ARE WOMEN LEAVING RELIGION?

Both religion and conservative politicians are on the verge of losing the support of many of their constituents: women.

That's the conclusion Washington Post religion columnist Lisa Miller comes to after reading The Resignation of Eve by Jim Henderson and comparing it to the current election season.

"Unless the strident, authoritarian social conservatives loosen their stranglehold on American women, American women will abandon the Republican Party (as they're quitting church) and look for their candidates elsewhere," she writes in her most recent column.

Data back up the arguments: Henderson cites the Barna Research Group in his book in reporting that the number of women who attend church on a weekly basis dropped 20 percent between 1991 and 2011.

And those numbers, Henderson says, don't represent the number of women on the verge of leaving.

"Until those with power (men) decide to give it away to those who lack it (women), I believe we will continue to misrepresent Jesus’ heart and mar the beauty of his Kingdom," writes Henderson, who is an evangelical minister.

Discovery News