GOP Seen as Friendlier To Religion Than Democrats (Pew)

[struggle4progress]

Obama Seen as More Friendly Than His Party
Dec. 1, 2009

More Americans continue to view the Republican Party as friendly toward religion (48%) than rate the Democratic Party that way (29%). President Barack Obama's administration, however, is seen as friendly toward religion by more people (37%) than the Democratic Party as a whole. And all three get higher ratings for friendliness toward religion than the news media (14%), scientists (12%) or Hollywood (11%) ... About one-in-five say Democrats are unfriendly toward religion (22%), up from 15% who felt that way last year but about the same as in surveys conducted in 2005 and 2006.

Views of the Democrats' stance toward religion have soured sharply among groups that were already inclined to view the Democratic Party negatively, such as Republicans and white evangelical Protestants. But they have also turned more negative among both independents as well as Democrats who are ideologically moderate or conservative ... Views of the Democrats' friendliness toward religion have declined among nearly all major religious groups ...

For Obama as well as for both political parties, being viewed as friendly toward religion is closely associated with popularity generally. Among those who say the Obama administration is friendly toward religion, fully three-quarters approve of the job he is doing (77%), compared with half of those who say the administration is neutral toward religion (51%) and a scant 7% of those who say it is unfriendly. More than eight-in-ten of those who say the Obama administration is unfriendly toward religion disapprove of his job performance ...

http://www.pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=487

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. The other view:

Democrats seen as more rational than GOP.

[rd_kent]

3. Yeah, I guess logic and reason is negative to religion.

[struggle4progress]

4. That will not follow by any political calculus that I have seen: no polling supports

that view; nor would one expect any polling to support it, since people (regardless of their own views) always believe themselves more rational than others

[no_hypocrisy]

2. As a corollary, GOP seen as hostile to non-theists.

[ZombieHorde]

5. GOP is probably friendlier to conservative Christianity, but to religion in general.

Especially Islam.