The God Squad, Part 1: Religion as Selfish Individualism

YouGov.com, a polling organization used by many social scientists, recently released the results of a survey on religion and political attitudes. The data were collected on July 1 and 2 from a representative sample of 1000 Americans who are registered as volunteers with the organization. People who identified themselves as either Protestants, Catholics, of some other religion, or as athiests or agnostics were asked whether they supported or opposed seven social policies.

Do you support . . .?	Protestant	Catholic	Other religion	Agnostic or atheist
Gay marriage	31%	44%	59%	89%
Legal abortion	31%	41%	62%	90%
Death penalty for murderers	59%	66%	54%	48%
Stricter gun laws	44%	55%	54%	65%
High taxes on the wealthy	49%	57%	61%	74%
Universal healthcare	46%	55%	57%	81%
Reducing carbon emissions	55%	63%	70%	85%

Similar results are obtained when religiosity is defined by self-reported frequency of prayer, or by claiming to have been “born again.” This supports other research showing that religious people are more conservative than non-religious people, and that Protestants are more conservative than other religious groups. As you would expect, the differences are greatest on support for gay marriage and abortion, but differences of opinion on health care and taxes are also quite substantial.

Although YouGov did not cross-tabulate the relationship between religion and political affiliation, the differences in attitudes between Republicans, Independents and Democrats closely parallel the differences between religious groups. Exit poll data from the 2012 election also support the connection between religion and political preference.

Do you support . . .?	Republican	Independent	Democrat
Gay marriage	17%	49%	65%
Legal abortion	24%	48%	65%
Death penalty for murderers	68%	60%	50%
Stricter gun laws	19%	44%	82%
High taxes on the wealthy	28%	52%	81%
Universal healthcare	14%	51%	85%
Reducing carbon emissions	40%	64%	78%

These results might give pause to people who claim to be religious liberals. For example, if you believe that religious people have a duty to feed the hungry, heal the sick, or behave nonaggressively, how have you arrived at an interpretation of Christianity that is so sharply at odds with most of your fellow Christians? If you are contributing to religious organizations, is your money used to support policies with which you personally disagree, and to persuade vulnerable people to adopt the world view represented by these poll results?

You may also be interested in reading:

The Revolt of the Nones, Part 1

The Revolt of the Nones, Part 2

The God Squad, Part 2:  The "Greening" of Christianity

The God Squad, Part 3:  Projection