Americans: Keep Religion, Politics Separate

A new study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows significant changes in how Americans view the relationship between personal religious faith and political behavior. In the wake of the Saddleback Church forum on faith held last Friday with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, this study shows a much different message environment for candidates and interest groups wanting to use hot-button religious issues to motivate voters.

From the report:

A new survey finds a narrow majority of the public saying that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters and not express their views on day-to-day social and political matters. For a decade, majorities of Americans had voiced support for religious institutions speaking out on such issues.

As you can see from the graph, the lines have crossed since 2004, when Karl Rove and the GOP deliberately placed initiatives to ban gay marriage on the general election ballot as a way to energize social conservative voters.

The report goes on to note that

most of the reconsideration of the desirability of religious involvement in politics has occurred among conservatives. ... As a result, conservatives' views on this issue are much more in line with the views of moderates and liberals than was previously the case. Similarly, the sharp divisions between Republicans and Democrats that previously existed on this issue have disappeared.

Another chart shows this evolution in stark terms:


Among those who think that gay marriage is a very important issue, the percentage of people who favor greater separation between religion and politics has increased 25%! Among those who think abortion is a very important issues, the percentage of people who favor greater separation between religion and politics has increased 16%! These are significant shifts in opinion among social conservatives. There could be several reasons for this.

• First, on the issue of gay marriage, the war is over (for now). The self-righteous, er, social conservatives have won. The steam has gone out of arguments from James Dobson, Tony Perkins, et al., that the threat of gay marriage was the end of American civilization.
• Second, other issues like the sagging economy, inflated gas prices, and the war in Iraq have supplanted hot-button social issues as concerns for Americans.
• Third -- and I think this is most important -- people of faith who thought their religious values were best expressed in issues like abortion and gay marriage have watched the cavacade of corruption, venality, heartlessness and incompetence that characterizes the modern Republican Party and realized they'd been had -- that party leaders like George Bush, Dick Cheney and Tom DeLay cynically manipulated their heartfelt faith to advance a vicious, amoral agenda, all the while laughing behind their back.

In any case, the study shows that a shifting political landscape for social conservatives and the politicians who would exploit them. To be sure, the culture wars are not over, but this election season may pass without them being a central focus of the campaigns.