5 takeaways about religion and politics before the midterms

[rug]

September 22, 2014
By Michael Lipka

Although there has always been a separation of church and state in the U.S., it has never prevented religion and religious groups from playing a big role in the country’s political life. Now, as the nation heads into midterm elections, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that many Americans support a role for religion in the political arena and lament what they see as religion’s declining influence in society.

The survey asked Americans a series of questions about the intersection of faith and public life; here are a few of the key findings:

1 A growing percentage of U.S. adults (now 72%) think that religion is losing influence in American life. Moreover, most people who feel this way think this is a bad thing. Overall, a majority (56%) of the total U.S. population perceives religion as losing influence in American life and says that’s a bad thing.

2 Perhaps as a consequence, our survey found a growing share of Americans express support for religion in politics in a few different ways. About half of U.S. adults (49%) say churches and other houses of worship should express their views on social and political questions – up from 43% four years ago. And while they are still a minority, the percentage of Americans who say that churches should endorse candidates in elections is up 8 percentage points since 2010 (from 24% to 32%).

3 Only about half of Americans (47%) see the Republican Party as friendly toward religion, but even fewer (29%) feel that way about the Democratic Party. With regard to the White House in particular, our surveys have found a steady rise in the percentage of people who view the Obama administration as unfriendly toward religion – rising to 29% today compared with 23% in 2012 and 17% in 2009.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/22/5-takeaways-about-religion-and-politics-before-the-midterms/

[phantom power]

1. conservatives have been doing their job well

[pinto]

2. This data snippet bugs me -

And while they are still a minority, the percentage of Americans who say that churches should endorse candidates in elections is up 8 percentage points since 2010 (from 24% to 32%).

While I think religion plays many positive and negative roles in American society, I remain adamant about the separation standard. No church or house of worship should endorse a political candidate. It's anathema to our Constitutional standards.

(aside) Polls bug me, as well.

[rug]

3. Yeah, that's dismaying.

BTW, a pdf of the full report can be reached through this link (on the upper right hand side).

http://www.pewforum.org/2014/09/22/public-sees-religions-influence-waning-2/

[pinto]

4. Thanks.