There was interesting reading in today's WSJ. Arthur C. Brooks, Professor of Public Administration and Director of the Nonprofit Studies Program at Syracuse University 's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and also the author of the book, "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism" makes an interesting case about the future of religious conservatives in the United States.
While many political pundants bemoan the proliferation of religious comments by our politicians, especially surprisingly as of late from left-leaning Barack Obama (who claims a personal relationship with Jesus Christ) and Hillary Clinton (who describes herself as a "praying person"), Arthur Brooks has the statistics that show religious conservatism is likely to be even more pronounced in the United States in the near future.
Brooks states that in all likelihood, "religion will grow as a social force in American culture and politics over the coming decades." The reason? The religious conservatives have a quiver full.
His statistics are pretty amazing. While it could be argued that maybe the dividing line between conservative and liberal, religious and not-so, Republican and Democrat is 50/50, religious conservatives seem to have more children and their children are even more likely to vote like their parents than to worship like them.
According to Brooks, 100 religious adults, defined by their weekly attendance in a house of worship, will have on average 223 children. According to similar surveys, 100 people who attend church less than once per year or never would have just 158 resulting in a 41% fertility gap.
Religious people self described politically as "conservative" and "very conservative" were also found to have an amazing 78% more children than secular liberals.
While a quiver full may not ensure long-term political rule, it is certainly something to be concerned about if you are a social liberal, likely to be unmarried or estranged from both family and children and likely to be wondering why elections continue to be so close when it seems like everyone at the university and everyone in the media is of the same ilk.
So having babies, or having a quiver full, is not only a likely result of socially conservative thinking: traditional families are good, parents are the best instructors for our youth, family values are religious by nature; but also may result in superior political numbers.
While many political pundants bemoan the proliferation of religious comments by our politicians, especially surprisingly as of late from left-leaning Barack Obama (who claims a personal relationship with Jesus Christ) and Hillary Clinton (who describes herself as a "praying person"), Arthur Brooks has the statistics that show religious conservatism is likely to be even more pronounced in the United States in the near future.
Brooks states that in all likelihood, "religion will grow as a social force in American culture and politics over the coming decades." The reason? The religious conservatives have a quiver full.
His statistics are pretty amazing. While it could be argued that maybe the dividing line between conservative and liberal, religious and not-so, Republican and Democrat is 50/50, religious conservatives seem to have more children and their children are even more likely to vote like their parents than to worship like them.
According to Brooks, 100 religious adults, defined by their weekly attendance in a house of worship, will have on average 223 children. According to similar surveys, 100 people who attend church less than once per year or never would have just 158 resulting in a 41% fertility gap.
Religious people self described politically as "conservative" and "very conservative" were also found to have an amazing 78% more children than secular liberals.
While a quiver full may not ensure long-term political rule, it is certainly something to be concerned about if you are a social liberal, likely to be unmarried or estranged from both family and children and likely to be wondering why elections continue to be so close when it seems like everyone at the university and everyone in the media is of the same ilk.
So having babies, or having a quiver full, is not only a likely result of socially conservative thinking: traditional families are good, parents are the best instructors for our youth, family values are religious by nature; but also may result in superior political numbers.
