PHILADELPHIA — The Democratic Party has a God problem. 

And over the last couple of decades, as its base became more educated, less religious and more urban, this problem has only grown. 

Some of this has to do with lower church attendance in cities versus rural areas, and the Democratic Party’s increasing reliance on urban voters.  Some of it is the divisiveness of social or cultural issues like abortion and gay marriage.  And the divide has seemingly sapped Democrats’ ability to communicate to religious Americans. 

Especially if those people of faith are white, according to Brad Chism, a longtime and respected Democratic strategist based in Mississippi. 

“And that problem extends to the national media, who by and large are mostly Democrats, meaning you have these powerful forces who do not understand more than half of the people in this country,” he said. 

Chism makes a crucial point about what this means for American politics: Some of the greatest moral advancements in our country’s history have been accomplished largely through the influence of the church and churchgoing people, especially through the 20th century. 

“You look at women’s suffrage, civil rights, the abolition of slavery and all of these massive other changes — religion and religious people have played a role in moving society toward a higher plane,” said Chism. 

“We’ve seen that recently as well, but a lot of progressives and liberal Democrats don’t see the role of religion in society, and that is a big mistake,” he said. 

And it’s a mistake people like Kevin Washo are trying to rectify, though they feel like they’re swimming against the tide.  A day before the Democratic National Convention opened here last July, Washo, a Catholic and prominent national Democrat, organized a private Mass led by a Jesuit priest in the conference room of a prestigious law firm in a shimmering Market Street skyscraper. 

That imagery is a far cry from the 2012 Democratic convention, when the hall exploded in turmoil as Democrats voted to amend their party’s platform to include the word “God.”  The platform initially had dropped previous platform language that referenced God.  After an outcry, convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa returned to the stage to take a floor vote on a motion to reinsert the language. 

The floor vote quite clearly failed as Villaraigosa repeated the roll call.  Eventually he declared that “the ayes have it,” and loud boos exploded across the arena. 

The headlines that came out of that debacle — “Democrats boo God” was a common one — ended up making matters worse for those, like Washo and Chism, who would like to see their party counter the perception of its estrangement from people of faith. 

Washo, a former executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, wants the national party to recognize this problem and invest heavily in solving it: “One of the first things I think they need is full-time engagement at the DNC to focus on people of faith, not just for a cycle, but make something permanent within the party with real resources.” 

Washo said the messaging also needs to be sincere to people of faith — “a real, authentic effort, not lip service.” 

The 2006 midterm elections seem to have been a turning point.  Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate as well as a majority of state governorships.  As the Pew Research Center noted at the time, exit polls showed Democrats “did well among their core constituencies; compared to 2002, they received increased support from Jews, the religiously unaffiliated, infrequent churchgoers and those who never attend religious services.” 

In other words, Democrats were hugely successful across the country by solidifying their base.  In the process, they have pushed away religious voters not simply by ignoring them but by actively repelling them with accusations of bigotry and backwardness. 

Unless they change that, Democrats ­haven’t got a prayer of solving their God problem.