Religion

  How big a deal will religion be in this fall's presidential election? Not very, according to the latest poll from the Pew Center.  That may be a good thing, based on the public's understanding of the two main candidates' religions.  The poll said 60%of voters are aware that Mitt Romney is a Mormon. Almost a third -- 30%-- didn't know what religion he was.  Even fewer could peg  the guy who has been president for the past four years: 49% got the answer right -- he's Christian. Almost a third -- 31% -- didn't know. Another 17% said they thought he was Muslim.   A finding that the faithful might find more alarming is this:  "The new survey also finds that 66% of the public says that religion is losing its influence on American life. That is little changed from 2010, but among the highest percentages saying religion is losing its influence since the question was first asked in a Gallup poll in 1957. A small but growing share of Americans say it is … [Read more...] about Will religion matter on Election Day, and if so, whose?

Fewer than half of American adults define themselves as Protestant, marking the first time the faith group has decreased significantly below 50 percent, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. While the Protestant portion of the population has declined, the number of Americans who do not identify with any religion -- also known as “nones” -- is rising, the study shows. One-in-five adults -- about 46 million -- have no religious affiliation: That group includes more than 13 million atheists and agnostics and nearly 33 million adults who describe themselves as having no particular religious affiliation. Here’s more from Pew detailing the results of the study: The growth in the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans “is largely driven by generational replacement, the gradual supplanting of older generations by newer ones. A third of adults under 30 have no religious affiliation (32%), compared … [Read more...] about Study: Protestants decline in number while those who do not identify with any religion increase

I don’t care that Mitt Romney is Mormon. Nor do I care that Newt Gingrich was Lutheran, then Southern Baptist and is now Catholic. I don’t care that Al Franken is Jewish and that Keith Ellison is Muslim. I don’t care which church Barack Obama attended and who his pastor might have been at one time. I don’t care what religion a politician or candidate believes in as long as they keep it to themselves, don’t try to use their faith to win election and certainly don’t try to cram their individual beliefs down the throats of Americans. I do believe in an absolute separation of church and state. Faith, religion, spirituality – call it what you will – plays a vital role in the lives of the majority of Americans. Let’s just keep it out of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. The mainstream religion in which I was raised believed that one’s faith was a personal matter. It could be expressed within the … [Read more...] about Enough with Religion in Political Campaigns