Nearly three-quarters of the public (72%) now thinks religion is losing influence in American life, up 5 percentage points from 2010 to the highest level in Pew Research polling over the past decade. And most people who say religion's influence is waning see this as a bad thing.Perhaps as a consequence, a growing share of the American public wants religion to play a role in U.S. politics. The share of Americans who say churches and other houses of worship should express their views on social and political issues is up 6 points since the 2010 midterm elections (from 43% to 49%). The share who say there has been “too little” expression of religious faith and prayer from political leaders is up modestly over the same period (from 37% to 41%). And a growing minority of Americans (32%) think churches should endorse candidates for political office, though most continue to oppose such direct involvement by churches in electoral politics.
The findings reflect a widening divide between religiously affiliated Americans and the rising share of the population that is not affiliated with any religion (sometimes called the “nones”). The public’s appetite for religious influence in politics is increasing in part because those who continue to identify with a religion (e.g., Protestants, Catholics and others) have become significantly more supportive of churches and other houses of worship speaking out about political issues and political leaders talking more often about religion. The “nones” are much more likely to oppose the intermingling of religion and politics.
Read the rest here
It is interesting to see that a majority of Americans believe that their fellow citizens have waning faith. This reminds me of the polls of people regarding faith in the governmental officials at the time. The same trend, of lack of trust in the fellow person seems to be present here. It is also interesting that there is such a push for more of a connection between religion and politics since America emphasizes the separation of these two realms. The statistics that are presented in this article show a very sharp and usually equal divide in the American population on many controversial issues. I wonder what demographic and socioeconomic populations were used to attain these figures? It seems like as many people would be opposed to changes in the religious influence in politics as would be supportive. This article illustrates a major conflict of interest in most of the issues affecting our country.
ReplyDelete