While President Barack Obama and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney may have different religious backgrounds, they share a surprisingly similar religious dilemma: most Americans can't correctly identify their religion, and more Americans than not say that each of these leader's religious beliefs are different from their own.
Much ink has already been spilled about the challenge Mitt Romney may face because of negative public perceptions of his Mormon faith. But the new PRRI/RNS Religion News Survey, conducted by Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service, shows that at this point in the campaign only four-in-10 Americans correctly identify Romney's religion as Mormon. Ten percent identify him as either Protestant or Catholic, and 46 percent say they don't know what his religious beliefs are.
Despite a very public falling out with his church pastor during the campaign and providing numerous testimonials of his Christian faith, President Obama faces a similar knowledge gap with the public. Only about four-in-10 (38 percent) correctly identify his religion as Christian, 18 percent continue to wrongly identify him as Muslim and 40 percent say they do not know what his religious beliefs are.
Beyond the religious identity challenge, both Obama and Romney also face a religious identification challenge with the public. Specifically, more Americans than not say that each of these leader's religious beliefs are different from their own. Romney of course faces a hurdle here that Obama does not: 72 percent of Americans report that Mormons have religious beliefs that are somewhat or very different from their own. But any advantage that might accrue to Obama because of his more familiar Christian faith is not evident in the numbers. The number of Americans saying Obama has religious beliefs that are different from their own stands at 48 percent, a number that is slightly higher than the same measure for Mitt Romney (43 percent).
In order to measure the average distance between Americans' own religious beliefs and their perceptions of political leaders' religious beliefs, we created a scale that accounts for perceptions of both similarity and difference. On this scale, former President George W. Bush provides a helpful benchmark. Bush scores right at the mean of the scale (0.00), indicating that equal numbers say his religious beliefs are similar to their own and different from their own. On this measure, again, Obama's score is nearly identical to Romney's score (-0.40 and -0.43 respectively), indicating that for each, more Americans think these leaders' religious beliefs are different than think they are similar.
Why does all this matter? Because most Americans are religious, and religion remains a lens through which many evaluate political candidates and measure their identification with them. The impact of perceived differences in religious beliefs is clearly evident in a question measuring a hypothetical vote for president.
If the vote were held today among all Americans, 44 percent of Americans report they would vote for President Obama, compared to 36 percent who say they would vote for Romney. However, among those who say Obama's religious beliefs are somewhat or very different from their own, Romney wins over Obama 48 percent to 32 percent. Romney faces the same fate. Among those who say Romney's religious beliefs are somewhat or very different from their own, Obama comes out strongly ahead 55 percent to 28 percent.
Much has been written about the challenges Romney may face because of his Mormon religious identity. But Obama's continued religious identity and identification problems, which are, if different, as significant as Romney's, have not been fully grasped. Should these perceptions hold throughout the 2012 campaign, they could have significant electoral repercussions at the ballot box.
The PRRI/RNS Religion News Survey was designed and conducted by Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service. Results of the survey were based on RDD telephone interviews conducted between July 14 and July 17 by professional interviewers under the direction of Opinion Research Corporation. Interviews were conducted among a random sample of 1,012 adults 18 years of age or older living in private households in the continental United States. The margin of error for the survey is +/- 3.0 percentage points at the 95 percent level of confidence.
This article was originally posted by Dr. Jones on his new blog "Figuring Faith" at the Washington Post's On Faith section.
Follow Robert P. Jones, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/publicreligion
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http://www.religioustolerance.org/lds_race2.htm
Direct from the great mormon regelion.
Especially because a lot of Christians don't consider Mormons real Christians, thus don't want to vote for them.
Of course, Romney's acting like the Mormon church in that he's signed onto an intolerance pledge toward LGBT Americans, while he's just received a shady million in campaign donations from a company that was created and closed between March and now, apparently just to make that contribution, maybe some more.
Too bad, I suppose, it looked like Romney was the only hope of any of the GOP nominees being anywhere *near* 'moderates.'
I guess it's a safe assumption that the majority of US voters do not know what the debt ceiling debate was all about, then.
"Do you really believe you will become a God?"
If he answers, "No" he's either a liar or he does not really believe in the most important of Mormon concepts, that Mormon MEN can become Gods in their "Mormon Only! Heaven" (aka, the Celestial Kingdom) as long as they practice Celestial Marriage (polygamy) which they'll be required to do.
This is from the Doctrine and Covenants, which is considered superior to the Bible, by Mormons, since it's revelation given directly to Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism.
D&C 76:58 Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God—
D&C 88:107 And then shall the angels be crowned with the glory of his might, and the saints shall be filled with his glory, and receive their inheritance and be made equal with him.
D&C 132:19-20 And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, ......20 Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.
Isn't one of the 10 Commandments "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD, thy God, in vain"?
IMPO...........It's a whole lot easier to CLAIM to be a Christian, then it is to be one, I.E. to actually lead a "Christian" life.
Those that would USE their religion for personal or political gain, can hardly claim to be moral. But then how can you be a politician and abide by Christian rules of ethics?
A truly ethical individual can't get elected.
Unless you are willing to "play the game"..........to negotiate your future votes for corporate campaign cash, you'd never raise enough money to even get on the ballot.
When our system of election finance, is based on legalized bribery...............why be surprised when those we elect are less then honorable?
The Founding Fathers wrote Article 6 and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution intending to prevent such a "religious litmus test."
The Founding Fathers wanted not only freedom of religion. They wanted freedom from religious domination by any one religion or any religious sect or coalition of sects. As Thomas Jefferson put it, speaking for his fellow Founding Fathers, the religious freedom clause was to establish "a wall of separation between church and state."
Read Quotes From the Founding Fathers Regarding Religion, at http://messenger2.cjcmp.org/foundingfathers.html
Ya, that ship has sailed. I was actually wondering if either side would try to exploit this in some way.
Why do you think the Tea Party keep calling Obama a Muslim?
Mitt says he is a Christian and in Mormon traditions in good standing with the Church.
The evangelical christian will probably not vote for either of them. But then these folks are in a world of their own.
Since the constitution of the United States clearly states no religious test can be applied for holding office. They both qualify.
Voters are free to vote for anyone for any reason or for no reason at all.
Technically if a majority of the people in one State decided that their government should be a theocracy, it would be unconstitutional to tell them that they cannot. In reality, several States have chosen a government style that is religious in nature.
Is there any doubt this religion is a racket created by a conscious charlatan? Romney will believe something based on no evidence at all and this is to be admired.
and I am quite sure Obama is a non-believer.
Paragraph #1 Agree with the exception they all "head" the list.
Paragraph #2 Not a single one and That would be a lot of thenm
Paragraph #3 Agree.
It's in the Book, people... look it up.
Jesus being black is in there too, if anyone here has even bothered to read that shocker.
The clergymen who theorized about the priesthood ban on the African race were quick to denounce their "private" theories after a revelation given to church president Spencer W. Kimball, (which revelation was sustained as binding upon the church by the entire church membership giving a sustaining vote in the September 30th 1978 semi annual general conference) that the African race could be ordained to the priesthood http://lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/od/2?lang=eng
There is NOT one explanation for the priesthood ban that is official doctrine. The individual theories were derived from scripture that Cain was given a curse, and black skin which, led these private theorist to theorize about the origin of the priesthood ban. So if I haven't stressed it enough these theories never represented the beliefs of the church.