Exposing the myths of faith in political parties

[rug]

E.J. Dionne
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Published: 04 August 2013 07:37 PM
Updated: 05 August 2013 12:47 PM

Whenever I write sympathetically about religion, I get bombarded by tweets and notes from readers who normally agree with me but cannot abide the idea that religious belief should be seen as intellectually serious.

Getting lambasted doesn’t bother me. On the contrary, citizens talking back to the purveyors of opinion is a glorious aspect of free speech. But my correspondents underscore the existence of a strong anti-religious current within a segment of the liberal community that is both an important political fact and a potential problem for progressives.

Here’s the challenge: Americans who are left-of-center are far more religiously diverse than their opponents on the conservative side. When it comes to matters of faith, liberals and Democrats have a far more complicated task of coalition management — although religion also raises some serious difficulties for the right.

Consider the findings of a survey (in which I was involved) released last month by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution. Using the answers to a wide variety of questions, we created a scale that broke our respondents into four groups: Religious conservatives, moderates, progressives and the nonreligious.

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20130804-exposing-the-myths-of-faith-in-political-parties.ece

[gopiscrap]

1. Yup my faith has always

swayed my political thoughts except in the area of separation of chruch and state