Culture Watch: Creeping Secularism?

Interesting stuff came out today in the form of a Pew Research Center report on the role of religion in public life. Close to 3,000 adults 18 and over were surveyed about several issues regarding church and state. The broad findings? 52% of those surveyed felt that churches should "stay out" of political issues, while 45% felt that churches should express their views. The Pew Center finds the responses of "social conservatives" most striking: 50% of those who fell into that category felt that religion and politics shouldn't mix; in 2004 only 30% of the same group felt this way. Why is this? The Pew Center doesn't answer this. Other interesting facts from the survey included:

-Two-thirds of the public (66%) say that churches and other houses of
worship should not endorse one candidate over another, which is unchanged since 2004 (65%).

-Half of Americans (50%) say that it does not bother them when politicians talk about how religious they are, but the number expressing discomfort has edged upward over the past four years.

-An overwhelming majority of the public continues to say that it is important to them that a
president have strong religious beliefs. More than seven-in-ten Americans express this opinion, and attitudes on this issue have not changed in recent years.

-A slim majority (52%) says the GOP (Republican Party) is friendly toward religion, compared with 38% who say the same about the Democratic Party.

-When asked to assess their own moral values on a scale from liberal to conservative,
49% of Americans place themselves on the conservative side of the scale, while just 20% place
themselves on the liberal side (29% describe themselves as moderate.)

-A majority of Americans (54%) say abortion should be legal in most (37%) or all (17%) cases, while 41% oppose legalized abortion in most (26%) or all (15%) circumstances.

-67% of those surveyed favor faith-based initiatives.

You can see the survey in its entirety here.