THE RELIGION GAP–the tendency of religious conservatives to vote Republican and of atheists, agnostics, and non-churchgoers to vote Democratic–is large, relatively new, and systematically underreported in the media. For while half the story, the GOP activism of religious traditionalists, is boringly familiar, the other half, the secularists’ preference for the Democrats, passes nearly unnoticed in the prestige press. Consider some figures:

-The New York Times and Washington Post ran 682 stories about the GOP and evangelical or fundamentalist Christians between 1990 and 2000. During the same period, they ran 43 stories identifying secularists with the Democratic party.

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