EGN NEWS DESK
As the U.S. continues to debate the fusion of religion and politics, a sweeping new survey studies that almost all American adults have a constructive view of faith’s position in public life however imagine its affect is waning.
The improvement seems to unsettle no less than half of the nation, with rising concern amongst an array of non secular Americans that their beliefs are in battle with mainstream American tradition.
That’s based on a new survey unveiled on Friday by Pew Research, which was performed in February and seeks to tease out attitudes relating to the affect of faith on American society.
“We see indicators of kind of a rising disconnect between individuals’s personal non secular beliefs and their perceptions concerning the broader tradition,” Greg Smith, affiliate director of analysis at Pew Research Center, instructed Religion News Service in an interview.
He pointed to findings reminiscent of 80% of U.S. adults saying faith’s position in American life is shrinking — as excessive because it’s ever been in Pew surveys — and 49% of U.S. adults say faith dropping that affect is a foul factor.
What’s extra, he famous that 48% of U.S. adults say there’s “an excellent deal” of or “some” battle between their non secular beliefs and mainstream American tradition, a rise from 42% in 2020. The variety of Americans who see themselves as a minority group due to their non secular beliefs has elevated as nicely, rising from 24% in 2020 to 29% this 12 months.
The spike in Americans who see themselves as a non secular minority, whereas small, seems throughout a number of religion teams: white evangelical Protestants rose from 32% to 37%, white non-evangelical Protestants from 11% to 16%, white Catholics from 13% to 23%, Hispanic Catholics from 17% to 26% and Jewish Americans from 78% to 83%. Religiously unaffiliated Americans who see themselves as a minority due to their non secular beliefs additionally rose from 21% to 25%.
“We’re seeing an uptick within the share of Americans who consider themselves as a minority due to their non secular beliefs,” Smith stated.
Researchers additionally homed in on Christian nationalism, an ideology that usually insists the U.S. is given particular standing by God and normally options assist for enshrining a particular sort of Christianity into U.S. legislation. But whereas the motion has garnered outstanding supporters and vocal critics — in addition to backing from political figures reminiscent of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — Pew discovered views on the topic had been nearly unchanged from after they requested Americans concerning the subject lately.
“One factor that jumped out at me, given the quantity of consideration that is been paid to Christian nationalism within the media and the extent of dialog about it, is that the survey finds no change over the past 12 months and half or so within the share of the general public who says they’ve heard something about it,” Smith stated.
About 45% of these polled stated they’d heard of Christian nationalism or examine it, with 54% saying they’d by no means heard of the ideology — the identical percentages as in September 2022. Overall, 25% had an unfavorable view of Christian nationalism, whereas solely 5% had a positive view and 6% had neither a positive nor unfavorable view.
Researchers additionally pressed respondents on fusions of faith and politics, revealing a spectrum of views. A majority (55%) stated the U.S. authorities ought to implement the separation of church and state, whereas 16% stated the federal government ought to cease implementing it and one other 28% saying neither or had no opinion. Meanwhile, solely 13% stated the U.S. authorities ought to declare Christianity the nation’s official faith, in comparison with 39% who believed the U.S. shouldn’t declare Christianity the state faith or promote Christian ethical values. A plurality (44%) sided with a 3rd possibility: the U.S. shouldn’t declare Christianity its official religion, nevertheless it ought to nonetheless promote Christian values.
When requested whether or not the Bible ought to have affect over U.S. legal guidelines, respondents had been evenly cut up: 49% stated the Bible ought to have “an excellent deal” of or “some” affect, whereas 51% stated it ought to have “not a lot” or “no affect.”
But issues regarded completely different when Pew requested an extra query of those that supported a Bible-based authorized construction: If the Bible and the need of the individuals come into battle, which ought to prevail? Not fairly two-thirds of that group — or 28% of Americans general — stated the Bible, however greater than a 3rd of the group (or 19% of the U.S. general) stated the need of the individuals ought to win out.
Here once more, opinions have remained largely static, with researchers noting the numbers “have remained nearly unchanged over the previous 4 years.”
Respondents had been additionally requested whether or not they believed the Bible at present has affect over U.S. legal guidelines, with a majority (57%) agreeing it has no less than some. But there have been notable variations amongst non secular teams: White evangelicals (48%) and Black Protestants (40%) had been the least prone to say the Bible has no less than some affect on U.S. legislation, in comparison with slight majorities of white non-evangelical Protestants (56%) and each white and Hispanic Catholics (52% for each). The religiously unaffiliated (70%), Jewish Americans (73%), atheists (86%) and agnostics (83%) had been the more than likely to agree that the Bible is a big issue within the U.S. authorized system.
The survey polled 12,693 U.S. adults from Feb. 13-25.
© Religion News Service
