All posts tagged: Ryan Burge

White Christians made Donald Trump president — again

White Christians made Donald Trump president — again

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — While the United States has become more religiously diverse in recent decades, white Christians remain the largest religious segment of the country, making up about 42% of the population, according to data from the Public Religion Research Institute. And for Donald Trump, their support has once again proved key to his victory. Exit poll data from CNN and other news outlets reported that 72% of white Protestants and 61% of white Catholics said they voted for Trump. Among white voters, 81% of those identified as born-again or evangelical supported Trump, up from 76% in 2020 and similar to the 80% of support Trump received in 2016. Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, said that kind of support is hard to overcome, especially in the Rust Belt swing states that helped seal Trump’s victory. “It’s hard to overcome the white God gap in a place like Pennsylvania, or Michigan and Wisconsin,” he said. But Trump also won the Christian vote overall: 58% of all Catholics voted for him and …

Mormonism is still growing, but slowly

Mormonism is still growing, but slowly

Published by Sam

(RNS) — It’s that time of year again. The April tulips are showing their colorful regalia, Americans are scrambling to finish their taxes and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has just released its annual statistics. But before I discuss the stats, I want to issue a PSA about data. I find data about religion fascinating, and I’m proud to have contributed to our knowledge about Latter-day Saints in the United States through ongoing quantitative and qualitative research. But I’m also very tired of the fever pitch that people can get into about Mormon data. The narrative from some quarters is that everyone is leaving the LDS church and that the denomination will inevitably wither and die in the wake of so many departures. Some seem so committed to this narrative that they ignore or reject any data that doesn’t support it (and send me emails and angry tweets if I stray from this narrative). The narrative from other quarters is that no one is leaving, or at least not anyone the church …

In Iowa and beyond, evangelical Christian voters follow their party more than their faith

In Iowa and beyond, evangelical Christian voters follow their party more than their faith

Published by Sam

(RNS) — The drive between Eastern Illinois University, where Ryan Burge teaches political science, and Mt. Vernon, Illinois, where he is pastor of a small Baptist church, takes a little more than an hour and a half. Given his two professions, Burge spends a lot of time while commuting across downstate Illinois’ flat, green expanse thinking about religion and elections. Among the things Burge says he has learned: Faith for most people matters in the pews and, for some, in day-to-day life. But in the voting booth, politics is king.   “Partisanship is the strongest predictor of vote choice,” said Burge. “It was that way in the 1950s, and it’s that way today. Religion does not matter nearly as much as people think it does.” As an example, Burge pointed out that when the 2024 presidential campaign season begins in earnest with the Iowa caucuses on Monday (Jan. 15), evangelical Christians are likely to be as faithful to the Republican Party as they have for the past few decades. But with evangelical leaders wielding less …