Poll: Most want church out of politics

For the first time in a dozen years, a majority of Americans believe that churches and religious institutions should “keep out” of politics, according to the annual Pew Religion and Public Life Survey.

It’s the highest level of public concern with faith’s effect on politics since Pew began asking the question in 1996.


The rise in Americans’ desire to separate religion and politics — from 44 percent in 2004 to 52 percent today — appears due to a surprising increase in conservative distaste for mingling the institutions — from 30 percent in 2004 to half of conservatives expressing the view today.

Among white evangelicals, 36 percent want religious groups to stay out of politics, a dramatic rise from 16 percent four years ago.

The findings come in the wake of the Saddleback Civil Forum on Saturday, when, in unprecedented fashion, both presidential candidates — Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama — joined popular evangelical leader Rick Warren at his megachurch for their first back-to-back campaign appearance.

But the study, the most authoritative national survey of politics and religion, was conducted prior to event, July 31 to Aug. 10. Conducted on mobile and land line phones, the survey had a large national sample of 2,905 adults, with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

In the survey, released Thursday, about half of Americans who view gay marriage and abortion as “very important” voting issues say churches should not be involved in politics. In 2004, only one in four voters who saw gay marriage as a top issue said the same, while a third of those who saw abortion as a top issue agreed.

Overall, 48 percent of Americans believe that social conservatives wield “too much” influence in the GOP.

Yet older adults appeared most irked by the mingling of religion and politics. Only 18 percent of Americans age 65 and older said churches should endorse candidates, while roughly a third of voters under age 50 believed a church support for a candidate was appropriate.

The public is also increasingly split over whether they feel “discomfort” when politicians discuss religion in the sphere of public policy, as both Obama and McCain did at length Saturday.

Yet more Americans — half in fact — still say it does not bother them “when politicians talk about how religious they are.” Forty-six percent said they were offended.

American religiosity, however, remains no less prevalent. The public appears to continue to support expressions of faith by public figures while feeling increasingly uncomfortable when that faith falls into the sphere of politics.

The public believes that a president should have “strong religious beliefs.” Fully 72 percent say so today, a modest uptick since 2004 — including 85 percent of voters who attend church at least once a week and 66 percent of independent voters. Equally, only 29 percent of the public believes there is “too much” expression of religious faith by political leaders.

At the same time, the public’s perception of Democrats' unfriendliness to people of faith has significantly improved, though the issue persists.

Today, 38 percent of Americans said they believe that the Democratic Party is “generally friendly toward religion,” up from a low point of 26 percent in 2006 and roughly a return to the public’s view in 2003. And the finding will undoubtedly be welcomed by Democrats, who began a concerted effort following the last presidential election to at least partially mend the public’s poor view of Democrats' openness to people of faith.

Still, 43 percent of Americans believe liberals have too much control over the Democratic Party.

The public’s perception that liberals hold too much control in the Democratic Party and social conservatives in the Republican Party has increased 5 percentage points in the past year. The trend does follow the increasing religiosity of Republicans and the increasing secularization of Democrats, a pattern that has been developing for years.

Social conservatives continue to support McCain, the survey found, but not quite with the enthusiasm of President Bush four years ago.

Only 51 percent of registered voters who attend church at least once a week support McCain today, compared to 41 percent who back Obama. In 2004, 57 percent of weekly attenders backed Bush, compared to 38 percent who supported his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry. Yet it also appears that Obama has slightly less support among secular voters than Kerry had at this point in the 2004 race.

McCain, however, is winning white evangelicals at nearly the same rate as Bush four years ago and fully 9 percentage points ahead of Bush in 2000.

Fully 68 percent of white evangelicals back McCain while only 24 percent back Obama, the same portion that supported Kerry in 2004.

Twice the portion of white evangelicals, though, “strongly” backed Bush — 57 percent in 2004 — than back McCain today at 28 percent. And that enthusiasm gap could muffle social conservative turnout for McCain on Election Day.

The poll, though, found that more Americans believe Obama “shares my values” than McCain, 47 percent to 39 percent.

Fully 57 percent of voters believe McCain has “conservative” or “very conservative” values, while 48 percent believe Obama has “liberal” or “very liberal” moral values.

That places Obama not as far to the political left as Bill Clinton, and McCain not as far to the political right as Bush. Pew continues to find, however, that voters remain more socially conservative than liberal, positioning them nearer to McCain on “moral values” than to Obama.