RELIGION shapes some of the most controversial decisions that governments need to make: access to abortion, same-sex marriage, the death penalty and the legal status of sex work. Indeed, it is likely that most voters across the world consider religion to be essential to their lives. Yet research on religion and political parties remains surprisingly inexact. Author DAVID JEFFERY-SCHWIKKARD, PhD Candidate (Theology and Religious Studies), King's College London Much of the research to date has been waylaid by the wrong question: is a political party fundamentally religious or secular? Yet the “essence” of a party resists definition. Is it its…