Church and State
I recently discovered the website of Gallup, the polling firm. Not only do they have a really cool site, but their content is both free and fascinating. An unbeatable combo!
For the last week, my friend Ken from Switzerland has been staying at my apartment. Recently, we got into a discussion about the separation of Church and State and how the US espouses this ideal, but it isn’t at all done in practice. I brought up the point that a country is made up of it’s people and that the electorate is primarily Christian. But really, is it? This led me to do some research. For all the focus of the Christian viewpoint in politics, does this represent a large percentage of the people or a concentrated group of people with a (relatively) well-organized PR story?
- 78% of Americans believe in God or a higher power.
- 42% of Americans attend church regularly.
- 56% of Americans believe that religion is very important in their lives.
I should caveat that religion and church here is defined generally–that is to say, inclusive of Judaism, Islam, and others. To get additional context, we can look at this.
Answer: Yes, there’s a substantial (or majority) group of Christians in America. In continuing my conversation with Ken–I feel that while much of our politics are religiously influenced, I don’t think it’s a full or complete lean to one side. We have a healthy dose of being influenced by other thinking and certainly this country has never faced anything like an Inquisition (the Red Scare was political more than religious).
(Full Disclosure: I consider myself Christian, though I often don’t agree with the stances of the Christian viewpoint.)
