Religion & Politics

For information on religion in the 2008 campaign, go to Religion & Politics '08 »

The United States has a long tradition of separating church from state, yet a powerful inclination to mix religion and politics. Throughout our nation's history, great political and social movements – from abolition to women's suffrage to civil rights to today's struggles over abortion and gay marriage – have drawn upon religious institutions for moral authority, inspirational leadership and organizational muscle. In recent years, religion has been woven more deeply into the fabric of partisan politics than ever before.

The 2004 election was the latest presidential campaign in which candidates openly discussed their religious beliefs, churches became increasingly active in political mobilization and voters could be sorted not just by their policy preferences but also by the depth of their religious commitment. In fact, whether a person regularly attends religious services was a more powerful predictor of his or her vote for president than such standard demographic characteristics as gender, age, income and region.

According to an August 2007 poll by the Pew Forum and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, the vast majority (69%) of Americans agree that it is important for a president to have strong religious beliefs. However, a sizable majority (63%) opposes churches endorsing candidates during election campaigns. Just 28% say churches should come out in favor of candidates, but that number has grown slightly since 2002 when only 22% held this opinion.

Although the public opposes church endorsement of candidates, most Americans view President Bush's expressions of religious faith as appropriate. According to a July 2006 poll by the Pew Forum, more than half (52%) say Bush mentions his religious faith the right amount and another 14% say he talks about his faith too little. About a quarter (24%) believe that Bush mentions his faith too much, a percentage that has increased 10 points since July 2003.

The Pew Forum offers a variety of resources that probe the relationship between religion and politics, including reports, event transcripts, polling data and news clips.

Resource Pages
Abortion
Campaign 2006

Photo Credit: Joseph Sohm; Visions of America/CORBIS