coming up, kim lawton reports on the growing number of american adults -- now almost 20% -- who are not affiliated with any religion. and fred de sam lazaro profiles a catholic priest who has spent his life rescuing young filipina girls from sex trafficking and prostitution.

welcome. i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. with less than three weeks until election day, polls show a divided picture among religious voters, especially catholics, who have been almost evenly split between president obama and governor romney. on thursday, both candidates attended the annual al smith charity dinner sponsored by the catholic archdiocese of new york. at the usually lighthearted event, both men made jokes at their own expense, but obama ended on a serious note -- >> it's written in scripture that tribulation produces perseverance. and perseverance, character. and character, hope. this week, the u.s. catholic bishops have been urging special prayers for religious liberty.

at a mass to open the rosary novena for life and liberty, archbishop william lori said e.tholics must bring their nopuic square. religion came up briefly at the presidential debate tuesday, when mitt romney made a rare reference to his mormon faith. >> and i believe we're all children of the same god. i believe we have a responsibility to care for one another. i -- i served as a missionary for my church. i served as a pastor in my congregation for about ten years. last week we began a new miniseries we're calling "none of the above," which focuses on the fast-growing number of americans, especially young adults, who say they have no affiliation with any particular religion. we did a joint survey with the pew forum on religion & public life to find out more about these people, who are often called the nones -- that's n-o-n-e-s. today, kim lawton reports on the

nones and politics, what their influence might be in this year's election and on religion and politics in the years ahead. >> reporter: in the battleground state of ohio, volunteer monette richards is making calls for state and local democratic candidates. she wants to encourage liberal voters, and especially those who support abortion rights, to get out to the polls next month. >> we get the government that we deserve because we get the government that we vote for. and right now it's not good enough for me. >> reporter: richards is part of a growing force on the political scene. the 46 million americans who say they are not affiliated with a religion. their numbers have been rising rapidly, and they are heavily democratic. >> something like a quarter of people who identify with the democrats or lean towards the democratic party are in this unaffiliated category. that's a lot of votes. that's a major group. >> reporter: professor john green directs the bliss institute at the university of akron and has long studied the relationship between religion

and politics. >> religious affiliation has often been closely associated with the major party coalitions, with the democrats and the republicans each drawing on different religious communities, and sometimes fighting over religious communities that are pretty evenly divided between the two parties. well, as people are less involved in organized religion, then those relationships change. >> reporter: the religiously unaffiliated, often called the nones, are about twice as likely to describe themselves as political liberals than as conservatives, and they strongly support legal abortion and same-sex marriage. in a breakdown by faith group, the religiously unaffiliated are now the largest constituency for democrats, outnumbering black protestants, white mainline protestants and white catholics. >> in 2008 about three quarters of religiously unaffiliated voters voted for barack obama over john mccain. this group, the religiously unaffiliated, was as heavily

supportive of democrats and barack obama as evangelicals are of republicans and as they were of john mccain. >> reporter: although people of faith all together still make up the majority of the democratic coalition, for many years, the democrats battled a perception that they were not as friendly toward religion as the republicans. as director of faith outreach for the democratic national committee, reverend derrick harkins has been working to change that perception. >> people of faith make up a significant and important and valuable part of who we are as democrats and that's across the spectrum of faith traditions. >> reporter: green says the growing number of religiously unaffiliated voters could complicate those efforts. >> how do they for instance get the black protestant churches to mobilize voters and to be very enthusiastic about their platform and their candidate without turning off unaffiliated voters, and how do they appeal to those people and get them

involved and excited about the candidate without alienating some of the religious communities that support the democratic party? it's a really interesting problem. >> reporter: harkins asserts that the democratic tent is wide enough to accommodate all. >> in having respect for that broad spectrum of faith traditions, we also certainly have respect for people who may not practice. the president often says himself that we need to honor and respect those who certainly practice faith and indeed those who may not. >> we are a nation of christians and muslims, jews and hindus, and nonbelievers. >> reporter: the rising number of religiously unaffiliated may be posing new challenges for the republicans as well. although they still make up only about 11% of the gop, a disproportionate number of them are young. about a third of all adults under the age of 30 are nones. at the university of akron, these members of the college republicans say they aren't affiliated with any particular faith. they worry that their party's close relationship with the religious right could weaken its viability in the future.

