Candidates’ beliefs take back seat in U.S. election
Yet many Americans see role for religion when it comes to public policy, poll finds
NEW YORK Religion’s role in politics and public policy is in the spotlight heading toward the American midterm elections, yet relatively few people consider it crucial that a candidate be devoutly religious or share their religious beliefs, according to a poll released Tuesday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Just 25 per cent of respondents say it’s very or extremely important that a candidate has strong religious beliefs, according to the poll. Only 19 per cent consider it very or extremely important that a candidate shares their own beliefs and nearly half say that’s not very important or not important at all.
Still, most people see a role for religion in shaping public policy. A solid majority of Americans, 57 per cent, want the influence of religion on government policy to extend beyond traditional culture war issues and into policies addressing poverty.
There is little public support for the campaign by some conservative religious leaders, backed by President Donald Trump, to allow clergy and religious organizations to endorse political candidates while retaining their tax-exempt status. Such a change is opposed by 53 per cent of Americans and supported by 13 per cent. The rest expressed no opinion.
Trump’s stance on political endorsements by clergy is one of many reasons he has retained strong support among white evangelical Christians, despite aspects of his behaviour and personal life that don’t neatly align with Christian values. The AP-NORC poll found that seven in 10 white evangelical Protestants say they approve of Trump, a Republican.
The importance of a candidate’s religious faith varied across religious and political groups.
Among white evangelical Protestants, 51 per cent consider it very or extremely important that a candidate has strong religious beliefs. An additional 25 per cent think it’s moderately important. Far fewer Catholics and white mainline Protestants considered this important.
Roughly two-thirds of Republicans said it’s at least moderately important that a candidate has strong religious beliefs compared with 37 per cent of Democrats.
Jack Kane, an accountant from Key West, Fla., was among the Republican-leaning poll participants who said it wasn’t important to him whether a candidate was deeply religious.
“I’d much rather have a guy run the government and not spend all our money instead of sounding off on what’s going on in the church or on things like abortion,” said Kane, 65, who describes himself as nonreligious.
“Who is Catholic, Jewish, Southern Baptist? I could care less as long as they’re going to carry the torch of freedom.”
Kent Jaquette, a Republicanturned-independent and a former United Methodist pastor who lives near San Antonio, said he does not base his choice of candidates on their religious faith.
“In politics, you need to look at a person where their morals are, where their values are,” he said.
Jaquette also questioned the motives of evangelicals who support Trump.
“To me, it’s supporting someone who gives no indication he intends to live a Christian life,” said Jaquette, 63. “I believe that Christians should do things that Christ taught — feed the hungry, visit people in jail, help immigrants.”
The AP-NORC poll of 1,055 adults was conducted Aug. 16-20. The margin of sampling error for all respondents was plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.