Between Two Worlds

A fascinating survey out today from Beliefnet and John Green (of the Bliss Institute at University of Akron). Called The Twelve Tribes of American Politics (the first one was in 2004), it is based on the National Surveys of Religion and Politics.

"The premise: most political reporting acted as if there were two groups – the Religious Right and Everyone Else." Their analysis divides the population into "twelve tribes":

• The "Religious Right"
• Heartland Culture Warriors
• Moderate Evangelicals
• White Bread Protestants
• Convertible Catholics
• The "Religious Left"
• Spiritual but Not Religious
• Seculars
• Latinos
• Jews
• Muslims and Other Faiths
• Black Protestants

Each group is profiled with the following information:

• Percent of voting-age population
• Who are they
• Ideology
• Party
• Candidate Preference
• Political Trend
• What they care about

Click here for the McCain-Obama breakdown, the full survey results, the methodology, or Steven Waldman's full analysis.

A friend points out that the candidate comparisons may be skewed because the comparison is from election 2004 and summer 2008. The latter category allows for undecideds which means you are really comparing apples and oranges. So keep that in mind as you look at the results.