Religious Americans talk politics

"A majority of Americans believe the United States is blessed by God," said Anna Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner in response to their new survey about Religion and America's Role in the world. Greenberg was joined by Kim Lawton of Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly and Timothy Shah of the Council on Foreign Relations to discuss the survey's findings. Based on the interviews of 1,400 adults including 400 young evangelical Christians (ages 18 to 29) the survey found that there is a relative consensus about the role of the United States in the world, but Americans express a strong ambivalence about whether or not America's influence in the world is positive. America's foreign policy has become a major concern for evangelicals, who have also taken a more interventionist standpoint than evangelicals have in the past. Ideologically charged issues, specifically women's rights and environmental policy, are static as far as generational differences extend. Overall, the survey concluded that most evangelicals, regardless of specific issues, are supporting John McCain in this election.

Link: http://www.greenbergresearch.com/index.php?ID=2266

Right-wing Christians beginning to lean left

A panel of researchers from the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics discussed the results of a survey aimed at gauging the voting tendencies among religious groups by splitting the groups in categories. The main categories were “Mainline Protestant”, “Evangelical Protestant, “Roman Catholic”, and “Religiously Unaffiliated”. One breakthrough discovery the panel found was that for the first time ever, more mainline Protestants (approximately one-fifth of the electorate) support the Democratic Party over the Republican Party.

According to the survey, Roman Catholics, who have been traditionally associated with the Democratic Party, are now split evenly between the two parties. There are also party identification gaps between Latino and non-Latino Catholics. Among Latino Catholics, 57 percent tend to be Democrats, while only 15 percent tend to be Republicans. Among non-Latino Catholics, the gap is much narrower. 41 percent tend to be Democrats, while 38 percent tend to be Republicans.

The category of “Religiously Unaffiliated” (atheists, agnostics, and unaffiliated believers) tend to young, male, single, and college graduates. Corwin Smidt, executive director of the Henry Institute, pointed out that although this group is a rapidly growing segment of the voting population (16.7 percent of the voting population), this group is the least likely to go to the polls. If Barack Obama can energize this group to turn out in large numbers and vote, then it will be a significant contribution to his campaign, Corwin said.

Evangelical Protestants remain the largest religious tradition founded within the American electorate, according to the survey. They are also the group most strongly associated with the Republican Party. Despite talk of John McCain’s “Evangelical problem”, the group does not appear to be abandoning McCain: 57 percent of Evangelicals support McCain. However, their support for McCain does not match the levels President George W. Bush had during the 2004 election.