Professor Laura Olson will deliver the first lecture in the 2013-2014 At-Large Lectures on Religion series. She is Professor of Political Science at Clemson University. Her lecture, like all others in the Center for the Study of Religion-sponsored series, is free and open to all. There will be a brief question-and-answer session and a reception following the lecture.
Abstract: For decades now, scholars, journalists, and politicians who ask how religion and politics intersect in the United States have focused almost exclusively on the conservatism of churchgoing evangelical Protestants. The religious right’s emergence and political persistence have merited this level of attention. Is there, however, any semblance of a religious—or secular—left in place to challenge the religious right? I offer an empirical look at the extent to which the religious right is being challenged in 21st-century American politics, focusing specifically on the political orientations of people who say they are “religious progressives,” “spiritual but not religious,” or entirely secular.
