In a recent study, the majority of Americans wanted to see an increase in religious views among government officials and less of the church speaking out against the government. The polls are not necessarily conflicting though, said Jay Richards, senior fellow of Discovery Institute and author of “Money, Greed, and God.”
“Most Americans think religion is losing influence in public life and most view this as a bad thing. Most think that members of Congress should have a strong religious faith, but a slim majority also think the churches should steer clear of politics,” said Richards.
Two-thirds (67 percent) of Americans believe religion is losing influence on the American way of life. Approximately 62 percent specifically noted its decline on government leaders, according to the research released by Pew Research Center on Thursday.
Democrats and Republicans showed the highest levels of concern in the study, with 72 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of Republicans expressing that view. Both numbers were up 20 points each from their 2006 standings. The group pulling the number down to 62 percent came from registered Independents.
The new, more concerned viewpoints triggered an overwhelming number of Americans (61 percent) to call out for more religious members of Congress and politicians.
“Generally speaking, many Americans say they want their political leaders to be religious, and the amount of religious talk in our campaigns has always been high. This is nothing new. I think we see results like this because Americans tend to believe that religion is tied to moral behavior,” said Rob Boston, senior policy analyst at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Contrastingly, 66 percent of those identifying themselves as unaffiliated with any religion said it was not important to them for Congress to exhibit and pass legislation based on personal religious beliefs.
In fact the religiously unaffiliated believe there is actually too much religion being exhibited by political leaders (53 percent.)
Boston explained that the religiously unaffiliated would much rather support a “generic religiosity.”
That idea has caused the over-expression of religious beliefs by political figures and the opinions of churches on government matters to be irrelevant and unwanted.
The survey said, “Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, Catholics and white mainline Protestants are all less supportive of churches and other houses of worship speaking out on political issues.”
“This is strong evidence that Americans don’t look to churches for political engagement; rather, they prefer that houses of worship remain focused on spiritual matters. I see this as a rebuke to the Religious Right and other forces that seek to politicize America’s pulpits,” said Boston.
With more Americans becoming unsupportive of the church voicing its opinion, 48 percent view President Obama’s approach to relying on religious beliefs to make policy decisions “about right.”
Obama is walking a thin line between religious affiliations though. In the survey conducted by Pew in July and August, 18 percent of Americans thought Obama was Muslim.
“He could have made it easy for people to identify him as a Christian. While he has officially stated that he is a Christian, however, several details suggest otherwise to millions of Americans,” said Richards.
Obama’s inconsistent religious behavior like, rarely attending worship services as President, not calling himself a Christian until adulthood, and failing to continually connect his personal theology with government policy, are partially why Richards said Americans question Obama’s claimed faith.
Since the survey was completed, Obama has furthermore rallied behind the building of a mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan. In theory, a survey taken today might even higher percentage of Americans believe he is Muslim, based on this position.
Still, 34 percent of the country believes Obama is a Christian. Strangely, that number has continually fallen each year, from 48 percent in 2009 and 51 in 2008.
The study concluded that participants who believed Obama upholds Muslim values, disapprove of his job in office. Those who viewed Obama as a Christian, approved of his work as President.
“I think what people are saying in polls like this is that they support a type of generic religiosity that doesn’t involve coercion from the state or lapse into a form of fanaticism,” said Boston.
The majority of Americans (43 percent) said they were unable to determine which religion Obama believed.
