More Americans Question Religion's Role in Politics

[K-Mac]

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/930/religion-politics

The new national survey by the Pew Research Center reveals that most of the reconsideration of the desirability of religious involvement in politics has occurred among conservatives. Four years ago, just 30% of conservatives believed that churches and other houses of worship should stay out of politics. Today, 50% of conservatives express this view.

The whole article is interesting, but that kinda sums it up. I know the battle is far from won, but I thought things were trending the other direction, so this sure was a nice, little surprise. Perhaps for those of us involved with activism, efforts are occurring at just the right time?

[gags]

That is a hopeful sign.

[softwareNerd]

After reading this article, I think the verdict is not clear. One would need to look at more details. I strongly suspect that the key change is among people who favor the Democrats, and are tired of the GOP having the image of being the party for the religious.

..., the change of mind about the role of religious institutions in politics is most apparent among people who are most concerned about the very issues that churches and other houses of worship have focused on, and among those who fault the parties for their friendliness toward religion.

So, it is possible that what we're learning here is that the religious folk on the left want to end the GOP's monopoly, and have the Democratic party be more sympathetic to religious viewpoints.

There seem to be some not-so-religious GOP people saying they want the GOP to be less religious; but, the bigger group seems to be religious Democrats. Note the large shift in opinion among people who say that the Democratic party is not friendly to religion.

Here are some quotes from a Catholic nun, who echoes the same idea.

[K-Mac]

I agree! The religious left is just as, if not more, frightening than the religious right. I'm just hoping the Republican Party is perhaps staging a comeback?? This is certainly a step in the right direction. If we can get all the religious, socialist, communist, collectivist, altruist crazies on the left side at least it will be easier for us to take back the Right for capitalism.

[gags]

Good point sNerd. There is clearly a religious surge going on in the Democrat party during this election cycle. Both Obama and Hillary have been very up front about their religiosity. Some of this is an obvious attempt to compete for votes from evangelicals, but it also appears to be an honest reflection of their deeply held religious beliefs.

[softwareNerd]

Today's WSJ (Aug 22, 2008) has an article about "U.S. evangelicals". They still say they'll vote GOP (i.e. Mc Cain) by a wide margin -- 70% of them do -- but, this is lower than the % who voted for Bush. The article says that there is a trend among U.S. evangelicals to do short-term missionary trips abroad. Last year, around 1.6 million people made such trips. The author claims that manyu of those who do these missions -- typically in poor countries -- come back more open to using government to help the poor; and, this makes them see the Democratic party as being not so bad on economics.

[softwareNerd]

My previous speculation on the break-down of people giving this new answer was wrong. Rather than religious Democrats, it seems that religious Independents are a part of the shift. Secondly, there's a group of religious Republicans who seem upset with the GOP.

I think the composite number breaks down into groups that have various motivations:

• People who consider themselves Republican, but think their party is too much under the control of the religious folk. It's my guess that these people would have answered differently if McCain was less of a socialist.
  
• People who consider themselves conservative and are not enthusiastic about McCain, and are having a "sour grapes" reaction. There may be a broader feeling here that the GOP has not delivered enough on its promises to them.
  
• People who consider themselves "independent", but "socially conservative", and who are upset that the GOP seems to be identified with religion and that the Dems are not. Basically, these are people who want religion in both parties