Religion and Politics in the United States. Part 1
I’ve called this part 1, because I envision many posts on this subject.
In it’s latest nationwide survey of religion and politics, the Pew Research Center uncovered how polarized the public is with regard to opinions on religion. Their research finds that most Americans (59%) say that religion’s influence on the country is on the decline, and most of those who express that view think this is a bad thing. To me, this is telling. It says that the U.S. populace wants more involvement from the religious. The public is more divided on the question of whether religion’s influence on government is increasing (42%) or decreasing (45%). Most of those who think that religion is increasing its influence on government leaders and institutions view this as a bad thing.
Regarding faith, 62% of white evangelicals say the Bible is the actual word of God, to be taken literally, while only 35% of the public (including 24% of Catholics and 17% of white mainline Protestants) share this literal view of the scriptures, with most believing that although the Bible is God’s word, not everything in it is literally true.
Tension in the public’s views of science and religion, especially in opinions about evolution and the origins of life, are still present. However, there is broad agreement across the religious spectrum that scientific advances will help rather than harm mankind. Nearly two-thirds of all Americans (65%) express a positive opinion of scientific advances, compared with 19% who feel such advances harm mankind. With that much of an approval rating for scientific advancements, it is hard to understand why they find such stiff opposition when it comes time to vote for bills that would fund further projects in those fields of science. I can only surmise that this means there exists a percentage of people who are favorable towards scientific advancements still reject them on same basis due to their ideas of morality.
With numbers like these, it’s apparent why political leaders, and presidential candidates would want to cast themselves as religiously pious as possible.
I’d like to see our government make a commitment to separate religion from politics, but when so much of the voter base is religious, and the government IS the people, what more can be said against religion in the political realm?
Image Credit: Pew Research Center
Research Statics by:
PEW RESEARCH CENTER FOR THE PEOPLE & THE PRESS
AND PEW FORUM ON RELIGION & PUBLIC LIFE
JULY 2006 RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE SURVEY
July 6-19, 2006
The Evasion-English Dictionary
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