Everyone knows that America is far more religious than most other developed countries.
Religious people tout our fervor as what makes us special (said in a proud Ronald Reagan voice).
The more secular denounce it as what makes us “special” (said in a mocking Saturday Night Live Church Lady voice).
A March poll by the Pew Research Center, released at the end of a particularly fanatical Republican nominating process during which religious extremism took center stage, recorded a bit of a backlash against religion.
It found for the first time that more people thought that there has been too much expression of religious faith by political leaders.
In fact, the poll found that most Americans (51 percent) believe that religious conservatives have too much control over the Republican Party. That was a record high. By comparison, a plurality (49 percent) said they don’t believe that secular liberals have too much control over the Democratic Party. That too was a record high.
The poll also found that a record number of people (54 percent) said that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters.
The question now is whether that backlash will be sustained or whether it will subside as we move into the general election season. Neither party’s presidential candidates have much interest in making religion a central element of this year’s presidential debate – President Obama because a striking number of people still wrongly believe that he is a Muslim, and Mitt Romney because of what many Americans consider the somewhat exotic nature of the Mormon faith.
Even as the candidates walk gingerly around religion, religious leaders remain riled up about two issues that could energize the Republican base at the expense of scaring off moderates and independents: contraception and same-sex marriage.
Last week, The Times reported:
In an effort to show a unified front in their campaign against the birth control mandate, 43 Roman Catholic dioceses, schools, social service agencies and other institutions filed lawsuits in 12 federal courts on Monday, challenging the Obama administration’s rule that their employees receive coverage for contraception in their health insurance policies.
The same day Gallup released a poll that found that an astonishing 82 percent of American Catholics find birth control to be morally acceptable.
Talk about a pew-to-pulpit divide.
Though a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that Romney is making some headway in narrowing the gap with Obama among female voters, this has the potential to keep contraception in the headlines and push women away again.
Then there’s same-sex marriage.
Churches have taken on a central role in efforts to defeat same-sex marriage legislation, which half the country supports, according to Gallup.
And after President Obama publicly acknowledged his support for same-sex marriage, much of the news coverage was about the responses of churches.
There was much hand-wringing about whether the president’s stance would cost him votes among churchgoers, particularly black churchgoers, many of whom are opposed to marriage equality but strongly support the president. Turns out that this was much ado about nothing. A Pew Research Center poll released on May 14 found that:
Roughly half of Americans (52 percent) say Barack Obama’s expression of support for gay marriage did not affect their opinion of the president. A quarter (25 percent) say they feel less favorably toward Obama because of this while 19 percent feel more favorably.
Among blacks, 68 percent said that it had no effect, and more (16 percent) said that the president’s stance made them view him more favorably that those (13 percent) who said that it made them view him less favorably.
But recently we have been treated to some hateful, homophobic speech coming from supposedly holy places.
One pastor from North Carolina suggested that fathers should punch their sons if they showed any sign of being gay. He said, “the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist.” He continued, “Man up! Give him a good punch.” He also warned against daughters “acting too butch.”
Another pastor from North Carolina said that gays and lesbians should be put behind an electrified fence until they die out:
I figured a way out, a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers, but I couldn’t get it passed through Congress. Build a great big large fence — 150 or 100 miles long — put all the lesbians in there, fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing with the queers and the homosexuals. And have that fence electrified so they can’t get out. Feed them, and you know what, in a few years they’ll die out. Do you know why? They can’t reproduce.
Aw, now isn’t that nice. At least he’s willing to “feed them.”
Moderates and independents are turned off by this kind of bigotry and vitriol. This level of hate keeps religious extremism fresh in the minds of voters even if it’s not on the lips of candidates. In the end, it is likely to drag down the Republican brand more than lift it.
The people who want to take their country back might first want to start by taking their religion back.