Poll: Majority Wants Religion, Politics Separate

Survey results released last Thursday show that a slim majority of Americans, including a surprisingly high number of traditional Christian conservatives, want to keep religion out of politics.

As reported by Reuters, 52 percent of respondents from the Pew Research Center survey thought that churches and other religious institutions should stay out of politics, 8 percent higher than when the same question was asked four years ago. Of those who identified themselves as “conservative,” 50 percent said religion be separate from politics. That’s up from 30 percent in 2004. On the other hand, 45 percent of respondents said that churches and other religious bodies should be involved in politics.

The Pew Forum has been conducting this survey since the 1996 presidential election cycle, and this is the first time that “keep them separate” has been the majority opinion.

A representative from the Pew Forum commented that, “Where there was once a substantial partisan and ideological gap on this question, there is now far less of a divide.”

The survey was conducted in the weeks leading up to the Saddleback Civil Forum, where Pastor Rick Warren interviewed presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain in front of national television audience and a few thousand more at Warren’s church in Southern California.