Religion & Politics

The Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life conducted surveys that show the difference in how Americans view the role of religion in politics. In the 2004 presidential election, there was a significant party gap. Now, the gap has disappeared. More Americans believe that a politician's faith and his politics should be entirely separate elements of his life. The majority of people surveyed thought churches should not talk about politics. They should not be mixed. What happened to the conservative base?


In August, about half of Republicans and Democrats believe religion and politics are entirely separate topics. The religious faith of Obama, McCain, and Palin have been scrutinized to no end. How big of an influence will their faith have on their politics? America has had Christians rule the pulpit for all 43 presidencies.

In a society where religious reasons often justify candidate's views on abortion, biblical lettering on public municipal buildings, whether creationism should be taught in schools alongside Darwin's theory of evolution, and the death penalty, it is hard to fully escape the religion debate.

But President George W. Bush made faith a fundamental part of his administration when he established an initiative to open up more state partnership opportunities for faith-based and community organizations, such as "substance abuse treatment, prisoner re-entry and aid to at-risk youths." Even "during the 2000 campaign, Bush’s Democratic rival, Al Gore, also had promised to expand government’s relationship with faith-based groups to serve at-risk populations."

How will the four major candidates respond to this?

Two PEW articles today explored these issues as John DiIulio and Stephen Goldsmith interviewed analysts on Obama and McCain.