World Religions News

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Upward Sports, the world’s largest Christian youth sports organization, is proud to announce the addition of Pickleball to its growing lineup of sports offerings. As one of the fastest-growing sports in the nation, Pickleball presents a unique opportunity for churches to foster fellowship, build connections, and engage their communities in a fun and meaningful way.

With its easy-to-learn format and broad appeal, Pickleball aligns perfectly with Upward Sports’ desire to support local churches by offering impactful sports experiences. Whether participants are seasoned players or stepping onto the court for the first time, Upward Pickleball offers a welcoming environment for skill development, friendly competition, and relationships to be formed.

Churches can choose from two flexible league options: the Traditional Format, which includes separate practice and game nights, or the Practice and Play Format, where both activities occur on the same night. This flexibility allows churches to tailor the program to best support their congregation and community.

“Pickleball is a great addition to our lineup of sport experiences. As the fastest growing sport in America, it offers churches an excellent opportunity to bring people together so they can encounter Christ,” said Kevin Drake, Executive Director of Upward Sports. “Every church that does Upward Pickleball will engage with people they would never meet otherwise.”

Local church leaders are already embracing this new offering. “Upward Pickleball is a multi-generational sport giving our church the opportunity to have enthusiastic coaches that foster meaningful relationships with parents and players”, said Pastor Chad Booher of Creekside Church in St. Johns, FL, who was an integral part of the pickleball pilot program. “Pickleball provides us a clear means to help everyone experience an overflow of Christ in their life.”

Upward Pickleball offers a comprehensive and easy-to-implement league experience, primarily focusing on middle to high schoolers, providing churches with adaptable league structures, coaching resources, first class apparel, and ministry materials to ensure lasting impact.

Churches looking to bring Upward Pickleball to their community can visit Upward.org/pickleball to learn more.

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About Upward Sports

For nearly 30 years, Upward Sports has empowered churches to use sports as a connection tool for community outreach. With programs in basketball, flag football, soccer, cheerleading, volleyball, baseball, softball, running for adults, and now Pickleball, Upward Sports continues to provide innovative ways for churches to make a difference through sports and foster the discovery of Jesus.

For media inquiries, please contact:
Kevin Drake, Executive Director, Upward Unlimited – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Contact:
Jennifer McCraw
Upward Sports
864-949-5917
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RNS or Religion News Foundation.

(RNS) — Two weeks ago, Yeshiva University announced that it had settled its long-running dispute with members of the YU Pride Alliance and agreed to the establishment of an LGBTQ club on campus. Last week, Ari Berman, president of the Orthodox Jewish university, issued a statement denouncing news organizations for suggesting that Yeshiva had changed its position.

What’s going on here?

In 2021, the Pride Alliance sued Yeshiva for refusing to recognize it as an official student organization. In 2022, a state judge ruled in favor of the alliance and ordered the university to recognize it. Yeshiva immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, but the high court said the case first had to make its way through the New York state courts.

At the crux of the legal dispute was whether Yeshiva is a “religious corporation” under New York law. The state’s appellate courts agreed with the judge that the university is not — and  therefore isn’t entitled to an exemption from New York City’s public accommodations laws.

In the meantime, 1,600 members of the Yeshiva community signed a letter urging recognition of the club, as did faculty from some of the university’s graduate schools. The university briefly suspended all student clubs, then announced creation of a club for LGBTQ people that no LGBTQ people joined, in part because its designated supervisor, Rabbi Hershel Schachter of the school’s theological seminary, had previously denounced homosexuality.

For reasons we may ponder, Yeshiva chose not to go back to the federal courts, thereby leaving itself under an obligation to comply with the state court’s ruling. 

The March 20 announcement of the settlement reads in its entirety:

The parties have reached an agreement and the litigation is ending. Current students will be implementing a club, to be known as Hareni, that will seek to support LGBTQ students and their allies and will operate in accordance with the approved guidelines of Yeshiva University’s senior rabbis. The club will be run like other clubs on campus, all in the spirit of a collaborative and mutually supportive campus culture.

