Americans Want More Religious Influence in Politics, Pew Research Study Shows

A growing population of Americans seem to look more favorably upon an interrelationship between religion and politics, according to findings from a recent Pew Research Center study released on Monday.

In the study, which was conducted by telephone among 2,002 adults over the age of 18 in the United States, across all 50 states, 72% of the participants believed that religion is losing influence, which is the highest percentage Pew Research has seen since 2001. A little over half (56%) of Americans believe that it is a “bad thing” that religion is losing influence in American public life and politics.

Six in ten Americans (59%) said that they want members of Congress to have strong religious beliefs, and an increasing amount of Americans believe that there has been “too little” expression of religious faith and prayer from political leaders.

Moreover, a growing population believes that churches and other houses of worship should be expressing their views on social and political issues. When the survey was completed in the 2010 midterm election season, 43% believed that churches should express their opinions in politics; the percentage rose to 46% in the recent study. An increasing minority of Americans (up from 24% to 32%) believe that churches should endorse candidates in elections.

Greg Smith, Pew Research Center’s associate director of research, said that it’s “striking” to see a reversal in trends in the public’s opinion on religious influence on politics. While the trend has been a decline in support for religious opinion having a strong influence in politics since 2006, this is a sudden shift from that trend.

“It could be that as religion’s influence is seen as waning, the appetite for it moves in the other direction,” Smith said.

Added to the belief that religious influence may be declining, there has been a rise in population of those who believe the current presidential administration is unfriendly toward religion, up from 17% in 2009, 23% in 2012, and 29% in the most recent study.

Such a belief that religious influence is lessening may be due to the liberal decisions in courts recently, especially regarding states’ same-sex marriage bans. Many lawsuits regarding religion have been highlighted in news headlines, such as the recent Hobby Lobby case, and cases in which businesses refused to provide services to same-sex clients for their weddings.