Oct 22, 2026 · 42 min · 11 segments
The growing alignment between conservative politics and traditional religion has alienated younger Democrats and Independents, leading many to abandon faith-based activism. This retreat begs the…
Robert WuthnowGuestLisa Cypers KamenHost
And what the research shows is that Faith leaders across the spectrum agree that it has to start with hearts and minds.
And that's where churches can, or mosque or whatever, synagogues, can make the greatest difference.
They're teaching the scriptures about caring for one another, being just, being merciful.
They're also teaching people through social relationships and through raising their children and so forth, to be moral, to be honest, to be caring for one another.
Where it does get tricky then and where the divide happens is how do you move beyond that? How do you move beyond a church person leaving church some Sunday morning and saying, yep, I've got to be kind to my neighbor.
Maybe even you go the extra mile and you take part in a soup kitchen where they're not exactly like like you.
The more difficult part is when it does come to policy or changing social institutions or trying to influence how people vote or how they think about the issues.
And that's I'm just going to go out there and just say, in my opinion, that is very bad.
And we see the results of that with the sort of crossover or bleed between religion and politics in our leadership today, which, in my view, has no business being there.
And what the research shows is that Faith leaders across the spectrum agree that it has to start with hearts and minds.
And that's where churches can, or mosque or whatever, synagogues, can make the greatest difference.
They're teaching the scriptures about caring for one another, being just, being merciful.
They're also teaching people through social relationships and through raising their children and so forth, to be moral, to be honest, to be caring for one another.
Where it does get tricky then and where the divide happens is how do you move beyond that? How do you move beyond a church person leaving church some Sunday morning and saying, yep, I've got to be kind to my neighbor.
Maybe even you go the extra mile and you take part in a soup kitchen where they're not exactly like like you.
The more difficult part is when it does come to policy or changing social institutions or trying to influence how people vote or how they think about the issues.
And that's I'm just going to go out there and just say, in my opinion, that is very bad.
And we see the results of that with the sort of crossover or bleed between religion and politics in our leadership today, which, in my view, has no business being there.
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