>> with the republican party focusing so much on religion and getting the religious vote, i think it might kind of burn out the people in my age group who are like, "well, you know i'm not really that religious and if they're focusing so much on religion, you know, maybe that's just not me." >> it's more about what they believe politically rather than religiously because that doesn't really have an effect on society as much as it used to in my opinion. >> reporter: according to our new survey with the pew forum on religion & public life, almost 70% of the religiously unaffiliated say that churches and other religious institutions are too involved in politics. only 46% of the general public agreed with that. >> people who say they're not religiously affiliated are much more likely than others to say that they think religious organizations are too political, they are much more likely to say that there's been too much religious talk from politicians, they're much more likely to say they think churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters.

>> when you can't get into office unless you profess your religion and talk about how religious you are, it's a very big problem for us. >> reporter: like most religiously unaffiliated voters, monette richards doesn't want to hear politicians quote from the bible or make other overt religious appeals. she believes candidates can eliminate the god-talk without alienating faith-based voters. >> i don't know that there should be any offending or marginalizing the religious just simply because they aren't pandering to them anymore. >> reporter: but most americans still do see a role for religion in politics. about two-thirds of the general public say it's important for a president to have strong religious beliefs. a majority also say it doesn't make them uncomfortable when politicians talk about their faith. in today's politics, republicans can't win without strong support from evangelicals. and in this election season, several groups have been waging

an active campaign to mobilize religious conservatives through churches and other religious institutions. the faith and freedom coalition's ralph reed has been spearheading efforts to turnout the evangelical vote. >> it's one out of every four voters and if they turn out in huge numbers, they could really change the outcome of this election. >> reporter: while both parties have projects to reach out to faith constituencies, many religiously unaffiliated voters say despite their growing numbers, they still feel neglected by politicians. >> we've been pretty much erased from any kind of election talk. >> reporter: but how do you reach out to people who aren't at the same place at the same time every week talking about their shared beliefs? >> religion -- it's a great place for politics to find people is at church. so maybe that's something we'll have to figure out. you know in the future it's going to be social media you know facebook groups, stuff like that, twitter handles.

i think that's something we should use more to utilize the people who are not church going. >> religions have a very, they have a structure to their communities and a support network and though i don't agree with many religious beliefs, i do believe having a support network is important. >> reporter: brian crisan is part of the university of akron's secular student alliance, which tries to provide that support to nonbelievers. this spring, crisan and several other alliance members came to washington, d.c. for the reason rally, which organizers billed as the largest secular gathering ever in america. one of the goals was to demonstrate their potential clout. >> there are definite political movements growing for atheism or people who particularly do not have religious affiliations and those particular organizations can help people basically find identity. >> reporter: richards also attended the reason rally and says she came away more inspired than ever to be politically engaged.

she says she gets frustrated that religious conservatives have co-opted the term "values voters." >> it's interesting that we still equate values sort of with piousness and piety and we need to change that association for us, so that we can move past that and know that values is just, you know, ethics and morals and just good people doing the right thing as opposed to, you know, reading the right book. >> reporter: what values do you apply to your politics? >> progressive, social justice. we're all in this together kind of thing, it doesn't have to be a me against you, democrats vs. republicans or anything. it's, you know, move forward, help the people that need help. >> reporter: unaffiliated republicans say they also want to be known as values voters. >> there's many people that are out there who i'm friends with who i know who do not believe in anything, who are not affiliated with any religion, but they believe in that strong

economical growth, they believe in that strong values just they don't take it from the values from god or from whoever, they take it from the values of themselves. >> last chance it to register to vote. >> reporter: one challenge may be getting those religiously unaffiliated voters to the polls. in recent elections, the nones voted at lower rates than their religiously affiliated counterparts. but given their rising numbers, experts say a politically organized and active movement of the unaffiliated could play a key role in the political landscape for years to come. i'm kim lawton in akron, ohio. next week, our series concludes with a report from deborah potter on the implications of the growing number of the unaffiliated on religious organizations. our full survey, with the pew forum on religion & public life, is on our web site at pbs.org, and you can go there and take the survey yourself, and compare your replies with the poll findings.

