Most Americans Believe Religion Is Less Important In Their Lives.

Americans fear religion is losing influence, survey finds

Posted on September 22, 2014 by McClatchy-Tribune

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WASHINGTON (MCT) — Six years into a Democratic administration widely seen as pushing a secular agenda, nearly three-quarters of Americans say religion is losing influence in American life and about half say churches and other religious institutions should express their views on political issues.

The findings, from a new Pew survey, underscore a persistent pattern in American politics: During conservative administrations, the public tends to become more liberal; and during liberal ones, more conservative.

In this case, only about 3 in 10 Americans see the Obama administration as “friendly to religion.” About 4 in 10 rate the administration as neutral and another 3 in 10 call it unfriendly.

The percentage seeing the administration as unfriendly to religion has nearly doubled since the start of Obama’s tenure in 2009, with white evangelical Protestants and white Catholics in particular becoming more likely to voice that view.

The shift probably stems in part from the long-running fight between the administration and conservative religious groups over health insurance coverage for contraception as well as a concerted effort by Republican leaders in recent years to portray President Barack Obama as waging a war on religious belief.

The share of Americans who believe religion has lost influence, 72 percent, has risen at a fairly steady rate since 2002, when just over half of Americans felt that way. A majority of those who see religion’s influence fading see that development as a bad thing.

A growing number of Americans consider themselves secular, but they remain a minority. The religious majority appears to have reacted against what they see as a hostile administration and a reduced role for religious belief and have become more supportive of an active role for religion in public life.

During George W. Bush’s tenure, the percentage of Americans saying religious groups should “keep out of political matters” rose, while the share saying that churches should “express their views” on political questions dropped.

Since 2010, by contrast, that pattern has reversed. About half of Americans now say churches and other religious institutions should express their views, and the other half say they should keep out.

By about 2 to 1, however, a large majority of Americans still oppose churches endorsing specific candidates, although support for that idea has grown in recent years.

The shift in attitudes has come mostly from those who have a religious affiliation and see religion as a positive force in American life. Between 2010 and now, support for churches taking an active role in public life has risen nearly 10 percentage points in those groups.

Attitudes have not changed significantly among the religiously unaffiliated and those who see religion’s influence as mostly negative: They have always thought churches should stay out of politics.

Those sorts of views can have a big effect on elections because religious belief forms one of the country’s biggest partisan divisions — at least among whites.

Republicans get strong and growing support from the most religious, particularly white, evangelical Protestants, while Democrats dominate among the non-religious, as well as minority groups, including black Protestants, Latino Catholics and Jews.

Republicans tend to think that political leaders should talk more about “their faith and prayer,” with 53 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents taking that view.

Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 40 percent say political leaders already talk “too much” about those subjects. On both sides, about one-quarter say politicians talk the right amount about their faith.

Members of religious groups also tend to be more likely than the general public to see their group as being the target of discrimination.

Half of white evangelicals, for example, say that their group faces “a lot of discrimination.” But fewer than one-third of the public at large concurs.

Similarly, 33 percent of Catholics, but only 19 percent of the public at large, sees “a lot” of anti-Catholic discrimination. A similar pattern occurs with racial minorities.

A majority of the public, 59 percent, believes that Muslims face a lot of discrimination. Because Muslims remain a very small minority of the U.S. population, the survey did not include enough of them to analyze.

The Pew survey, conducted Sept. 2-9 among a sample of 2,002 U.S. adults, has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

–David Lauter
Tribune Washington Bureau

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(c)2014 Tribune Co.

Are Americans Finally Figuring Out Obama? Approval Ratings Dropping Like A Lead Balloon.

Obama Has Lost America On Immigration Reform

November 12, 2013 by Ben Bullard 

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A Pew survey released Friday shows Americans are increasingly frustrated not only by President Barack Obama’s overall performance, but by his handling of almost every matter of policy that has confronted his Administration throughout the ineffectual, scandal-plagued first year of his second term.

Surprisingly, few Americans are fans of Obama’s stance on immigration reform.

According to Pew:

Only about a third of the public (32%) approves of the job Obama is doing on immigration policy; 60% disapprove. Obama’s ratings for this issue among Democrats are mixed: About half (53%) approve of his handling of the issue while 42% disapprove.

Interpreting the reason for that kind of lopsided disapproval among all Americans, as well as for the lack of clear consensus among Obama’s Democratic supporters, is a murky exercise. It’s possible that some who are dissatisfied think Obama’s not being progressive enough; that he shouldn’t wait for Congress to open a path to amnesty when the President could just bypass the rule of law by issuing an executive order.

But the fact that Democrats aren’t closing ranks with Obama suggests an alternate explanation: people don’t like what Obama and the Congressional Gang of Eight are selling.

Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle made exactly that point over the weekend, writing that “Obama’s immigration disapproval rating has skyrocketed as he has ramped up his efforts to lobby Congress for the passage of an amnesty — particularly the Senate’s ‘Gang of Eight’ immigration bill.”

Boyle continues:

As the American people have learned more and more about the Gang of Eight bill and the effects which amnesty and a drastic influx of millions of new workers would have on the hurting economy, they have grown more and more outraged with what Washington, D.C., is doing regarding immigration reform. In February — before Obama and lawmakers like Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and DIck Durbin (D-ll.L) began their push for immigration reform — the President’s immigration policy approval rating among the American people, according to Pew, was higher than his disapproval rating. His approval rating on immigration then was 44 percent, whereas his disapproval rating was 43 percent.

Over the next several months, the Obama administration worked with the Senate Democrats and a handful of Senate Republicans to develop the more-than-thousand-page-long Gang of Eight bill. The administration helped Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rush the bill to the floor with hardly any substantive review from members, staffers, the media, and the American people.

In mid-June, before the Senate bill passed and as its ultimate passage became questionable, Obama’s Pew Research disapproval rating on immigration spiked up to 47 percent, and his approval rating on the issue dropped to 43 percent.

That’s a big swing in public opinion over a brief period of time. But it mimics the President’s freefall in most other policy arenas.

“The new survey finds that majorities disapprove of the way Obama is handling four of five issues tested, with terrorism the lone exception (51% approve, 44% disapprove),” the Pew study observes. “For every issue, including terrorism, his ratings are lower than they were earlier this year.”

Indeed. George Will riffed on the Pew study Sunday on Fox News, saying Obama’s fifth year in office – highlighted by the poor reception Americans have given the launch of the Affordable Care Act – is more disastrous than any other President’s except for Richard Nixon.

“Well, it is one thing for Bill Clinton to say ‘I feel your pain.’ It is another thing for Barack Obama to say ‘I feel your pain that I have caused,’” said Will. “And for him to say it was caused by a situation – that’s the word he used in the operative sentence – we, this week, marked the one-year anniversary of his reelection.

“Has there ever, with the exception of Richard Nixon in 1973, been a worst first year of a second term?”