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Do you consider New Jersey in general a liberal or conservative (religious) state?
We could all agree though that NJ is more conservative than New York.
- New Jersey has no same-sex marriage (Only Civil Rights).
- Parts of N. NJ has Sunday closing law (Blue Laws).
- Plenty of churches and Christian landmarks everywhere.
- Much less Jewish influence (Compared to NY State).
NY? If you mean NYC, then you have to group northern NJ into that categorization, as I look at geography more from a standpoint of metropolitan statistical areas.
Northern NJ (and Southern NJ) in my opinion, is more religiously liberal than NY north of Ulster County. South of Ulster (Orange, Rockland, Westchester) is in the NYC orbit, same as Northern NJ or Fairfield county CT.
Short of many Pacific Northwest cities, San Francisco and Boston, NJ is one of the most religiously liberal areas. This becomes incredibly evident once you start pressing west of Harrisburg PA into western PA, past D.C. south on I-95. There is no real let up of 'billboard religion' for the remainder of your cross country sojurn.
Do you consider New Jersey in general a liberal or conservative (religious) state?
We could all agree though that NJ is more conservative than New York.
- New Jersey has no same-sex marriage (Only Civil Rights).
- Parts of N. NJ has Sunday closing law (Blue Laws).
- Plenty of churches and Christian landmarks everywhere.
- Much less Jewish influence (Compared to NY State).
Do you consider New Jersey in general a liberal or conservative (religious) state?
We could all agree though that NJ is more conservative than New York.
- New Jersey has no same-sex marriage (Only Civil Rights).
- Parts of N. NJ has Sunday closing law (Blue Laws).
- Plenty of churches and Christian landmarks everywhere.
- Much less Jewish influence (Compared to NY State).
When we look at the nation overall, NJ is easily one of the most liberal states in terms of religion. To address some of your points:
1. NJ's civil union laws confer the same rights as the same-sex marriage laws in NY. The argument here is basically over the use of the word "marriage". Over 55% of NJ'ians support same-sex marriage.
2. The "blue laws" exist in many places, not just NJ. Even in NY, many counties have various blue laws. However, the debate over them has definitely shifted from a religious basis to a convenience and labor debate. Whenever the blue laws are debated, virtually no one invokes the Christian Sabbath as a reason for them to continue.
3. It's an old state and there is plenty of religious cultural influence and churches. The state has a large number of churches per capita, but also a low number of average parishioners per church. NJ ranks among the lowest in the nation with only 14.7% of the population claiming to regularly attend church services versus a national average of 43%.
4. I don't really see what "Jewish influence" has to do with the overall picture of religious conservatism or liberalism. Given the vast differences within the Jewish community in that regard it would seem to be a bad measure. FWIW, I venture that the majority of Jewish people in NJ attend "reform" synagogue's and are not "orthodox" or Hasidic. That is certainly the case in South Jersey. FWIW, if we do want to say that Jewish influence is important, 4.77% of NJ'ians identify as Jewish versus 1.81% nationally.
Outside of that a majority of NJ'ians are pro-choice, pro same-sex marriage and pro-contraception. Since these are the core social issues involved in religious conservatism it would seem NJ is rather liberal in that regard.
Around 51.85% of NJ'ians identify with a religious affiliation versus 48.34% nationally, but NJ has a much larger Catholic population then most states with 37.13% of NJ'ians identifying as Catholic vs. 21.76% nationally. NJ has a diverse base of Protestant affiliations and "non-denominationals" that make up 8.71% of the population, but much lower rates then other areas where they make up 24.09% of the population. In general Protestant religions and "non-denominational" Christian churches tend to be far more conservative and engaged in the evangelical movement versus the Catholic Church.
I think NJ's heavy Catholic slant actually leads to it being more liberal and having a lower rate of church attendance versus the national average. Catholics tend to be the most disenfranchised with their religion, yet many retain the official affiliation while sharing little in terms of belief in church doctrine and few Catholics in the US regularly attend mass. If we assume that at least half of the 37% or so of Catholics in NJ do not regularly attend service and do not share a belief in church dotrine (which I think is a fair estimate), NJ easily becomes one of the least religious states in the nation.
Apparently, the OP is unaware that New York is an extremely large state, with its upstate population being approximately equal to that of NYC, its largest city.
(NYC...you know...where they have all of that "Jewish influence" that the OP apparently loathes )
And, the liberal/conservative differential in upstate regions is considerably different from that of NYC. Conflating NYC attitudes/policies/behaviors to include all of that huge state is...I'll try to be kind...naive.
So...I don't agree that NJ is necessarily more conservative than NY.
Do you consider New Jersey in general a liberal or conservative (religious) state?
- New Jersey has no same-sex marriage (Only Civil Rights).
- Parts of N. NJ has Sunday closing law (Blue Laws).
- Plenty of churches and Christian landmarks everywhere.
- Much less Jewish influence (Compared to NY State).
Maybe than New York, but that's not saying much. NJ has:
Very high taxes
Extremely strict gun control laws
An enormous number of regulations
Voted liberal in all the recent national elections
I'm not saying these are "liberal" in the classical sense (in fact they're just the opposite), but they're what's considered liberal nowadays. Not that conservatives are much better, but at least we wouldn't have the taxes and regulations we now have. When I started college, NJ had NO state sales tax and NO state income tax. There are alternatives to this simple-minded one-dimensional liberal-conservative thinking, but that's a subject for another thread.
I agree. On social and religious issues, we are far closer to Massachusetts, California or Hawaii than to Alabama. The secularism and social liberalism of the state is much more towards the left of the spectrum than the right. Now, I am not saying we are the absolute bluest of the blue (states). I am just saying that when you look at us on a national perspective that includes the South and Midwest, you see we are definitely on the left. Also, I am not saying that NJ is without its conservatives. There are decent pockets of conservatism in the northwestern part of the state and in South Jersey. However, even in these parts of the state, with regards to politics, the Republicans in the state are more moderate than in other parts of the country. The moderation is most pronounced on social issues in which they are more anti-tax anti-spending; unlike the religious right of the Republican Party that is very socially conservative. Hence, with moderate Republicans and even more Democrats, I have to definitely say we are a relatively liberal state.
Do you consider New Jersey in general a liberal or conservative (religious) state?
We could all agree though that NJ is more conservative than New York.
- New Jersey has no same-sex marriage (Only Civil Rights).
- Parts of N. NJ has Sunday closing law (Blue Laws).
- Plenty of churches and Christian landmarks everywhere.
- Much less Jewish influence (Compared to NY State).
NJ still has a TON of Jewish influence. It has the 2nd highest population of Jews in the US after NY (5.7% compared to 8.4%) I think the liberal slant of NJ is definitely influence by Jews and Catholics that happen to be Democrats by nature. There was a time however where NJ was a Republican state, but it hasn't been in recent times (1970s-1980s.)
I will say that NJ has it's fair share of "Racist Blue Collar Democrats." Basically card carrying Democrats who fear minorities. So that's when you have to ask yourself, "Is NJ truly liberal?" I honestly don't think it is as liberal as New England per say but certainly more liberal than say Florida.
There's also how you incorporate being a social liberal or conservative. You can be democrat and never leave the house and never drink -- or a conservative who gets wasted at bars and drinks and drives all the time. You can be a democrat who hates gays or a republican that doesn't mind gay marriage. NJ is a weird state because there is also a lot of corruption within democratic legislatures -- I find that to be more fascist if anything else.
I like the fact that NJ has a good mix. A lot of other states seem to lean extremely to one side or the other. I think it is very important to hear the perspective of the other side, something which is sorely lacking in politics today.
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