Religion and the Threat Effect

In other words, the more that evangelicals saw non-religious people around them, the greater the likelihood they'd walk a straight line from the church door to the voting booth and pull the GOP lever.

Pathetic.

The reasons why aren't too tough to discern. The encroachment of secularism seems to push at least some evangelicals to identify more closely with their own religious tribe, and to vote accordingly. One secular person in your town is a lone lost soul; ten are a threat to your way of life. The closer the Other comes and the stronger it seems, the more intensely one's identity becomes defined by a group. And it's no coincidence that the party to which evangelicals run is positively consumed with stirring up fear of the Other, whether it happens to be blacks, gays, or immigrants in a given election.

Learn if you're part of the collective here.