National study challenges 3 mistaken perceptions about American religion

More and more Americans see strong faith of any kind through a jaded eye, considering religion almost automatically as a pejorative — and seeing believers as intolerant, politically driven and insincere.
“One characteristic of a deeply polarized society is that opposing groups often hold distorted views of their opponents, vastly overestimating the extent to which the other side holds extreme views,” say the authors of a new seminal study on faith in America — seeking to get at the “root causes of conflict” by identifying “perception gaps” that “lie behind the animosity and fears between different groups.”
The gap between these widespread perceptions and the actual reality of American believers today is substantial, according to this new 139-page study on perceptions of faith in the U.S. today. This in-depth analysis was created by the same group, More in Common, behind the groundbreaking “Hidden Tribes” report that identified an “exhausted majority” of Americans who are “weary of a hostile, antagonistic political climate.”
This study analyzed between 2023 and 2024 a representative national sample of more than 6,000 Americans, from Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Latter-day Saint communities, as well as Americans of no faith — asking these diverse people in surveys and focus group interviews how they are navigating the country’s deep polarization from the perspective of their faith identities.
In addition to some counterintuitive findings in the role of politics in religious communities, the results highlight “the unifying potential of spiritual belief.”
The bulk of the report is organized around three key misperceptions or “perception gaps” that Americans have, each of which conflict sharply with data obtained in the study itself:
There are especially sizable gaps between many Americans’ perceptions of the role of politics in the lives of people of faith and the reality itself. This is true across almost all faiths surveyed but especially with evangelical Christians. “Non-Evangelicals significantly overestimate the importance Evangelicals place on their political identity and partisan affiliation,” the authors note — with a nearly 17% gap in estimates of Republican affiliation (46% reality vs. 63% perception) and a tenfold difference in how many evangelicals actually say political party affiliation is their most important identity (4% reality versus a 41% perception).
There is a significant gap between perceptions of Latter-day Saints as well.
Political expression is among the least selected reasons why Americans turn to their faith, with only 6% of Americans saying they turn to their faith or faith community to express their political views. Fewer than 1 in 10 Americans (9%) say they turn to their faith “to advance social or political causes.” Instead, most Americans say they turn to their faith or faith communities for spiritual and emotional support, such as to deepen their relationship with God (54%), to find comfort during difficult times (46%), and to look for guidance in life (37%).
This trend holds true across all major faith groups, none of whom have more than a small fraction saying they turn to their faith to “advance social or political causes” or “express their political views.”
As reflected in the chart below, for several groups, including evangelicals, mainline Protestants and Latter-day Saints, the top three reasons why they turn to their faith or faith communities center around spiritual priorities: deepening their relationship with God, finding comfort and seeking guidance.
Americans are least likely to select political party affiliation when asked which identity is most important to them — with fewer than 1 in 10 Americans listing political identity as their top priority.
By comparison, religious “nones” — those without a religious affiliation — are slightly more likely to choose political party affiliation as their most important identity. For instance, almost one-fifth of atheists (19%) and agnostics (18%) say being Democrat or Republican is their most important identity.
These political misperceptions have real-life consequences — especially for the larger American atmosphere today. For instance, one scholar found that Democrats and independents who overestimate the percentage of Republicans among evangelicals tend to have more negative views toward all evangelicals. More in Common calls this “collateral contempt,” reflecting a “animosity towards political opponents to spill over to religious groups that are perceived to be aligned with one political team.”
“It was really surprising to see” such a clear data pattern emerge on this point, lead researcher Coco Xu told the Deseret News. This contempt that becomes “misdirected towards an entire faith group based on this perceived association with a political party,” she suggested, “explains a lot of behaviors that we’re seeing in real life” (including some of these misperceptions identified in the study).
Especially in this atmosphere of hyperpolarization, these kinds of mistaken perceptions of political affiliation can lead to a “generalized hostility towards entire faith communities,” the authors warn. Yet they add with clarity: “The overwhelming norm among America’s religious populations is that spiritual life is not a political arena.”
The slight exception to that general hesitance are American Jews and Muslims, who are somewhat more supportive of political discussions.
Americans also have substantial “perception gaps” in understanding the importance of faith to fellow citizens, especially to younger generations. Even while acknowledging the reality of a marked decline in membership among some mainline Protestant churches and the past increase in those who identify as having no religious affiliation (“nones”), the authors state: “the general public underestimates the value Americans, especially younger Americans, still place on personal faith and belonging to faith communities.”
Most Americans (73%) see their faith as an important part of who they are, the More in Common research found. That includes younger generations of Jewish and Muslim Americans, who value their religious identity much more than often assumed.
Surprisingly, the study found that Gen Z Americans are more likely than older generations to turn to their respective faith traditions for belonging (34% versus 27% national average) and community (28% versus 24% national average).
Even with a decline in overall trust in institutions, high percentages of Americans value their faith as a meaningful identity, a cherished life practice, and a nourishing community. That includes appreciating both private and public elements of faith:
It’s also common to hear public concern about people of faith as uniquely intolerant of differences and marginalized groups. Yet the More in Common data analysis found no such evidence for this.
“Americans’ support for religious pluralism is nearly universal,” they write — citing more than 8 in 10 Americans as wanting the United States to be a “nation where people of every religion and no religion feel that they belong” (with only 3% disagreeing). “This holds true across all faith groups and political parties, including people of faith and people with no religious affiliation.”
