Daniel Strauss

Political journalist and 2025–26 Nieman Fellow at Harvard who was most recently a national political reporter for CNN; previously reported on U.S. politics and campaigns for The New Republic, The Guardian, Politico, Talking Points Memo, and The Hill.

The “Nones” Category Obscures Americans’ Spiritual and Moral Lives

Harvard’s Richard Parker and USC’s Diane Winston argue that journalists should not treat the 29% of Americans labeled religious “nones” as people without belief, moral commitments or sources of meaning. In a Faith Angle Forum discussion, Winston contends that the secular-sacred divide obscures how religion, politics, markets, culture and technology shape one another, while Parker warns that survey categories and polling trends cannot provide a full account of a person’s life. Their shared prescription is to report beyond affiliation labels without collapsing every cultural or political commitment into religion.

The Aspen InstituteJul 10, 202615 min read