati wanted to know whether this path to secularism correlated with a person’s ultimate political beliefs.
Social scientists have proposed several theories to explain why Americans are leaving religion in droves. Some argue that fundamental social modernization gradually reduces the relevance of religious institutions over time. Others point to institutional failures, including numerous efforts by church leaders to cover up sexual abuse.
Topal and Kiesel focused on another explanation known as political backlash. This theory suggests that conservative Christian groups’ active involvement in right-wing politics has led many people to abandon the faith altogether. If this theory were true, former Christians should show stronger alignment with progressive politics than those who were not religious at all.
Previous psychological research has shown that a person’s religious past can leave a lasting impact on their everyday behavior. This phenomenon is known as religious residue. Past religious affiliation can influence everything from moral decision-making processes to everyday consumption habits.
Those who abandon their faith often experience social exclusion and a sense of loss of community. Psychologists note that former believers often hide their lack of faith to avoid social punishment. The researchers suspected that this social distress, combined with the political actions of conservative churches, would create a strong ideological backlash.
To explore this idea, Topal and Kiesel analyzed data from the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Postelection Survey. The national survey asked tens of thousands of Americans about their social identity and political attitudes from April to October 2021. The researchers focused entirely on a subset of just over 3,500 respondents who identified as atheist, agnostic, or currently independent.
The survey asked independents whether their families practiced a religion when they were children. Approximately 41 percent of nonreligious respondents were raised in Christian households. An additional 45% report no religious upbringing, placing them in the lifetime non-religious category.
The survey also asked respondents to rate whether different social groups support or threaten their vision of American society. The researchers isolated reactions regarding conservative Christians to gauge the degree of social identity threat felt by nonreligious people. Social identity threat occurs when a person feels that his or her personal position in society is being devalued or at risk by an outside group.
Topal and Kiesel then looked at how these people answered questions about several contested political issues in the United States. Topics include voting rights, immigration, abortion, same-sex marriage, and criminal justice reform. The researchers converted these survey responses into a standardized measure and compared the overall policy preferences of lifelong non-religious people and former Christians.
Statistical models reveal that former Christians are more likely to support progressive policies than lifelong non-believers. This former Christian group showed high support for access to abortion and overhauling the criminal justice system. They were also more likely to believe that the Voting Rights Act remains necessary to protect minority voters today.
Regarding immigration, former Christians voiced strong opposition to the restrictive asylum and deportation policies enacted under the Trump administration. They also suggested that same-sex marriage should remain an active priority, rather than being treated as a settled or unimportant issue. Across these various themes, abandoning one’s Christian identity had a strong correlation with left-wing political positions.
The data also revealed a strict connection between these liberal views and the perception of conservative Christians as a threat to society. Former Christians consistently report higher levels of threat from conservative religious groups compared to lifelong nonbelievers. As respondents’ perceived threat increased, their propensity to express liberal political views increased proportionately.
For people who grew up with no religion at all, their basic beliefs about conservatism change only when their perception of threat becomes very high. In contrast, ex-Christians showed a sharp decline in conservative ideology, precisely in parallel with a growing perception of threat. Researchers suggest that the pain of leaving the faith and the political alignment of many right-wing churches are creating powerful reactionary attitudes.
Identifying as non-religious is no longer just an identity associated with young white men. Because the nonreligious population is racially diverse these days, the researchers broke down the data by race and ethnicity to see if trends were uniform. They investigated the political attitudes of white, black, Latino, and Asian respondents separately.
According to the data, lifelong nonbelievers are most likely to identify as Asian, followed by whites, blacks, and Latinos. Former Christians were most likely to identify as white, followed by Latino and black. Political trends held up among white, black, and Latino respondents, with former Christians in these groups expressing very liberal political views.
The researchers noticed some variation in baseline demographic preferences while controlling for threat measures. Some Latino respondents showed high support for restrictive immigration policies and opposition to same-sex marriage, despite low general threat perceptions. When these same people felt high levels of threat from conservative Christians, their views shifted sharply to the political left.
For Asian nonreligious respondents, the results followed a similar directional pattern, but the results were not statistically significant. Mathematical models could not reliably confirm the effect of ex-Christian education on this particular group. Researchers note that the sample size of the Asian ex-Christian subgroup is small, making it difficult to detect subtle demographic patterns among voters.
Although the survey data highlight significant differences between lifelong nonbelievers and former Christians, the study design limits what researchers can claim. The study provides a snapshot from 2021 and reveals a correlation between a person’s religious past and political beliefs. Mathematical methodology does not rigorously prove that leaving religion causes a person to adopt progressive views.
Researchers say it’s entirely possible that adopting progressive views will prompt people to leave conservative religious groups. To establish the exact sequence of events, social scientists will need to employ experimental methods rather than relying entirely on correlational studies. The open-ended survey format could also help Americans elaborate on the precise, individual reasons why they decided to end their religious affiliation.
Understanding the political leanings of the nonreligious population will shape national electoral strategies for decades to come. If feelings of social threat motivate ex-religious people to participate in politics, they represent a highly active voting base. Political messages that emphasize the policy goals of the Christian Right have the potential to mobilize this growing demographic and mobilize them to vote.
As secularism spreads across the country, the distinction between those who were raised without religion and those who actively abandoned their faith will become very important. Studying these internal differences helps explain the specific social mechanisms that drive political polarization in the United States.
The study, “Marching Leftward from the Church: The Ideology of Former Christians and Lifelong Nonreligious Americans,” was authored by Ayse Basra Topal and Spencer Kiesel.
