Declaration of Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Education and Religion

                The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the necessity of education and religion working together to preserve and protect the Constitution. Most universities and colleges have curriculums that lead to the destruction of liberty, and some churches lean left.

                I found a very interesting article by Milo Beckman titled “Religion and Education Explain the White Vote.” As Beckman says, most colored people vote for Democrats, but the swing voters are “overwhelmingly white.” This is an open secret, but it may not mean much during this campaign season.

                White people have been assaulted on too many levels for this election to be normal. The “race card” has been played far too many times. White children are being taught that they are terrible simply because they are white. There are open physical attacks on white people, simply because they are white.

                Beckman’s article is an answer to this question: “Which demographic traits affect how white Americans vote?” A detailed poll was conducted during the summer by Five Thirty Eight/Survey Monkey contains a lot of interesting data to answer this question. The poll tracked seven demographic variables.

                The poll discovered that income is “the least predictive of white voter support among the seven demographic variables tracked by the poll.” So if income plays such an insignificant part, what is important in relationship to the white voter?

                Beckman writes, “Instead, the two most predictive variables are religious attendance and education. Crucially, these two variables are still more explanatory when considered together. Roughly speaking, a white voter will lean left if she is `more college than church’ and will lean right if she is `more church than college.’
                “More precisely, we can assign an educational score (no college = 0, some college = 1, college degree = 2) and religious attendance score (never attend = 0, sometimes attend = 1, attend weekly = 2) to each white American. Those with a higher education score are likely to support Clinton, those with a higher religious attendance score are more likely to support Trump, and those with equal scores are more divided….
                “One quick side note: The three groups in the middle, with `equal influence’ from college and church – none/never, some/sometimes and degree/weekly – can be further explained by the third-most predictive variable, urban/suburban/rural residence. Urban voters lean left while suburban and rural voters lean right.”

                I found this article so interesting that I shared it on Facebook. One of the reasons that I found it so interesting is that I know many faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are highly educated. A friend posted that Mormons tend to be “outliers in these sorts of studies” because members of the Church “are highly educated and religious” and “our dedication to religion increases with our educational attainment.”

                My friend’s comments only heightened my interest in this issue, and I asked why Mormons were different than other religions. She answered that Mormons tend to become more religious with age, while members of other religions lose their faith as they age.

                I wanted to know more about this issue and found an article by Michael Lipka at the Pew Research Center titled “U.S. Religious Groups and Their Political Leanings.” His article starts, “Mormons are the most heavily Republican-leaning religious group in the U.S., while a pair of major historically black Protestant denominations – the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and the National Baptist Convention – are two of the most reliably Democratic groups, according to data from Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study.
                “Seven-in-ten U.S. Mormons identify with the Republican Party or say they lean toward the GOP, compared with 19% who identify as or lean Democratic – a difference of 51 percentage points. That’s the biggest gap in favor of the GOP out of 30 religious groups we analyzed, which include Protestant denominations, other religious groups and three categories of people who are religiously unaffiliated.
                “At the other end of the spectrum, an overwhelming majority of members of the AME Church (92%) identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, while just 4% say they favor the Republican Party (an 88-point gap). Similarly, 87% of members of the National Baptist Convention and 75% of members of the Church of God in Christ (another historically black denomination) identify as Democrats.” Lipka did not divide the information by race except to say that members of churches that are predominately black vote for Democrats.

                I am still curious about why Mormons are “outliers.” I find my friend’s explanation to be the only plausible one, and now I have more questions. What is it about the Mormon religion that encourages members to become more religious with age? Could it be the actual doctrine? Is it the emphasis on family and self-reliance? Is it something else entirely? I think a study should be done to answer this question!

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