Via Kevin Drum, a chart examining religiosity and partisanship from the General Social Survey.
Contrary to the beliefs of a lot of liberals I know, it’s interesting to note that strong partisanship is associated evenly with prayer on both sides of the aisle. The facile answer might be that people who pray a lot place a relatively larger emphasis on the importance of ideology, and are thus drawn to the more ideologically driven wings of political parties, but I’m not so sure that’s it (though I’m sure it plays a role). Rather, I think strong party partisanship and deep religious conviction both require a comfort level with accepting the complete rectitude posited by ideological schema. Similarly, it’s probably a common trait among independents and less religious types to reject the notion that the world is interpretable through through neatly delineated dogma.
