{"id":20,"date":"2008-08-21T16:12:40","date_gmt":"2008-08-21T16:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/new-poll-commingling-politics.html"},"modified":"2008-08-21T16:12:40","modified_gmt":"2008-08-21T16:12:40","slug":"new-poll-commingling-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/new-poll-commingling-politics.html","title":{"rendered":"New Poll: Commingling Politics and Religion Not As Popular Anymore"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A pleasantly surprising <a href=\"http:\/\/pewforum.org\/newassets\/images\/reports\/summer08\/survey.pdf\">poll<\/a>\u00a0has been released today by the prestigious Pew Research folks which shows that the growing mix of flammable partisan politics with equally fiery religion may not be what a lot of Americans are looking for. \u00a0(Don&#8217;t tell the mainstream media, this, or it could ruin their day.) \u00a0Here are a few interesting findings comparing views this year with those in 2004:<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>*50% of self-described &#8220;conservatives&#8221; think churches should stay out of politics (up from 30%)<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>*46% of those polled (up from 40%) report being uncomfortable when politicians discuss how religious they are<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>*66% of Americans (just as before) believe that churches should not endorse candidates<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>*48% of us believe that religious conservatives have too much clout in the Republican Party&#8211;a 5% increase just since last year (so much for the Religious Right being dead, another thing not to tell the mainstream media which is convinced otherwise)<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>*There is a modest 3% decline in the number of white evangelicals who report that &#8220;same sex marriage&#8221; will be a &#8220;very important&#8221; voting issue<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>*And the poll contains a cautionary note to those supporters of Barack Obama who are delighted at their outreach efforts to evangelicals who didn&#8217;t vote for Gore or Kerry but might vote for Obama if he keeps emphasizing religion. \u00a0John McCain has essentially the same lead over Barack Obama among white evangelicals as Bush did over Kerry in summer 2004.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As you know Jay, I don&#8217;t have any problem with churches or atheist groups taking positions on political issues; it is only when they cross the line into candidate endorsement or opposition that they run afoul of both the tax laws and apparently an increasing number of their fellow citizens.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So what do you think of these trends?<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A pleasantly surprising poll\u00a0has been released today by the prestigious Pew Research folks which shows that the growing mix of flammable partisan politics with equally fiery religion may not be what a lot of Americans are looking for. \u00a0(Don&#8217;t tell the mainstream media, this, or it could ruin their day.) \u00a0Here are a few interesting&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-politicking"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Poll: Commingling Politics and Religion Not As Popular Anymore - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/new-poll-commingling-politics.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Poll: Commingling Politics and Religion Not As Popular Anymore - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A pleasantly surprising poll\u00a0has been released today by the prestigious Pew Research folks which shows that the growing mix of flammable partisan politics with equally fiery religion may not be what a lot of Americans are looking for. \u00a0(Don&#8217;t tell the mainstream media, this, or it could ruin their day.) \u00a0Here are a few interesting&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/new-poll-commingling-politics.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-21T16:12:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rev. Barry W. Lynn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Poll: Commingling Politics and Religion Not As Popular Anymore - Lynn v. Sekulow","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/new-poll-commingling-politics.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Poll: Commingling Politics and Religion Not As Popular Anymore - Lynn v. Sekulow","og_description":"A pleasantly surprising poll\u00a0has been released today by the prestigious Pew Research folks which shows that the growing mix of flammable partisan politics with equally fiery religion may not be what a lot of Americans are looking for. \u00a0(Don&#8217;t tell the mainstream media, this, or it could ruin their day.) \u00a0Here are a few interesting&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/new-poll-commingling-politics.html","og_site_name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","article_published_time":"2008-08-21T16:12:40+00:00","author":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/new-poll-commingling-politics.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/08\/new-poll-commingling-politics.html","name":"New Poll: Commingling Politics and Religion Not As Popular Anymore - Lynn v. 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Sekulow","description":"A debate blog about church, state, faith and politics with Jay Sekulow and Barry W. Lynn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8","name":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}