The Inter-Faith Voting Bloc That Could Swing 2016 and Beyond

WASHINGTON -- A major political development taking place under the radar could make a difference in 2016 and beyond.

It involves evangelicals and Catholics who are moving to overlook their religious differences to act as one on important issues.

Dr. Jay Richards, a prominent Catholic writer, works with influential evangelicals to push the two faiths closer together.

"These two people groups, these two religious bodies in the United States in many ways hold the solution to renewing our culture," he told CBN News.

He believes that hasn't happened yet because of a failure to see how much they have in common and can gain by joining forces.

"Part of the reason that Christians have become so un-influential in American culture is because we exist and live in 10,000 individual little ghettoes, little silos," he explained. "(It) doesn't mean we're necessarily now fighting each other. It means we're not working together."

Watch the entire interview with Dr. Jay Richards, co-founder of The Stream.

But Americans have come a long way from when a Catholic politician's faith worked against him and made it hard for him to even get elected.

Today, you see prominent Christians like Catholic Sen. Marco Rubio and evangelical Sen. Ted Cruz supported equally by each other's religious group.

Richards is working with evangelical leader James Robison to reach both Catholics and evangelicals.

"There's a lot of mixing," Richards said. "Some of my closest Catholic friends are Cruz supporters. And some of my best evangelical friends are Rubio supporters. So I think that's actually very healthy. These things aren't dividing up over these religious differences."

If even more conservative religious groups could start working in unity, Richards believes it could halt the downward spiral of a nation that appears to be growing more anti-Christian by the year.

"What we do, how we vote, actually matters," he told CBN News. "We actually have some responsibility for these things."

"And so I hope we'll use, frankly, the attacks on Christianity and religious freedom as an opportunity to come together, to think strategically, to say, 'Okay, how do we create a public and effective witness when we come together in the public square?'" he said.

As a united force, Catholics and evangelicals would form by far the largest voting bloc in the country.