A new post-election poll of more than 10,000 voters, conducted by Zogby International and co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress, Res Publica and Pax Christi, provides rich insight into how religion and faith influenced voting decisions this year and challenges much of the conventional wisdom on the subject. Key findings include:

The new silent majority in America is a coalition of religious moderates, religious progressives and other nontraditional religious voters. This bloc of religious voters constitutes 54 percent of the electorate and holds very similar moderate-to-progressive views on domestic and national security issues. Religious conservatives make up only one-quarter of the electorate.

Religion and values did matter to a broad segment of American voters. Forty-four percent of voters in our poll said faith and/or values were very important in their decision for president this year, and three-quarters said faith was at least somewhat important to their vote.

But progressive religious issues mattered more to voters than socially conservative ones. Forty-two percent of voters in our poll said the war in Iraq was the most important moral issue influencing their vote this year. Only 13 percent chose abortion, and less than 10 percent chose same-sex marriage as the most important moral issues.

Conservative efforts to focus on abortion and gay marriage had little impact on voting decisions and appear to have motivated more people to vote for Kerry than Bush.

A majority of Americans want a president who is faithful but not intrusive. Fifty-two percent of voters say they want a president who is informed by faith but does not impose these views on others through public policy decisions. In contrast, only 13 percent want a president who uses his or her faith to determine policy positions.

A critical finding in the poll is that religious conservatives were much better at reaching voters and disseminating their messages than religious moderates and progressives. More than 70 percent of the electorate said they saw or heard messages from religious conservatives this election year, compared to only 38 percent of voters who said they saw or heard from religious progressives.

The new silent majority is a broad, moderate-to-progressive majority focused on social and economic justice issues and the war in Iraq. These voters long to be talked to and mobilized around a more progressive, value-laden vision of America.

See the Center for American Progress