Leftward March from Church: Ideology Among Ex-Christian vs Lifelong Nonreligious Americans

Abstract The nonreligious—atheists, agnostics, and nones—are on track to become America’s largest religious group between 2030 and 2040. The group’s rapid growth is largely attributed to widespread disaffiliation from Christian traditions across racial and ethnic identities. However, a significant portion of the population is now 2nd generation nonreligious, meaning that they not only never identified with a faith tradition but were raised in a nonreligious household by nonreligious parents. A significant body of work in psychology shows differences between those who convert away from religious identification and lifelong nonbelievers across intersecting identities. Yet, no work exists examining how this distinction impacts ideology or political beliefs that affect how voters’ identities interact with political outcomes. This study investigates the ideological and political differences between ex-Christian members of the nonreligious community and lifelong nonbelievers across multiple facets of identity, using data from the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS).