Losing their religion

Consider this:

"President George W Bush built his election win on a coalition of older, white, church-goers in a race where voters were more likely to cite "morality" as their top concern rather than war or terror, analysis of the vote showed..."

And then consider this, from an article in today’s London Times (unfortunately, they link to the wrong story on their website):

Study after study appears to prove that people [in the UK] are increasingly losing faith in the Church and the Bible and turning instead to mysticism in guises ranging from astrology to reiki and holistic healing... More and more people describe themselves as ‘spiritual,’ fewer as ‘religious’ and, as they do so, they are turning away from the Christian church, with its rules and ‘self last’ philosophy, and looking inwards for the meaning of life....
Only 7.9 percent of the population now attends church, down from 11 percent 20 years ago....
So what does meditation have that conventional worship does not?
Neutrality, suggests Elizabeth Forder, who runs [a spiritual meditation centre in a building which used to belong to a church]. “We are not affiliated to any religion and there is no belief system imposed on anyone here”...
If disaffected churchgoers are seeking neutrality, they are also in flight from judgment. “I don’t want to be preached at any more;” “I’m sick of being made to feel guilty” or “I don’t need to be told how to live my life,” people will say when asked why they stopped attending Church.

That goes quite a long way to explain why so many Europeans hate the Republicans so much. It’s not just different politics; the culture gap between the two continents is getting as wide as the ocean between them.