Heartbreaking new poll: a third of Americans want Christianity as the state religion

[cleanhippie]

HuffPo and YouGov are teaming up to take daily polls of Americans’ views on a diversity of issues. The latest one, described here, reveals a depressing fact: more than one-third of Americans would favor (either strongly or mildly) the establishment of Christianity as a state religion. 37% of Americans think that the U.S. has gone too far in separating church and state, 42% either believe that states are allowed by the U.S. Constitution to establish state religions (they are not so allowed), and 32% favor a Constitutional amendment making Christianity the official U.S. religion.

You can download the poll’s results here, but they occupy only one page, so here it is:

?w=523&h=649

The ignorance and religiosity burns on this one and, although I’m perfectly aware that America is the most religious of First world countries, I found these results surprising. 42% don’t know that state religions are banned, and more than a third of our citizens want either a state or a national religion of Christianity. Nearly 40% want more mixing of church and state.

These people are not only unaware of what the Constitution says—any immigrant taking the test for U.S. citizenship would know better—but also want the Constitution amended so that we can hang crucifixes on every classroom wall. This is all a direct abrogation of what our nation’s founders wanted and intended when they drafted our Constitution.

We have a long way to go!

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/heartbreaking-new-poll-a-third-of-americans-want-christianity-as-the-state-religion/

[djean111]

1. Hmmmmm. state religion. Revolting idea.

Would it be like the state bird and the state flower? I don't really care what those are, really.
Just another little wiki factoid?
Or would it be proselytized in schools, emblazoned on buildings, fealty required?
What a stupid and grandiose concept, never mind the separation of church and state thing.

[MotherPetrie]

2. That means 2/3's DONT!

[Ron Obvious]

4. A further 19% didn't care

And only 31% were strongly opposed. I'd say those are worrying numbers.

[MotherPetrie]

5. I would expect that 31% to keep climbing. Religious affiliation is going down, not up.

[Ron Obvious]

6. Maybe

I agree that religious affiliation is going down, but, perhaps as a consequence, the fundamentalists seems to have gotten a lot noisier lately.

It would be interesting to see if anyone has the percentages for a similar poll conducted in previous years. Say, 10, 20, 30, 40 & 50 years ago. Considering how little outrage there has been over the recent blatant 4th amendment violations, I feel a lot less secure about the 1st amendment now.

[longship]

3. Indeed! Heart breaking.

We've got a lot of work to do on this issue. We can start in civics class.

R&K

[hrmjustin]

7. This is very scary.

Theocracy is one of the worst types of governments.

[madamesilverspurs]

8. Yeah, that would turn bloody. Quickly.

Can you imagine the war over "which" Christianity got to be in charge?

Yikes.

[immoderate]

9. With a state religion, does the president have to follow orders from god?

How about the citizens? What happens if we defy god's commands?

If it's Christians, which Christian cult gets to set the rules? Or does each colony state make it's own? Which version of the Ten Commandments becomes official? And what does that mean?

--imm

[woofless]

10. We shouldn't be surprised.

I have known for decades that at least a third of us are batshit crazy or dumb as a stump, or any combination of the two mixed with venality and selfishness. Unfortunately they are over represented in our Congress.

[BlueStreak]

11. It actually seems quite encouraging to me, considering that there are probably 50%

who say this ALREADY IS a "Christian nation".

Only 1/3 actually wanting Christianity to be the official religion seems like real progress to me.

[struggle4progress]

12. There's another thread in this group on same poll, which seems to have been motivated by the fact

that a handful of wackadoodles in NC introduced a bill Tuesday calling for an official state religion, replete with whackadoodle references to the Tenth Amendment. The bill was referred to committee the same day; by Thusday even rightwing Franklin Graham was opposing it, and the House leadership had said the bill was dead; and by Saturday, one of the bills sponsors was in the newspapers, apologizing for the bill. That is, it lasted about as long as would have been expected for any other really wackadoodle bill, rather comparable to what might have be expected if it had instead called for all North Carolinians to go outside and take off their clothes at noon Sunday to await the opening of the Stargate Portal and transport to Alpha Centauri

... You know you’ve stepped over religious and constitutional boundaries when evangelist Franklin Graham thinks you’ve gone too far ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/04/04/a-state-religion-whats-next-north-carolina-secession/
A state religion? What’s next, North Carolina, secession?
Posted by Mary C. Curtis on April 4, 2013 at 9:31 am

A North Carolina lawmaker says he regrets any embarrassment caused by a resolution that was proposed ... this week that would have given the state the right to declare an official religion. The resolution was filed Monday by two Republican legislators and co-signed by 11 others ... One of the North Carolina bill’s sponsors, Rep. Harry Warren, said the now-dead resolution was poorly written ... Warren says he only intended to allow Rowan County officials to continue opening meetings with prayer, not to establish a state religion ...
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/05/north-carolina-lawmaker-backtracks-on-push-to-allow-state-religion/
North Carolina lawmaker backtracks on push to allow state religion
Published April 05, 2013

The Republicans in control of the NC General Assembly are currently pushing a suite of bills intended to limit access to the polls, so it's rather silly IMO to spend time whacking a dead monkey

[Starboard Tack]

13. Looks like most are against an official state religion, which is good.

I find nothing scary in these numbers. Even if states were to adopt official religions, it wouldn't be that big a deal unless they had a say in government and were used to oppress, which occasionally happens in countries that do have official state religions, like Saudi Arabia. However, it is rarely an issue in the many countries and regions that do have official religions. These countries include England, Scotland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, various cantons of Switzerland, Japan, Tibet, Morocco and many more countries that are more tolerant than the US when it comes to religion. Such irony.