Even though this ideal of religious pluralism is shared by the majority of American evangelicals (78%) and Muslims (75%), once again the general public imagines that only around half of evangelicals and Muslims are supportive of religious pluralism.
In addition to supporting the ideal of the U.S. being a place where people of all religious affiliations belong, the majority of Americans are also open to “getting to know individuals from different religious backgrounds.” Specifically, the study found that more than 7 in 10 Americans are open to interacting more with someone from a different religious background. That spans all faith groups, and it even includes high numbers among those with no religious affiliation — with 71%, and 80% of atheists expressing interest in more connections with those who hold diverse religious beliefs.
Contrary to some public perceptions, most Americans, regardless of their faith tradition, also support a clear separation of governmental and religious institutions. Only 7% of Americans disagree with church-state separation:
That being said, the idea that the U.S. was founded on Christian values is a statement of simple historical fact — if not an “overt prescription for what America should be in the 21st century.” While the study found a majority of Americans “do not consider being Christian central to American identity,” still a significant group — 37% of Americans — say being Christian is important to being American. That sentiment is strongest among evangelicals (69%), followed by Latter-day Saints (45%) and Catholics (44%):
“It can probably be helpful to understand Christianity because our country was founded on some religious principles,” said Trevor, a 29-year-old Latter-day Saint man from Utah. “But I don’t think that you have to be a certain religion or have any religious affiliation at all to be a true American and be patriotic. … There is no theology that makes you American or makes you more American than other people.”
Even with strong belief among many about the role of Christianity in America, most Christian believers demonstrate strong support for religious pluralism and the principle of separation of church and state. In fact, if you isolate only those who say they agree the U.S. was founded on Christian values, 84% of those people still say that the U.S. should be a nation where people of all religions and no religion feel that they belong.
“Most do not see a conflict between recognizing the many ways in which Christianity shaped America through past centuries, and their personal commitment to building a pluralistic society,” the authors conclude. Even while believing that we should “recognize the unique role that Christianity has played in the U.S,” they emphasize that “most want people across different faith traditions and people without religious affiliation to feel a sense of belonging in the country” — ensuring that we are not “minimizing the experience of non-Christian groups in American history and culture.”
These findings run contrary to simplistic narratives of religious people, prompting the study authors to argue their findings highlight “the need to tell better stories around religious freedom and religious diversity — one that recognizes both the historical impact of Christianity and also honors the role that all religious communities have played in the development of contemporary America.”
“There’s just a lot of narratives out there that over politicize different faith communities,” the lead researcher Coco Xu told Deseret News. She expressed hopes the study can help people “reflect on their own perceptions of different faith communities” and encourage “influencers and thought leaders to tell better stories about America’s faithful and within faith communities.”
“Perceptions that faith is all about politics, decline, or intolerance, flatten the rich diversity of faith communities into simplistic caricatures,” these researchers conclude. “The limits of our imagination are often determined by what we believe is real.”
Since very few support exclusionary measures that prioritize the rights of one religious group over others, such as requiring religious qualifications for elected office, the authors call for a “clear distinction between Americans who believe it is important to recognize the distinctive history of Christianity in America, and those who are supportive of exclusionary policies based on religious beliefs and ethnic origins.”
The authors of this study emphasize how “profoundly exhausted” Americans feel about polarization — cautioning that “America’s political divisions are likely to get worse — maybe, much worse — before they get better.”
Yet even as Americans struggle to see how to move forward, “often the places that could energize and enable efforts to bring us back together” (”including faith”, they add), “are perceived more as accelerants to division than as off-ramps.”
“We misunderstand each other” the authors conclude, when we “uncritically accept” these kinds of narratives that make religion look “chiefly concerned with politics” and “mostly intolerant of others” — as well as increasingly irrelevant to young people.
“The evidence shows something different to what we might expect,” they state encouragingly: “more shared values, more desire to keep faith distinct from partisan politics, more longing to transcend divisions, more respect for each other, more commitment to pluralism, and more desire for guidance and help from local faith leaders and institutions in navigating this difficult time in American life.”
“We also find less intolerance towards other faiths, and less of a generation gap within faith communities.”
“What the findings add up to is this,” they conclude. “To disrupt the dynamics of polarization, we do not need to look too far afield. If change is to happen, it is likely to begin in our local communities, including in the churches, synagogues, mosques and temples where tens of millions of Americans can be found week after week.”
This is consistent with Dr. Rebecca Glazier’s conclusions after researching faith at the University of Arkansas over the last 12 years, writing in Deseret News recently, “It turns out congregations may be one of the few places left where people incidentally encounter those who hold different political views — essentially forcing them into contact with people from the other party and giving them the opportunity to really see them as people, instead of just political opponents.”
“From the pews and prayer mats, it feels more possible to imagine an America less divided than it is today.” The report also finds that a majority of active believers say they are looking to their religious leaders to better understand how to navigate our polarized landscape — while suggesting that “America’s faithful can and should be playing a greater role in depolarization efforts in the U.S.”
“As trust in national institutions continues to be undermined and authorities of all kinds are questioned,” the study concludes, “local places of worship are likely becoming even more important for Americans of faith to find belonging, connection, and spiritual direction — in short, for making it through difficult and divided times.”