Shortly thereafter, a statement from a university spokesman was appended to the announcement claiming that “the students who filed the lawsuit had actually agreed to implement the club envisioned and approved by Yeshiva in 2022.”

A Pride Alliance spokesman told The New York Times, however, that the settlement “went far beyond” the club that Yeshiva had proposed earlier. The next day, an attorney representing the Pride Alliance told the Jewish newspaper Forward that the agreement allowed the students to identify the club with the letters LGBTQ and to name their own adviser. The newspaper quoted a university spokesman as saying the agreement had been “approved by senior rabbis.”

Not, apparently, by Rabbi Schachter, who at a dinner of the seminary a week later read a statement opposing creation of the club. At the same dinner, Berman read his own statement, later emailed to students, apologizing for the rollout of the announcement.

“The Yeshiva has always conveyed that what a Pride club represents is antithetical to the undergraduate program in which the traditional view of marriage and genders being determined at birth are transmitted,” he declared. The new club was intended for “students who are striving to live authentic, uncompromising halakhic lives” and was agreed upon “by all of the parties to be in accordance with halacha [Jewish law], consistent with the rabbinic guidelines of the senior Roshei Yeshiva [professors of Talmud].”

To this, the members of the Pride Alliance reacted mildly. “Hareni is excited to begin its work supporting LGBTQ students and allies,” it said in a statement. “We look forward to sharing club protocols soon and working with the entire community to make the club a success.”

The two parties, in other words, seemed to have come away from the agreement with contradictory ideas of what they’d agreed to. Though unwritten understandings are sometimes part of such settlements, some of the confusion might have been avoided if the actual terms of the settlement had been released. Some reports suggest that will happen in a couple of weeks.

But confusion in this matter looks like it was deemed the least bad option — a feature rather than a bug of the rollout. The campus was divided. There were alumni and donors to be placated, wherever they stood. The outside world was ready to weigh in on both sides. And a judicial fiat was not going away.

No doubt, his handling of the situation made Berman look like an idiot, but that hardly sets him apart from most university presidents confronting tricky political situations these days. And maybe, this way, he’ll get to keep his job.

The “Caravaggio 2025” exhibition revives the legend of the baroque genius in Rome. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/ EWTN News

Vatican City, Apr 1, 2025 / 13:12 pm (CNA).

The adventures of Michelangelo Merisi (1571–1610), known as Caravaggio, were linked to the religious context in Rome from his earliest days as a painter.

The Ordinary Jubilee of 1600, under the papacy of Clement VIII, was a brilliant boost to his career.

That year, he received his first public commission for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi (St. Louis of the French in Rome), where he painted the famous series on St. Matthew: “The Calling of St. Matthew,” “St. Matthew and the Angel,” and “The Martyrdom of St. Matthew.”

“It was a pivotal moment for Caravaggio. From that commission onward, his success grew exponentially, and his style began to influence an entire generation of artists,” Thomas Clement Salomon told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

Clement Salomon is one of the three curators of the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition, organized by the Palazzo Barberini, of which he is director, and the National Galleries of Classical Art.

The extraordinary retrospective exhibit, which runs until July 6, will feature 24 of Caravaggio’s works, including two previously unseen paintings, “Portrait of Maffeo Barberini” and “Ecce Homo” — which was exhibited at the Prado Museum in Madrid and discovered only a few years ago — and is in a sense a kind of homage to the holy year.

“The jubilee is a special moment for Rome, and Caravaggio is an artist who has a very strong connection with the city,” Clement Salomon explained.

In fact, the exhibition also represents a symbolic return for the artist to the city that shaped his destiny. “Although he was born in Milan, Rome was his true home. Here he achieved success, here he had his most important patrons, and here he left an indelible mark,” the director emphasized.

The exhibition is divided into four sections covering Caravaggio’s entire artistic life, spanning approximately 15 years, from his arrival in Rome around 1595, through Naples, Sicily, and Malta, until his return to Rome and death in Porto Ercole in 1610.

Conceived as part of the cultural events of the Jubilee of Hope, the exhibition is also a unique opportunity to appreciate Caravaggio’s predilection for reality, which made him one of the Catholic Church’s favorites for depicting biblical events.

“He was the first painter to paint things as they are, not beauty. He rejected Renaissance idealism and chose to paint real models: friends, lovers, common people,” the curator explained.

This extreme realism, however, was not without controversy. On several occasions, his works were rejected by patrons or the Catholic Church itself for their crudeness. “When he painted ‘The Death of the Virgin’ for Santa Maria della Scala church, they refused to accept it because, it was said, he had used a deceased prostitute as a model,” the director related.

In any case, the religious genre takes on a special intensity in his work. A stroll through the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi (St. Louis of the French in Rome) and a pause in front of the three canvases of St. Matthew painted by the artist is enough to understand the mystery of the Christian faith.

“He is an artist who, through his painting, allows us to enter the scene he depicts. He is a bridge between sacred history and the viewer. His way of illuminating Gospel episodes allows us to experience them intensely,” the expert noted. An example of this is the work “St. Francis in Ecstasy,” the first example of the artist’s religious work in Rome.

The works created specifically for this church and those of Santa Maria del Popolo church are not part of the exhibition. “We haven’t asked for loans from the churches because that would distort their purpose,” explained Clement Salomon, who added that, in any case, there is a guide within the exhibition that shows pilgrims the ideal itinerary to discover the profound spirituality of Caravaggio’s works.

Caravaggio’s turbulent personal life has contributed to his image as a tormented artist. Impulsive in nature, he was involved in numerous disputes, the most serious of which was the murder of Ranuccio Tomassoni in 1606, which forced him to flee Rome. “After that episode, his painting changed. It became darker, more introspective, as if his own personal torment were reflected in his works,” Clement Salomon explained.

An example is “The Capture of Christ,” on loan for the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition from the National Gallery in Dublin. “It’s a stunning painting. You feel as if you’re inside the scene, watching Judas betray Jesus. Caravaggio even paints a self-portrait in the work, depicting himself illuminating the scene with a lantern. It’s a testament to his narrative genius,” Clement Salomon commented.

Although Caravaggio spent most of his life in Rome, his works are now scattered all over the world, from New York to London. Thus getting galleries to loan paintings for the current exhibition has been a challenge.

“Getting a Caravaggio is like getting someone extradited,” Clement Salomon joked. “Each painting is worth hundreds of millions of euros, and they are the jewels of the collections that house them. Museums don’t want to part with them, even temporarily.”

Despite these difficulties, the exhibition features works from important institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Detroit Museum, the Kansas City Museum, and private collections that rarely allow access to their works.

“It’s a unique opportunity to see these paintings together and make unprecedented comparisons,” the curator noted.

New discoveries and scientific debate

Another objective of Caravaggio 2025 is to update knowledge about the artist.

“The dating of his paintings remains a matter of debate,” Clement Salomon explained. “For example, ‘Ecce Homo,’ which was believed to have been painted in Rome, could have been done during his Neapolitan period. The exhibition will allow us to analyze his style and technique in detail.”

The painting, discovered in Madrid, was actually painted in Naples (1606–1609), and in the exhibition it has been placed alongside one of Caravaggio’s masterpieces, “The Scourging.”

Another recent discovery is the “Portrait of Maffeo Barberini,” the future Pope Urban VIII, which is being exhibited to the public for the first time.

“It’s an indisputable masterpiece, but we’ve also included another portrait attributed to Caravaggio that continues to generate controversy among experts. We want the exhibition to serve as a forum for scientific discussion,” the expert said.

In addition, Caravaggio 2025 features other exceptional works such as “The Conversion of Saint Paul,”an earlier version of the famous Santa Maria del Popolo painting, which comes from the Odescalchi collection.

“It’s a unique opportunity to see this masterpiece, which is not normally accessible to the public,” Clement Salomon said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Dr. Peter Kreeft’s highly anticipated autobiography tells his fascinating and entertaining journey into the Catholic Church

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO – While philosopher Peter Kreeft has written more than 100 books, none of them has revealed his conversion story to Catholicism from Calvinism until now. FROM CALVINIST TO CATHOLIC (Ignatius Press) is a deep dive into Kreeft’s childhood as a Dutch Calvinist in New Jersey to his time at Yale and Fordham to, ultimately, his conversion to Catholicism.
 
