Ryan Burge believes the US military is becoming more religious, even as the American public is becoming more secular. Burge’s study was inspired after reflections from the popular 2001 series “Band of Brothers,” which depicted the grueling every day experiences of Easy Company after the D-Day invasions at Normandy. “Religion was woven in and out of the narrative, naturally. Almost every man in Easy Company had some kind of faith background, with Protestant Christianity, Roman Catholicism, and Judaism all represented. I don’t really know if any of the soldiers said they were atheists. But that got me thinking — what about the modern-day military?” asked Burge.

Burge decided to analyze the Cooperative Election Study, finding that over half (53%) of respondents stated they had absolutely nothing to do with military service. Almost six percent had previously served in the military, and another 3% were veterans with other members of their immediate family being veterans as well. Burge found that the direct connection of US citizens with those in the military went down considerably with age. For those born in 1940, only 20% had zero connection to the military. For those born in 1980, that number had gone up to 60%. Those born in 1990 or later reported around 70% to 75% that they had no connection to the military.

Breaking down religiosity amongst those groups, Burge found that those who had a direct connection through the military by being a veteran or being a veteran with another veteran in their direct family, had the highest rates of religiosity. Forty-six percent identified as Protestant, another 20% to 21% identified as Catholic. Only 12% identified as atheist or agnostic. Meanwhile, those with no connection to the military had much lower rates of religiosity, with only 32% identifying as Protestant and 19% as Catholic.

Burge also found that weekly attendance as a whole had dropped some over the last few years. But amongst those with connections to the military, weekly attendance had risen from 36% in 2010 to 2012 to 45% in the most recent data. “There are two really noteworthy findings here: military folks have always been more religiously active than other Americans, and the devotion of military members has gone up while the rest of the population has secularized,” said Burge. Burge stated he believed the correlation could be due to recruiting methods. “It doesn’t take a whole lot of guesswork to figure out what’s happening here: the military has an easier time recruiting in areas of the country that tend to lean right on Election Day,” he stated. “Those areas also tend to be more religiously active. It’s not that the military is making its men and women more inclined toward a faith community — they were already that way before they swore the oath.”