TruthBook Religious News Blog

Poll: Social concerns go deeper than abortion

By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

The election of Barack Obama as president is a signal that the religious right is on the way out, according to several experts reviewing a newly released poll on the religious vote.

But don't look for its successor to be the religious left.

The data indicate Mr. Obama's victory was aided by the emergence of a new and diverse religious coalition that views fighting poverty, protecting the environment, and promoting world peace to be critical issues - not just abortion rights and same-sex marriage upon which the religious right has focused.

The poll, conducted by Washington-based Public Religion Research, examined the reasons given by people of faith for voting for either Democrat Mr. Obama or Republican candidate John McCain.

Robert Jones, president of Public Religion Research, said one of the key findings was that a majority of both evan-gelical Christians (55 percent) and Catholics (51 percent) said agendas best reflecting their values include the issues of poverty, the environment, war and peace, abortion rights, and same-sex marriage. In contrast, only 21 percent of evangelicals and 13 percent of Catholics said a narrower agenda focused on abortion rights and same-sex marriage best reflected their values.

The new coalition includes black and Latino voters, younger white Christians, new evangelical pastors and students, progressive Catholics, and Protestants...

The poll reported that while only 21 percent of white evangelicals voted for Mr. Obama, of those who did, 39 percent considered him to be friendly to their religion and 39 percent felt he shares their values.

Among Catholics, 54 percent voted for Mr. Obama while 64 percent said the Democratic candidate shares their values.

Among all religious groups, 58 percent considered Mr. McCain friendly to religion and 54 percent said Mr. Obama was friendly to religion. Mr. Obama's numbers in that category are 16 points higher than his party's; only 38 percent of voters said the Democratic Party was friendly to religion.

The survey also reported Mr. McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate proved to be a net loss for the party. The Alaska governor increased support among 30 percent of evangelicals, but decreased support among every other religious group and among political independents, according to poll data.

The most important issue by far among religious voters was the same as that of the general public: the economy. Seventy percent of all religious groups cited the economy as the most important issue, followed by the Iraq war (35 percent), health care (31 percent), terrorism (19 percent), abortion rights (14 percent), and same-sex marriage (6 percent).

The Public Religion Research survey polled 1,277 voters between Nov. 5 and Nov. 7 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. It was sponsored by Faith in Public Life, Sojourners, and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

Labels: abortion, Barack Obama, David Yonke, Iraq, John McCain, Public Religion Research, the economy