Diane Winston, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Reagan and Trump − two of the most media-savvy Republican presidents − used religion to advance their political visions, but their messages and missions could not be more different.
An anti-FGM protester holds a placard outside the National Assembly in Banjul on 18 March 2024.
Muhamadou Bittaye/AFP via Getty Images
The potential repeal of the ban on female genital mutilation poses a threat to the well-being of girls in The Gambia.
A procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial place of Jesus Christ.
AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner
A Christian Palestinian human rights scholar who grew up in Bethlehem writes about the special time of Easter, but also about the restrictions on Palestinian Christians.
Members of a white supremacist group demonstrate near the National Archives in Washington on Jan. 21, 2022.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
False ideas about the extinction of the white race, spread around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, gave rise to xenophobic and anti-immigration conspiracy theories.
Attendees at evangelist Franklin Graham’s ‘Decision America’ tour in Turlock, Calif., in 2018. The tour was to encourage Christians to vote.
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The 2024 elections may see a more intense end-times rhetoric, claims of divine support and a failure to condemn the rise in Christian nationalism, writes a religion scholar.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson takes questions from reporters at the Capitol in Washington on Nov. 14, 2023.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
With modern borders drawn up by colonial powers, some African governments have turned to religion to try to forge national unity since independence.
A golden sculpture of the angel Moroni atop the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Rexburg, Idaho.
Natalie Behring/Getty Images
Perhaps the combination of religious rhetoric and secular laws is a winning electoral strategy.
A pride flag flies in front of the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City during a 2015 protest against church policy toward same-sex couples.
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Christian nationalist ideas are about more than simply being religious and patriotic. They form a worldview about how the nation should be structured and who belongs there.
Religion shapes how many people vote – and lack of religion does, too.
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In the midterms, some religious voters may be motivated by the argument that if abortion is funded with tax dollars, it makes them personally complicit in sin.
Congress includes people of many faiths – but not many who profess no faith at all.
Kent Nishimura /Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Despite a growing number of non-religious Americans, self-declared atheists are few and far between in the halls of power – putting the US at odds with other global democracies.
Volunteers laugh during a 2020 meeting of Jolt, a nonprofit that works to increase civic participation of Latinos in Texas.
Mark Felix/AFP/AFP via Getty Images
Many Republicans have wrestled with whether to embrace Donald Trump and his brash political style. Latter-day Saints are an especially telling example.
Pastor Silas Malafaia, second from left, prays alongside President Jair Bolsonaro, far left, at the Assembly of God Victory in Christ Church in Rio de Janeiro.
AP Photo/Bruna Prado
Morrison’s religion and his government’s disastrous attempt to legislate a religious discrimination bill stirred up renewed public debate about the relationship between religion and politics.