Pew Poll: More and More Americans Think Barack Obama Is Hostile To Religion

HotAir.com:

This seems counterintuitive in an environment where many secularists believe that “separation of church and state” is a quote from the Constitution, but Pew’s results make sense when considering the broader context of American public life. In the same survey that found the general public split on whether businesses should be forced to participate in same-sex marriages, Pew also finds that Americans want more faith-based input on political matters:

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.

This is being driven by those of religious faith, of course:

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.

Overall, though, Pew finds that 56% of Americans think the waning influence of religion on politics is a problem rather than a solution, with only 12% believing it to be a good development. That assessment hits above 60% in almost every demographic in the Pew data. The difference between voters of faith and the others is especially stark on this point. A narrow plurality of unaffiliated Americans (the “nones”) mildly endorse this trend, 34/30. No other demo in the poll has double digits in the “good thing” category. The weakest demo other than the nones is Hispanic Catholics, where it gets a 9/50. Nor is it limited to the traditional conservative demos, either. White evangelicals predictably give it a 2/77, but black Protestants massively disapprove of the trend too, 5/65.

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