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Related: About this forum5 takeaways about religion and politics before the midterms
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 countrys 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 religions 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 thats 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/
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5 takeaways about religion and politics before the midterms (Original Post)
rug
Sep 2014
OP
phantom power
(25,966 posts)1. conservatives have been doing their job well
pinto
(106,886 posts)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
(82,333 posts)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/