Religion & Politics
Published February 13th, 2013
GAINESVILLE - More than one-quarter of American adults have left the faith in which they were raised in, for another religion - or no religion at all. And even though the number of americans that have no religion has increased I spoke to a political science expert that says religion will continue to matter in our politics going forward.
Religion and politics, a topic that interests many. Including the approximate one hundred people that gathered at the University of Florida to listen to Political scientist and award winning author, David Campbell. Campbell is a professor at the University of Notre Dame where he teaches american politics. He says Americans are getting less politics at church but more religion in their politics.
"It's also because America is just a highly religious country, so we would expect religion to matter a lot in our politics... Cause it matters in people's lives," Campbell says. But he says it doesn't matter enough to decide a presidential election. While there was a lot of speculation that Mitt Romney's mormonism was going to hurt him at the polls, Campbell says that wasn't the reason Romney lost. "It mattered a lot to very very few voters and mattered very little or not at all to most voters," Campbell said.
Gwendolyn Simmons a religion professor at UF agrees with the majority on religion and politics being two completely different things.
"I support whole-heartedly the separation of church and state, so it really concerns me when religion plays a big role in shaping people's political views," Simmons says.
Campbell says religion isn't going anywhere in the future and that new leaders will find new ways to talk about religion.
"We have candidates on a regular basis, make appeals to voters on religious grounds. We have elected officials who openly use religious language and symbolism. We have religious groups that support one party versus the other and make political arguments, that's all part of a healthy democratic society," Campbell adds.
Campbell recently co-authored American Grace: How Religion Divides and United Us with a Harvard professor and continues to explore the impact of religion on politics.
If you'd like to check out Campbell's speech you can check out the Bob Graham Center website as they will be uploading the entire speech.
Reporter:
Stephanie Bechara
