This could have been a Bernie Sanders rally, but rather it was the triennial gathering of 15,000 college-aged evangelicals known as Urbana, and for me, it was part of a year-long journey into conservative America. Spurred by a fear that red and blue were drifting irrevocably apart in our country, I decided to venture out from my overwhelmingly Democratic neighborhood and safely Democratic life, and engage Republicans where they live, work and pray.

The last piece is important, because for all the reporting about the decline in church attendance, the U.S. remains a deeply religious country, certainly by comparison to other industrialized nations. More than three-quarters of Americans are religiously affiliated, and more than half consider religion very important in their lives. You can’t understand America without understanding the central role of religion and the church — a role that is not going away anytime soon — and you certainly can’t understand Republicans without understanding American evangelicals, the largest Protestant denomination and a bedrock of the Republican coalition.

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