NEWS STORY: Pew study cites power of religion in politics

c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The conservatism of white evangelical Protestants is the most powerful religious force in politics today, but religion overall has a strong impact on the political views of Christian Americans, according to a new survey released Monday (June 24). It also found a”significant”amount of politicking from the pulpit.”Religion is […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The conservatism of white evangelical Protestants is the most powerful religious force in politics today, but religion overall has a strong impact on the political views of Christian Americans, according to a new survey released Monday (June 24).

It also found a”significant”amount of politicking from the pulpit.”Religion is a strong and growing force in the way Americans think about politics,”said a report on the survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.”It has a bearing on political affiliation, political values, policy attitudes and candidate choice.”Its increasing influence on political opinion and behavior rivals factors such as race, region, age, social class and gender,”it said.


At the same time, however, the report said that while religion plays an important role in the political life of African-Americans,”race, rather than religious faith, is the dominant force driving the political beliefs of black Christians.” The report,”The Diminishing Divide … American Churches, American Politics,”was based on a survey of 1,975 adults, 18 years of age or older. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

The survey found that, regardless of denomination, people who express higher levels of faith commitment, who engage in more religious practices and who say religion plays a very important role in their lives are more politically conservative than members of the general public.

While the survey found indications that religious influences lead to a more liberal position on some issues _ it cited opposition to the death penalty as one example _ it added that”there is little indication of a coherent pattern of liberal (political) belief associated with any major religion or religious group.” According to the survey, white evangelical Protestants have become increasingly politicized over the last decade and are more conservative than the general public on policy issues beyond the moral issues usually associated with the Religious Right. It cited environmentalism and military spending as examples.”Compared to a decade ago, a greater percentage of them (white evangelical Protestants) now self-identify as Republicans,”the report said.”The GOP has not made as many conversions among non-evangelical Protestants nor among white Catholics.” In 1978, 26 percent of white evangelical Protestants identified themselves as Republicans. By 1987, the number had grown to 35 percent and last year stood at 42 percent.

Other white Christian religious groupings also showed some movement toward Republican affiliation. Between 1987 and 1995, the number of white Catholics who identified themselves as Republican moved from 25 percent to 30 percent, and the number of white mainline Protestants moved from 31 to 34 percent.”White Catholics and mainline Protestants are less consistently conservative on moral issues”than white evangelical Protestants, the survey found. While majorities in both Catholic and mainline Protestant groups oppose gay marriage, most support the legal right to an abortion.”There is an indication of a clear ideological schism within the Catholic population,”it said. The survey found the nation’s 60 million Catholics about evenly divided between self-described”progressives”and”traditionalists”on church doctrine and teaching. It found 73 percent of progressive Catholics support the availability of abortion, versus 43 percent of the traditionalists.”Progressive Catholics come closest to fitting the description of a religiously based liberal group-but they are nowhere near as consistently liberal on a broad range of issues as white evangelical Protestants are conservative,”the report said.”The views of black Christians reflect the mixed liberal/conservative agenda of their clergy,”the report added.”On the one hand, they express less support for the death penalty and more support for helping the poor than do other Christians. On the other hand, they oppose gay marriages and on balance take a pro-life position”on abortion.

Nevertheless, the report said that blacks are as partisan for the Democratic Party in their political affiliation as white evangelical Christians are in their growing alignment with the GOP.”In spite of their partisanship, black Christians are less politicized than white evangelical Protestants in one very important respect _ they are less politically active,”the survey found.”Only 30 percent of black Christians say they follow what’s going on in government most of the time, compared to 42 percent of white evangelical Protestants.” Churchgoers across the board report their clergy speak out on political issues from the pulpit, but mainline Protestants report less political preaching in their churches than do other groups.

Overall, as many as one in five churchgoers says his or her clergy speak out on candidates and elections. Some 47 percent of the African-Americans surveyed reported such politicking as did 20 percent of white evangelical Protestants. Only 12 percent each of white Catholics and white mainline Protestants reported partisan politicking by their clergy.

Other findings of the report included:

_ Sixteen percent think of President Clinton as very religious and 52 percent consider him somewhat religious.


_ Only 7 percent of voters think of themselves as members of the”Religious Right.” _ The GOP is preferred over the Democrats by a 45 percent to 34 percent margin as the party most concerned with protecting religious values.

_ The Christian Coalition gets a mixed rating from the public at large _ 45 percent favorable, 35 percent unfavorable. White evangelical Protestants give the organization a 64 percent favorable rating.

MJP END ANDERSON

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