in other news, the united nations and arab league envoy to syria called for a ceasefire to observe the three-day muslim holiday of eid al adha beginning friday. and, in a show of solidarity with the syrian people, the vatican announced plans to send a delegation of top church leaders to the country, including new york cardinal timothy dolan who is also head of the us conference of catholic bishops. the delegation will urge both sides to end the year-long conflict. more than 30,000 people have died and 300,000 have fled the violence. when president obama addressed the clinton global initiative in new york last month, of all the topics he might have chosen, he singled

out the scourge of international sex trafficking. >> i am talking about the injustice, the outrage of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name, modern slavery. we have a report today from fred de sam lazaro on father shea cullen, an irish catholic priest in the philippines who has devoted his life to rescuing thousands of young girls who had been swept up in sex trafficking and prostitution. >> reporter: angeles city is one of the asia's most notorious sex districts. even on a rainy evening, dozens of young women were outside their establishments on the lookout for customers. >> don't touch me, ma'am. >> reporter: shay cullen cuts a promising customer profile around here, and on this night he was frequently accosted. in fact, the 74-year-old ireland-born dominican catholic priest has campaigned for four decades to clean up this

district. the boom in commercial sex here dates back to the vietnam war, when the u.s. military greatly expanded its philippine bases nearby. today, father shay, as he's called around here, says 12,000 women work this strip. where do they come from primarily? >> the majority in this area are coming from north america. australia is quite big. koreans, there's special clubs here for the koreans, but also from europe. we have germans, swedes. >> reporter: over the years, father cullens's people's recovery, empowerment and development -- or preda foundation -- has sheltered and rehabilitated thousands of young women rescued from the sex trade. >> many of the girls are underage and young and available. on these clubs and bars, this is only the outer, the more legitimate-looking trafficking of human beings, no, but the trafficking of minors, younger girls is secret, and it operates

on a different system. it's all done by cell phone, without any direct contact between the supplier, the trafficker, and the customer. they have go-betweens. >> their stories have common threads -- physical or sexual abuse in childhood and families in various forms of dysfunction and separation. in all cases, abject poverty underlies their child labor and prostitution. >> translator: they told me that i was only to work there as a housemaid or house helper. but after four days of being there they brought me to a bar to work there as a guest relation officer. >> translator: i left our house because i had a misunderstanding with my grandmother. my parents are not here. my father is in saudi arabia and i don't know where my mother is. >> translator: i was inside of

room of alex, and he had instructed me to remove my clothes. so we were naked when the nbi arrived in the house. >> reporter: many of the young women and girls brought here were rescued by nbi, the national bureau of investigation, usually responding to reports and pressure from preda and other advocacy groups that look out for potential trafficking victims. >> i didn't want to leave because i needed the help of the pimp. i could not survive without it. >> reporter: father cullen says the goal of counseling here is to allow these children to be children. many have come from jails where they were sentenced for petty crimes. many are reconciled, if not comfortable, with a life of prostitution before they come to preda. >> so the first thing, the service, is the sense of welcome, acceptance, relief and protection. you're safe at last. no one can touch you again. they meet friends who suffered the same, so it's not only me, and the essence of our program,

of course, is giving affirmation. they've been told they're nothing, they're worthless, they're only good for prostitution. >> this is the hotline. >> reporter: the preda foundation runs a hotline to rescue women and girls from prostitution. they can call in or, as many now prefer, send a text message. >> december 2011, i received 756 texts. >> reporter: the hotline is never far from marlene richter, one of 19 counselors and facilitators who work here. she coordinates rescues with law enforcement, a job the 31-year-old may be singularly well-qualified for. when she was 13, richter and an even younger child prostitute were rescued. >> i have two abusers, one from germany, one from netherlands. that's the time that our abuser fly back to germany and father shay helped us in pursuing our legal case in germany.

