Change America to be more Religious?

PRINCETON, NJ -- Recently collected Gallup Poll data suggest that most highly religious Americans either believe that they can be personally religious without needing to spread their beliefs, or that they can best spread their beliefs by converting others to their religion. Only a small percentage of highly religious Americans -- 15% -- believe the best way to spread their religion is to change society to conform to their religious beliefs.

These data are important in an environment in which the relationship between religion and society has become more and more of an issue. There is a strong relationship in the United States today between one's religion and one's political beliefs. One of the keys to Republican successes in elections in the first part of this decade was the activation of highly religious voters. Protestants, in particular, were concerned about the secularization of society and therefore focused on changing societal elements to reduce instances of abortion, same-sex marriages, and stem cell research using embryos. The data reviewed here, however, suggest that such interest in imposing change on society on the basis of one's religion is, in theory at least, small. Most highly religious Americans appear content to live the best possible personal life on the basis of their religious beliefs or to engage in traditional attempts at one-on-one conversion.