Robert P. Jones's "Impact of Religion and Culture on American Politics"

On February 4 I attended a discussion and presentation led by Dr. Robert P. Jones, CEO of PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute). Dr. Jones's presentation was divided into multiple topics, including Religious Identity & Change, Economic Anxiety & Pessimism, Cultural Anxieties, and Religion in Economics. In summary, Dr. Jones first presented graphs of religious affiliation (Protestant, Catholic, unaffiliated, non-Christian religion) in the United States between 1974-2050. Jones also showed graphs displaying racial composition for each religion and also by age. Jones later dives into politics, discussing how religious affiliation has had an effect during the voting process during national elections (eg. Presidential elections). Then, Jones mentions the political topic of immigration, presenting the religious affiliations of people that are crossing our borders and how those people impact (the diversity of) American society. Later, Jones presents on the 2004-2012 Presidential elections, illustrating vote by religious affiliation. I enjoyed this part of the presentation the most because I was able to see a trend in religious voters' political parties. Jones concludes by discussing the occurring Presidential race, illustrating if certain candidates/parties are relying on a certain religious group of voters, another fascinating topic to me.

I am very content that I attended this presentation - not only did I learn more but I think that it connects to our class, Christian Traditions. Dr. Jones's presentation relates to our class because we discuss how Christians are impacting the world in which we reside in. We are also discussing different affiliations of Christians, including their traditions, culture, politics, etc. Not much of the information or data presented by Jones surprised me; I had an idea of the trend which religious affiliation votes for which political party. During ancient and medieval times, religion was something that people were more open with, and most people were apart of a religious community. On the other hand, now most people are more private about their religion. However, I find that religion is playing a role in our society more than ever. I think that it is important to not be oblivious of how religion impacts society, even our national elections. Jones was certainly attempting to persuade the audience to be aware of different religions and cultures, and how diversity influences the leaders of our nation.

Hope this is satisfactory and understandable! Thank you.