>> i alerted our contacts, ecpat in germany, which is a campaign to end child prostitution and pornography. and in a week or so we're on a plane, marlene gets up and gave her testimony and everything and that's it. then he was -- within a week he's convicted and sentenced. >> reporter: it was a rare triumph. most cases proceed far more slowly and must be pursued in a philippine legal system riddled with corruption. >> who polices the policemen? who prosecutes the prosecutor? who judges the judge? who polices a corrupt media, you know, when everybody's in cahoots, especially these are well entrenched interests? so that's a major challenge. >> reporter: the two-year-old administration of president benigno aquino has tried to crack down. trafficking is now a non-bailable offense, for example. but fr. cullen fears that could actually increase corruption. >> if you make the penalty so huge that the bribe has to be so huge and they pay it because of the penalty would be in prison.

>> reporter: that's so ironic, that the harder you penalize somebody the higher the stakes are for people to make money on the deal. >> exactly, and therefore the temptation of the judges and the prosecutors is just, you know, fantastic. >> reporter: the u.s. state department, which monitors trafficking worldwide, has the philippines on a watch list. but it does praise a stepped-up government commitment, noting there were a record 27 convictions in 2011. but father cullen says the influential church leaders in this predominantly catholic nation have not been sufficiently committed. >> there have been statements made from time to time, but in practice as regards challenging the sex industry and the tourist industry, they have not taken a stand against this as they have with, say, taken a stand against contraception, for which they are very outspoken at the moment.

>> reporter: father shay cullen, ordained in 1969, describes himself as a product of the historic second vatican council that exhorted catholics to be outspoken on poverty and social justice issues. he arrived in the philippines in 1972. >> you couldn't miss it coming here and seeing it on the streets and all around, so it made a strong challenge to me personally to, you know, get out of the rectory and into the streets more or less. >> reporter: he actively campaigned to close the u.s. naval base in subic bay, arguing that it wasn't in the philippines' best interest. the base was closed in 1992. and he sued the u.s. government to help the support of thousands of children born to filipina women and u.s. servicemen fathers, with whom they have no relationship. but to make a dent in the entrenched sex industry, he wants to attack the underlying poverty. as long as it persists, he says,

people will be vulnerable to traffickers. his foundation has various enterprises, selling these soap stones to a boutique chain in america, for example, and local crafts and dried mangoes grown by local farmers. >> we really want to go into all these villages, give seminars, training and then buy their products and give them fair trade prices, really good money, so they can use that money to send their kids to school. >> reporter: the preda foundation sends the children under its care to school, training and, in cases like marlene richter, college. she's now happily married, ironically, to a german tourist and has a baby boy, living happily ever after, she says. for "religion & ethics newsweekly," this is fred de sam lazaro in olangapo city in the philippines. on our calendar this week, on saturday, members of the baha'i faith mark the birth of the bab, who they believe was a messenger of god. he was born in 1819 in modern day iran.

meanwhile, hindus continue to celebrate the nine-day festival of navaratri, which began on tuesday. it honors the goddess shakti, the divine mother, and her different manifestations. and for muslims, the hajj, or pilgrimage to mecca, begins this coming week. all muslims who are able to do it are called upon to participate at least once in their lifetime. muslims will also observe eid al adha or the feast of the sacrifice. it's a three-day period of prayer that commemorates the prophet abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to god. at the vatican this weekend, pope benedict xvi is canonizing seven new catholic saints, two of them, american women -- marianne cope, a catholic nun worked in a leprosy colony in

hawaii, and kateri tekakwitha, the first native american to become a saint. she converted to catholicism at an early age and left her home in new york to live in a christian native american village in canada, where she cared for the poor and was known for extreme acts of devotion. finally, popes haven't always used a pope mobile, but they have always traveled in style. the vatican museums this week unveiled a new permanent exhibit on various modes of papal transportation. one of the most ornate was a golden carriage built in 1826 for pope leo xii. it was pulled by six horses. there's also the white fiat john paul ii was riding in when he was shot in st. peter's square in 1981. the collection has cars that were used privately by popes, and some that were gifts, such as the very last volkswagen beetle to roll off the assembly

line in mexico. that's our program for now. i'm bob abernethy. join us next week for the final part of our new miniseries, "none of the above," on the fast-growing number of americans who say they have no religious affiliation at all. you can follow us on twitter and facebook and watch us anytime on smartphones. there's much more about the religiously unaffiliated on our website, where you can take our new survey for yourself. you can comment on all of our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, more scenes from the mass and pilgrimage for life and liberty at the national shrine of the immaculate conception.