Only written at the persistent urging of an editor at Ignatius Press, FROM CALVINIST TO CATHOLIC is full of Kreeft’s trademark wit and humor, engaging readers right from the beginning with tales growing up in a Dutch Reformed church, where anti-Catholicism was the norm, through the big questions he started to ask at Calvin College where, somewhat ironically, the seed of Catholicism started to grow, to, ultimately, his conversion in 1960.
 
Readers won’t help but love this raw, human look at one of the great Catholic apologists of our time: a philosopher, a man of letters and, above all, a man of deep faith in FROM CALVINST TO CATHOLIC.

In addition to his conversion story, Peter Kreeft is also the author of the new book, THE MYSTERY OF JOY, which combines humor, logic and wit to figure out exactly the meaning of joy and why so many are totally lost on how to obtain and keep it.
 
“This book is a work of mercy for the writer, and for the reader, an actual grace,” said Scott Hahn, author of Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism. “Like everything Peter Kreeft writes, it is inspiring, informative and entertaining. But this book is also deeply personal and straight from the heart — certainly not to be missed. I would add that Kreeft speaks effectively not only to those who are Calvinist (as I once was) but also to those Catholics who wish to understand and dialogue with the Calvinists and evangelicals in their lives.”

For more information, to request a review copy or to schedule an interview with Dr. Peter Kreeft, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) of Carmel Communications.     

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Contact:
Andrea Boring
Carmel Communications
4803698634
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RNS or Religion News Foundation.

Pope Francis prays during his Wednesday general audience on Feb. 5, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Apr 1, 2025 / 12:12 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of April is for the use of new technologies. 

“How I would like for us to look less at screens and look each other in the eyes more,” the pope said in a prerecorded video released April 1. “Something’s wrong if we spend more time on our cellphones than with people. The screen makes us forget that there are real people behind it who breathe, laugh, and cry.”

He added: “It’s true, technology is the fruit of the intelligence God gave us. But we need to use it well. It can’t benefit only a few while excluding others.”

Pope Francis encouraged the faithful to “use technology to unite, not to divide. To help the poor. To improve the lives of the sick and persons with different abilities. Use technology to care for our common home. To connect as brothers and sisters.”

“It’s when we look at each other in the eyes that we discover what really matters: that we are brothers, sisters, children of the same Father,” he said.

He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray that the use of the new technologies will not replace human relationships, will respect the dignity of the person, and will help us face the crises of our times.”

Pope Francis’ prayer video is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The usual festive mood of Eid al-Fitr holiday to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan has been subdued in Indonesia this year as people grapple with soaring prices for food, clothing and essential goods.

Consumer spending ahead of the biggest religious holiday for Muslims, which was celebrated on Sunday in Indonesia, has declined compared to the previous year, with a predicted slowdown in cash circulation due to fewer travelers.

Each year in Indonesia, nearly three-quarters of the population of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country travel for the annual homecoming known locally as “mudik” that is always welcomed with excitement.

People pour out of major cities to return to villages to celebrate the holiday with prayers, feasts and family gatherings. Flights are overbooked and anxious relatives weighed down with boxes of gifts form long lines at bus and train stations for the journey

But this year the Transportation Ministry said Eid travelers reached 146 million people, a 24% drop from last year’s 194 million travelers.

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry projects that money circulation during Eid will reach 137.97 trillion rupiah ($8.33 billion), down from 157.3 trillion last year. The weakening purchasing power is also reflected in Bank Indonesia’s Consumer Confidence Index which dipped to 126.4 in February from 127.2 in January.

Bhima Yudistira, executive director of the Center for Economic and Law Studies, or Celios, said those trends indicate the economy is under strain, driven by economic hardship, coupled with currency depreciation and mass layoffs in manufacturing.

