Religion
Related: About this forumThe Unreported Political Implications of Pew's Religion Poll
Posted: 07/27/2012 4:27 pm
Eric Sapp, Founding Partner, Eleison Group
I love Pew. But the problem with religious academics doing political polls and non-religious reporters covering them is that the headlines can get skewed and political implications muddled. The headlines from yesterday's Pew poll on religion and politics should have all read: "Obama and Romney Both Face Serious Faith Problems," with the subheading: "Election could hinge on which candidates fixes them."
To be fair, a lot of the headlines did focus on the fact that less than half of Americans know that President Obama is a Christian. But the stories didn't provide much context for what that means or how it happened. It's clearly not good. Along with most not knowing Obama is Christian, even more troubling is that only 45 percent of voters are comfortable with Obama's religion.
Here's a key point in the poll that didn't get much attention: 82 percent of those who know Obama is Christian say they are comfortable with his religion. So voters are basically twice as comfortable with Obama's faith when they know what it is. This is why faith outreach is so important (but more on that later).
Why does the fact that most voters are not comfortable with Obama's religion matter? More than two-thirds of voters (and seven-in-10 women voters) say they want a president with strong religious beliefs. As one might imagine, these numbers are even higher with religious populations. Eight-in-10 Protestants and three-in-four Catholic voters want a president with strong religious beliefs. And let's be honest, they aren't talking about wanting Obama to have strong Muslim beliefs (so the fact that 17 percent of voters think he's Muslim doesn't add to the plus column)!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-sapp/pew-religion-poll-political-implications_b_1710419.html
BeyondGeography
(39,379 posts)The people who don't think he's a Christian are not comfortable with him on any level. He could wear cleric garb every day and quote Scripture and it wouldn't matter to them. Moreover, the polls suggest typical red/blue splits that we've seen where this wasn't an issue. The "confusion" over his religion just adds to the intensity of feeling of the anti-Obamas.
rug
(82,333 posts)The author's business is political outreach to faith communiyies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eleison_Group
I don't think the election will turn on religion.
Ezlivin
(8,153 posts)I don't know how many times I've had to correct my Fox-News-educated parents about his religion.
As an atheist I don't care, but my parents (Independent Baptists) need something to hide their racism behind. And, as you noted, it would not matter how vigorously Obama practiced his faith: They won't see it, for they are not looking for confirmation of his faith.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)The author of that article felt that the results were completely skewed by Obama haters who were not answering the questions honestly.