The Unreported Political Implications of Pew’s Religion Poll

I love Pew. But the problem with religious academics doing political polls and non-religious reporters covering them is that the headlines can get skewed and political implications muddled. The headlines from yesterday’s Pew poll on religion and politics should have all read: “Obama and Romney Both Face Serious Faith Problems,” with the subheading: “Election could hinge on which candidates fixes them.”

To be fair, a lot of the headlines did focus on the fact that less than half of Americans know that President Obama is a Christian. But the stories didn’t provide much context for what that means or how it happened. It’s clearly not good. Along with most not knowing Obama is Christian, even more troubling is that only 45 percent of voters are comfortable with Obama’s religion.

Here’s a key point in the poll that didn’t get much attention: 82 percent of those who know Obama is Christian say they are comfortable with his religion. So voters are basically twice as comfortable with Obama’s faith when they know what it is. This is why faith outreach is so important (but more on that later).

Why does the fact that most voters are not comfortable with Obama’s religion matter? More than two-thirds of voters (and seven-in-10 women voters) say they want a president with strong religious beliefs. As one might imagine, these numbers are even higher with religious populations. Eight-in-10 Protestants and three-in-four Catholic voters want a president with strong religious beliefs. And let’s be honest, they aren’t talking about wanting Obama to have strong Muslim beliefs (so the fact that 17 percent of voters think he’s Muslim doesn’t add to the plus column)!

These questions are all a proxy for whether voters think the candidate is like them, shares their values and is someone they can trust. For many Christian voters, one of the most important ways they judge that is by the person’s faith. That’s not because they are prejudiced or trying to impose religion on the country, but because if faith is real, it informs everything about a person and all their values. And we want people representing us who share our values.
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