“These have weakened both corporate earnings and workers’ incomes that suppress consumer spending,” Yudistira said, adding he “expects a less vibrant festive season.”

He said the festive spirit has been stifled by harsh economic realities, as soaring prices and dwindling incomes force residents to prioritize survival over celebration.

Traditionally household consumption is a key driver of Indonesia’s GDP. It contributed over 50% to the economy last year, helping push annual growth to 5.11%. However, consumer spending in 2025 is expected to be more subdued, Yudistira said.

Despite the downturn, the government remains optimistic that the Ramadan and Eid momentum will support economic growth in the first quarter of 2025.

“Eid usually boosts the economy through increased spending,” Chief Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto said ahead of the Islamic holiday.

The government recently introduced incentives to stimulate economic activity, including airfare and toll road fee discounts, nationwide online shopping events, direct cash assistance for 16 million households, electricity bill reductions for low-consumption customers, and tax exemptions for labor-intensive sectors.

“With these programs in place, the government hopes to sustain consumer spending and support economic stability,” Hartarto said.

The situation has also affected Endang Trisilowati, a mother of four, who said her family had to scale down their festivities budget.

“Honestly, the economic hardship is affecting us,” Trisilowati said. She described how she used to cook different dishes every Eid and invite neighbors, but now she can only afford a simple meal for her family.

“Many have resorted to just finding a way to eat on that festivity, but the spirit is low,” she said.

Muslims in India grapple with discrimination

In India, Muslims are marking the celebration of Eid with special prayers, family gatherings and festive meals.

The holiday comes as the minority community faces vilification by hardline Hindu nationalists. Muslim groups are also protesting against a proposal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to change laws governing Muslim land endowments.

The government says it wants to weed out corruption and mismanagement in hundreds of thousands of Muslim land endowments. But Muslim groups say the proposal pending approval in India’s parliament is discriminatory.

Muslims, who comprise 14% of India’s 1.4 billion population, are the largest minority group in the Hindu-majority nation.

Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party launched a nationwide initiative called “Saugat-e-Modi,” or “Modi’s gift,” during Ramadan that is expected to provide food and clothes to over 3 million underprivileged Muslims to celebrate Eid.

In New Delhi, thousands assembled in the Jama Masjid, one of the country’s largest mosques, to offer Eid prayers. Families came together early Monday morning and many people shared hugs and wishes.

“This is a day of giving and receiving love. Even if you meet an enemy, meet them with love today,” said 18-year-old student Mohammed Nooruddin.

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Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar and Rishi Lekhi in New Delhi, India, contributed to this report.

(The Conversation) — After climbing for decades, the percentage of Americans with no religion has leveled off. For the past few years, the share of adults who identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” has stood at about 29%, according to a major study the Pew Research Center released Feb. 26, 2025.

But this hardly means that the “nones,” or their impact on American life, are going away. In fact, their sheer size makes it likely that they will increase in political prominence.

It will presumably come as no surprise that many secular voters lean to the political left. It may, however, be surprising to learn that a fairly large number of nonreligious voters supported President Donald Trump in the 2020 and 2024 elections.

If the above paragraph is a head-scratcher, that is because “nonreligious” and “secular” are often treated as two ways of saying the same thing. But as political scientists who study religion – and the lack thereof – we have found that there is a fundamental difference between the two. While conventional wisdom holds that religious voters are Republicans and nonreligious voters are Democrats, the reality is more complicated.

Nonreligious vs. secular

So, what is the difference between people who are nonreligious vs. those who are secular?

The nonreligious tend to define themselves by what they are not: for example, not belonging to a religion, not attending worship services, not believing in God. In our surveys, many people without a religious affiliation do not cite any particular worldview or philosophy when asked what guides their life.

Secular people, on the other hand, define themselves by what they are: someone who has embraced a humanistic and even scientific worldview. That is, when asked about where they find truth, they turn to sources such as science and philosophy instead of scripture and religious teachings. Often, they identify as atheist, agnostic or humanist.

