Can Conservatives Overcome Washington’s Secular Bent to Ban Gay Marriage?
The outcome of a Washington state referendum this November to ban gay marriage, which is sponsored by a coalition of conservative religious groups, depends on how the state’s religious “nones” vote, reports Religion News Service’s Tracy Simmons. According to the 2010 census, Washington has almost 4.4 million residents who don’t belong to a religious organization. “Any political issue, whether it passes or fails, depends by and large on how the vast majority of these unchurched are persuaded,” notes Patricia O’Connell Killen, the editor of the book, Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest: The None Zone.