America's five main faith groups are divided on political and social issues, says Barna survey

A new study conducted by Barna Group has suggested that American society is divided into five main faith segments, and these faith groups are becoming more divided by the most contentious political and social issues of the day.

According to Barna, Americans fall into five "faith tribes," namely, evangelical Christians, non-evangelical born again Christians, notional Christians, adherents of non-Christian faiths and religious skeptics.

The study noted that evangelical Christians only form about six percent of the adult population, despite receiving prolific media coverage. As many as 71 percent of evangelicals take a conservative view of the optimal size and reach of government, and 69 percent tend to describe themselves as fiscally conservative.

Seventy-nine percent consider themselves as socially conservative, and 84 percent say they are pro-life advocates. Only four percent say they advocate for LGBT rights, while 18 percent are supportive of the Black Lives matter Movement.

Non-evangelical born again Christians represent 23 percent of the American adult population, but their numbers have been rapidly declining over the past decade, according to the research. Fifty-six percent consider themselves fiscally conservative, while 41 percent say they hold a conservative point-of-view on governance issues.

Thirty-seven percent describe themselves as environmentalists, and 27 percent claim to be advocates of LGBT rights. Non-evangelicals hold the highest percentage of gun owners among all the faith groups at 37 percent. Despite being less conservative and less traditional than evangelicals, as many as 87 percent of non-evangelicals say they support traditional values.

Notional Christians are the largest of the five faith segments in America, representing 42 percent of the population. Barna defines notional Christians as people who "have not made a commitment to Christ that they believe will guarantee their eternal salvation." Members of the faith segment tend to exhibit some progressive leanings, with 38 percent claiming to support the Black Lives Matter movement and 39 percent describing themselves as environmentalists.

Notional Christians have the highest number of people who have served in the military at 21 percent. It is the only Christian-oriented faith segment that does not have a majority who claim to be pro-life, with just 46 percent describing themselves as such. Only thirty percent of notional Christians think of themselves as theologically conservative and 57 percent maintain a biblically orthodox view of God.

Adherents of non-Christian faiths, which includes all faith groups not associated with Christianity, represent six percent of the adult population. The largest faith groups in the segment are Jews, Buddhists, Mormons and Muslims, representing about 80 percent of non-Christians.

Fifty-eight percent of the group is aligned with the Democratic party, and it is the faith segment that is least likely to own a gun. Fifty-one percent say they support the Black Lives Matter movement, and 47 percent claim to be advocates of LGBT rights. Only one-third of the group consider themselves as pro-life.

Religious Skeptics make up 23 percent of the adult population. Barna describes the group as the political anti-thesis of evangelicals, with 62 percent of the segment claiming to be liberal on social issues. Fifty-three percent say they support Black Lives Matter, while 66 percent claim to be advocates of LGBT rights.

Only 13 percent are pro-life advocates and just six percent say they are theologically conservative. Twenty-seven percent say they believe in absolute moral truth, while four percent say their religious faith is important to them today.

George Barna, special analyst for the 2016 election, said that the votes were consistent with the faith profiles.

"Evangelicals were overwhelmingly behind Trump, giving him a 79 percent to 18 percent margin over Clinton. Given their political views, that makes sense," he noted.

Barna explained that 56 percent of non-evangelicals supported Trump, while the notionals were split between the then-Republican candidate and Hillary Clinton. He further noted that the two non-Christian segments overwhelmingly favored Clinton due to their liberal leanings.

"Since the two Bible-driven segments represent about 30 percent of the population, as do the two non-Christian segments, that provided notionals with more influence than they normally have in an election," he said.