There are secular people, however, who also embrace some aspects of faith. Religiosity and secularity are not in a zero-sum relationship: more of one does not necessarily mean less of the other. In our research, we found many cases of people who belong to a religious congregation yet have a secular worldview: This describes many Jews, mainline Protestants and even Catholics, for example.

4 groups

To get a better sense of Americans’ views, for over a decade we have worked on developing questions to identify people with a secular outlook, while also asking about religious commitment, such as how often someone attends services. Our findings culminated in the 2021 book “Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics.”

Based on the results, we can divide the U.S. population into four groups: Religionists, Nonreligionists, Secularists and Religious Secularists.

The Religionists category includes people of all faiths. At 41%, this is the largest group in the United States, but they do not form a majority.

Secularists make up 27% of the population – larger than the percentage of any single religious tradition. Evangelical Christians, for example, are 23% of the U.S. population, according to Pew, and Catholics are 19%.

Another 14% of Americans are what we call Religious Secularists: people who identify with and participate in a religious community, yet have a secular worldview. They might attend worship services but consider their religion more as an expression of their culture than a source of teachings to inform their daily decision-making. Some Religious Secularists may describe themselves as agnostic or even atheist.

Finally, 18% of Americans are Nonreligionists: These are people we described above as not having any religion in their lives, but neither do they have a secular worldview. They are defined by what they are not, not what they are.

Political views

These four groups vary in whether they are politically engaged – and if so, whom they support.

In our book about America’s “secular surge” we used data from a nationwide survey in 2017. In 2021, we conducted a second wave of that survey.

According to data from that survey that we analyzed for this article, Religionists and Secularists are about equally likely to get involved in politics: roughly 30% of both groups reported doing something political in the past 12 months, such as attending a rally, volunteering for a candidate or donating money. Nonreligionists were much less likely: only 17%.

In fact, no matter the form of civic engagement – voting, volunteering – Nonreligionists were consistently the least likely to be involved. Only 30% of Nonreligionists report belonging to any sort of club or organization, while for the rest of the population, it is closer to 50%.

In the same 2021 survey, we asked people to rate various politicians on a 0-100 scale, with a higher number meaning a more positive view.

On average, Religionists rated Trump a 61, the highest of the four groups; Secularists give him the lowest score, at 14. Nonreligionists gave Trump 47 points.

It would be wrong, however, to call the Nonreligionists an ideologically conservative group.

Consider their ratings of Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democratic Party but describes himself as a democratic socialist. For three of the groups, support for Sanders was the mirror opposite of their feelings toward Trump, a Republican. Secularists, for instance, gave the Vermont senator a relatively high score of 66, on average; Religionists’ feelings toward him are much cooler, at 32 points.

By contrast, Nonreligionists gave a nearly identical rating to Trump and Sanders. Given that the two men are at opposite ideological poles, how could Nonreligionists rate them the same? We suspect it is because both figures challenge the status quo.

In 2024, the Trump campaign worked to mobilize “low-propensity voters”: political jargon for people with the low levels of civic engagement often found among Nonreligionists. Not only are they politically disengaged, they are the most likely to combine being young, male, white and without a college degree.

A ‘secular left’?

Secularists, too, are disproportionately young and white. But in other ways they are very different from Nonreligionists. Secularists typically have a college degree and are evenly balanced between women and men. Typically, they are also liberal and highly engaged in politics.

So how will they shape American politics? The answer may depend on whether Secularists cohere into a movement – a secular left to parallel the religious right.

Today, highly religious conservatives are a vocal group within American politics, the core of the Republican Party. A generation ago, however, they were a disparate group of people from different Christian denominations, from Baptists to Pentecostals. Many of the religious groups that now march in common cause once had sharp disagreements.

It remains to be seen whether secular voters will organize in a similar way. Either way, it is safe to say America’s religious composition has changed significantly.

Don’t assume, however, that a turn away from religion necessarily means a sharp turn toward the political left. We’d caution that the story is more complicated. For now, secular voters lean to the left – but nonreligious voters are up for grabs.

Geoffrey C. Layman and David E. Campbell received funding from the National Science Foundation.

(David Campbell, Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy, University of Notre Dame. Geoffrey C. Layman, Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)