The writer, author and researcher delved deeply and enthusiastically into American history, defining a unique market climate in which individuals have been left free to pick and choose and define religion for themselves. "That has increased the importance of the congregation you choose," she said. And because congregations aren't funded by the state, the marketplace is highly competitive. The significance and importance of religion also ranks higher in America than it does in places like Great Britain, she said. "And if religious identification ranks higher here than elsewhere, then it is not surprising that religion impacts how Americans vote," she said.

After talking about the American Religious marketplace in her morning remarks, Olson turned during the evening to voting indicators.

The single biggest proxy or indicator of voting behavior is frequency of worship attendance. Citing research from the independent Pew Foundation, Olson said the more often you attend church worship, the more likely it is you will vote Republican. She also said the more friends you tend to have in a congregation, the more politically conservative you are, according to the research.

"Republicans, until recently, have done a much better job than Democrats of framing messages for people of faith," Olson said. "Those messages have tended to focus on pro-life and family values" rather than around issues such as poverty and use of military force. She added that Democrats have a more challenging task of appealing to to the complex religious marketplace in America because of the diversity of perspectives of their audience.

Olson noted several factors in the religious "gap" in the political scene. "The more you are exposed to religious messages through church attendance, the more likely it is you will tend to marry religion and politics together," she said. Only 8 percent of Mainline Protestant churchgoers marry religion and politics, she noted. A factor is that in Evangelical Protestant traditions, preachers deliver clearer messages about "what is right and wrong, what is sinful and what is not" than is the case with mainline clergy, who just are not as "hellfire," she said. She indicated Mainline Protestants, at one time mostly Republican outside of the South, have been gradually drifting away from the Republican Party.

view Professor Olson's lectures
The American Religious Marketplace
and Religion, American Politics and the 2008 Presidential Election