On Religion: The Top 10 National Faith Stories Of 2024
(ANALYSIS) President Donald Trump is returning to the White House, convinced — after a close encounter with an assassin's bullet — that he had God on his side in the election.
While opinions differed on that theological question, Trump clearly drew strong support from voters that frequented pews. In Washington Post exit polls, he received 56% of the Catholic votes, while 41% backed Vice President Kamala Harris. In 2020, 52% of self-identified Catholics supported President Joe Biden, with 47% for Trump.
As always, Trump fared well with Protestants and "other Christians," with 62% supporting him, as opposed to 37% for Harris. She won 60% of the votes of non-Christian believers, while Trump had 33% -- up 4% from his showing in 2020.
Thus, members of Religion News Association selected the 2024 presidential election as the year's top national religion story. The 2024 poll of religion-news professionals was dominated by analysis of national and international news, as opposed to specific headlines and events, with a strong emphasis on trends among religious conservatives.
But Trump's wins among religious believers — as well as gains among Latinos and Black men — were only one side of this drama, stressed Jessica Grose of the New York Times opinion staff.
Democrats should note the “large and growing religious group that is already in their corner: The Nones,” she noted, referring to religiously unaffiliated Americans.
“According to new data from the Public Religion Research Institute … 72 percent of the religiously unaffiliated voted for Kamala Harris. Melissa Deckman, the chief executive of P.R.R.I., shared a more granular breakdown of unaffiliated voters with me over email: 82 percent of atheists, 80 percent of agnostics and 64 percent of those who said they had no particular faith voted for Harris.”
However, key voters rejected Democratic Party stands on many cultural and moral issues, noted Ruy Teixeira, a veteran Democrat strategist. In a Blueprint2024 survey, the top reason “swing” voters gave for rejecting Harris was that she seemed "more focused on transgender issues" than middle-class needs. Thus, one Trump ad proclaimed: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for YOU.”
Writing for The Free Press, Teixeira noted clashes on similar hot-button issues. He concluded: “If the Democrats' liability on a range of cultural issues is so clear, why do so many party members refuse to admit the obvious problem?”
The RNA national-news Top 10 list included:
2. Nearly two-thirds of Jews surveyed said they felt less safe in 2024, facing tensions over the Israel-Hamas war and increased news reports about antisemitic speech, especially at colleges and universities, as well as increased verbal and physical violence, including the shooting of a Jew walking to a Chicago synagogue.
3. Fighting in the Middle East strained support for Democrats among Jews and Muslims. Debates raged about the party's support for Israel, while Muslims denounced ongoing U.S. support and weapons supplies to Israel.
4. In church-state news, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a law requiring Ten Commandments displays in public classrooms and Oklahoma's top education official told schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons. Meanwhile, debates continue on "parental rights" claims on many moral questions, especially transgender issues.
5. Concerns rose among progressive activists about the power of “Christian nationalism” in American life, leading to a surge in press coverage.
6. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children. Facing a backlash — even among political conservatives — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation shielding in vitro fertilization providers from liability.
7. Activists noted rising reports of Islamophobia linked to the Gaza war. The Biden administration announced policies against anti-Muslim bias and hate crimes.
8. In seven states, voters expanded or reinforced abortion access. In three states, voters upheld abortion restrictions, the first to do so by referendum since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
9. After decades of fierce doctrinal debate, the shrinking United Methodist Church repealed its stance that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching” and backed openly LGBTQ+ clergy and same-sex marriages.
10. America's increasingly fluid religious chemistry became obvious in politics, the RNA noted, with “Kamala Harris, a progressive Baptist married to a Jewish man and influenced by the religions of her mother's native India” facing “Donald Trump, a non-denominational Christian with strong support from evangelicals and married to a Catholic.”
Also, there was J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert married to a Hindu, and Tim Walz, a former Catholic who joined the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
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Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.