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Sen. Obama Now Leading In Polls With Faith Voters

By 316Networks.com

Published: October 09, 2008

A new survey released shows that Sen. Barack Obama is now not only ahead in general national polls, but that the candidate has also made significant inroads among faith voters.

Sen. Obama Now Leading In Polls With Faith Voters

In comparison to Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, Obama has made significant gains among voters who attend religious services once or twice a month. Accordin to the results from the report, "The Faith and American Politics Survey," 60 percent support Obama in 2008 compared to 49 percent for Kerry in 2004. The new survey was sponsored by Faith in Public Life and conducted by Public Religion Research.

More Americans think the Democratic candidate is friendly to religion than the Republican nominee, unlike the election of 2004. While 45 percent say MCain is friendly to religion, Forty-nine percent of Americans now say the same of Obama.

Given that President Bush in 2004 won more than 60 percent of the religious vote, this marks a significant difference. According to the poll, 71 percent of Americans say it is important for public officials to be comfortable speaking about religious values.

The survey also delved into examining young faith voters, particularly Catholics and evangelicals. While older Catholics are split between the candidates, younger Catholics support Obama by a 15 percentage point margin over McCain. Younger Catholics were also found to be more supportive of abortion, with six-in-ten saying it should be legal in all or most cases, compared to older Catholics.

However, when it comes to young white evangelicals, two-thirds said abortion should be illegal, and solidly back McCain (65 percent). But young white evangelicals were also more likely to favor either same-sex "marriage" or civil unions than older evangelicals. Sixty-one percent of older evangelicals (age 35 and above) wanted no legal recognition of same-sex relationships.

Dr. Robert Jones, president of Public Religion Research, commented on the recent poll. "Younger Americans, including younger Americans of faith, are not the culture war generation." He added, "On issues from gay and lesbian rights to the role of government at home and around the world, young Catholics, mainline protestants and evangelicals are bridging the divides that entrenched their elders and ushering in an era of consensus in which the common good trumps the clash of ideologies."

Culture war issues of abortion and same-sex "marriage" have been put on the back burner as of late due to the current state of the economy and the financial crisis. The survery found that 83 percent of Americans say the economy is the most important issue in the 2008 election.

Among white evangelicals polled, abortion or same-sex "marriage" did not rank in the top five most important voting issues. The recent survey results are based on telephone interviews with a representative sample of 2,000 American adults and an over sample of 1,250 younger adults (ages 18-34).

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