[Buddha-l] Declining numbers of Americans with faith--Pew Res. Ctr.

[jkirk]

>From another list:  Thought that it might be of interest here.
Excerpts from: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070709/perlstein



"Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007, a massive
twenty-year roundup of public opinion from the Pew Research Center for the
People and the Press, tells the story. Is it the responsibility of
government to care for those who can't take care of themselves? In 1994, the
year conservative Republicans captured Congress, 57 percent of those polled
thought so. Now, says Pew, it's 69 percent. (Even 58 percent of Republicans
agree. Would that some of them were in Congress.) The proportion of
Americans who believe government should guarantee every citizen enough to
eat and a place to sleep is 69 percent, too--the highest since 1991. Even 69
percent of self-identified Republicans--and 75 percent of small-business
owners!--favor raising the minimum wage by more than $2. 

An important corollary of the media fairy tale is that the Democrats can't
embody the will of the people. As an editorial in the Los Angeles Times
explained in 2004, Kerry lost because of his party's "God gap." Once more,
the data won't cooperate: A declining constituency--the devout--is treated
as if it were booming. Pew shows that the number of people who "completely
agree" that "prayer is an important part of my daily life" is down six
points in the past four years. The number who "never doubt the existence of
God" is down eight over the same period. The Barna Group likewise reports,
"There has been a 92% increase in the number of unchurched Americans in the
last thirteen years"--a population of 75 million, which is growing:
According to the Pew report, "This change appears to be generational in
nature, with each new generation displaying lower levels of religious
commitment than the preceding one." America, of course, is a religious
country--but 19 percent born after 1976 are either atheists, agnostics or
claim no religion, compared with 5 percent born before 1946. Yes, social
conservatives are a loud component of our body politic. But the numbers
peaked long ago. Pew measures social attitudes via six questions, such as
whether schools should have the right to fire gay teachers and whether AIDS
is God's punishment for sexual immorality. In 1989 about half of respondents
answered at least four of those six questions conservatively. Now, a mere 30
percent do."

Joanna


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