A survey by Pew Research shows increasing number of Americans support the idea of religion in politics and also a distinct decline in supporters of gay marriage.
The survey result states 49 percent of Americans are in favor of bringing religion in to politics. That is up from a previous 43 percent. People who were fine with the idea of churches endorsing certain candidates spiked to 32 percent from 24 percent. However, 63 percent still maintained their disapproval for political candidates backed by churches.
"That seems to be where people are drawing the line," said Rob Boston, spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, reports The Washington Times. "Most who say they want to see religion in public life are assuming religious organizations are going to echo their own political view. People are happy when the church speaks out in a way that coincides with what they believe. People are less enthusiastic about churches getting involved with politics when the political view clashes with their own," Boston said.
A whopping 72 percent of Americans admitted that religion is losing influence in public life, the survey stated.
Pew Research conducted the survey among 2,002 American adults from September 2 to 9. The survey's margin of error is around 2.5 percentage points.
Amid pressure on certain states to legalize gay marriages, the survey found that the support might be leveling off. It showed a 5 point drop in the backers of homosexual marriages. According to the results, 49 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage while 41 percent oppose it.
However, according to Pew, it is too early to determine whether it is the start of a turnaround in the recent trend of support for same-sex marriage. "Since we've seen this upward trend for so long, we're cautious because it's too early to say what this means for long-term trends," said Jessica Martinez, a researcher in Pew's Religion and Public Life Project, reports Concord Monitor. "As we continue to ask this question in other surveys, we'll keep an eye on where this moves."
