A solid majority of Americans believe that religion’s influence on society is waning and that the United States is a Christian nation, according to a new poll released Aug. 24.
The poll, a joint effort of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, shows Americans’ attitudes toward a host of issues touching on faith and public policy.
Politicians may note that only 26 percent of Americans see the Democratic Party as “friendly to religion.” But the number of Americans — particularly white evangelical Protestants — who view the Republican Party as friendly to religion has fallen from 55 percent last year to 47 percent today. Less than half of the population (43 percent) holds a favorable view of Christian conservatives.
Meanwhile 69 percent of Americans say liberals have gone too far in trying to keep religion out of schools and government. At the same time, 49 percent believe conservative Christians have gone too far in trying to impose their religious values on the country, up 4 percent since 2005.
More Americans (32 percent) think of themselves as “liberal or progressive Christians” than identify as white evangelical Christians (24 percent). But evangelicals remain more cohesive, according to the pollsters, because members “share core religious beliefs as well as crystallized and consistently conservative political attitudes.”
The survey was conducted July 6–19 among a nationwide sample of 2,003 adults. For results based on the total sample, the margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. (RNS)
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