Americans believe religion is ‘under attack’

BOSTON — Conservative Christians have been saying it for years. Now a survey conducted by a group that often leans to the left is saying the same thing: religion is “under attack” and losing influence in American life. Sixty-four percent of the American people believe that religion is “under attack,” according to a new poll released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The poll found that 53 percent of Americans likewise believe that religion as a whole is “losing its influence in American life.”

American Attitudes Toward Religion In the Public Square, a national poll of 800 American adults conducted Oct. 25–30 by the Marttila Communications Group, also found large swaths of the American public expressing support for a more direct role for religion in the public square, with organized prayer in public school (47 percent), creationism taught alongside evolution (56 percent) and religious symbols such as the Ten Commandments displayed in public buildings (64 percent). Among other findings of the ADL survey was the fact that less than half the American people (45 percent) thought “right wing religious leaders are seeking to impose their religious beliefs on everyone else.”