These are the unanswered, possibly unanswerable, questions in a new report released today based on surveys analyzing the mid-term elections by the Public Religion Research Institute and The Brookings Institution.
Religion was not a major factor in the economics-dominated vote but views on God, faith, politics, moral issues in the public square and on Islam still have significant impact. And for President Obama, the results track a potentially troubling faith-gap between him and most Americans, a "religion dilemma," the report says.
Most Americans (51%) say President Obama has religious beliefs somewhat or very different than their own while 40% say their views are somewhat or very similar, according to the American Values Survey of 1,494 Americans by the PRRI.
If he does mention his strong Christian faith, he is attacked for being arrogant because a "real Christian" has "no need" to proclaim his faith to others, or people simply don't believe him.
Obama has been dogged by criticism about his faith since he took office. A poll released in late August showed that a growing number of Americans — one in five, up from one in ten in March — say he is a Muslim.
When asked if he prays himself, the president said: "I do. Every night."
He also says that he reads the Bible, and, asked to explain why so many Americans deny that he is a Christian, blamed the internet.
"Well, you know, the Internet has a powerful effect these days, and so, the way rumors can take on a life of their own ends up being very powerful," he said.
Millions of our friends and neighbors will hate Obama no matter what he does. I honestly don't understand how he copes with it, and I'm a large African-American man who has seen more than his fair share of irrational hatred growing up in North Carolina. When before has our President ever, every had his faith so openly questioned as being the enemy? Even our first Catholic President, John F Kennedy, was able to put aside criticisms of his faith.
People keep telling me Obama's race has nothing to do with it. And no offense, but every person I've heard that from happens to be white.
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4 comments:
How quickly they've all forgotten what they did to Rev. Jeremiah Wright! Before Obama "was a Muslim," he was way too Christian for the likes of our insipid media.
I remember the right-wingers getting the Bush DOJ after the United Church of Christ's tax-exempt status for inviting Senator Obama to a synod session of people from various walks of life speaking on "how my UCC Christian faith affects my work."
Some people have such short attention spans that I wonder how they find their way home from the grocery store.
He should once and for all admit what he really is. And that is an aethist.
While I would love an atheist president... I am smelling moron off of you.
doesn't make any difference who's in the white house, if it isn't a republican, then large numbers of republicans will have brazenly idiotic ideas about that person. they're just a bunch of crazy sore losers. yes, obama's blackness does bother them, but it's the fact that he's president that really bothers them. if hillary had ended up in the oval office, there'd be a poll showing nearly half the public believing that she's a devil-worshipping lesbian or some other such nonsense. dumb douchebags.
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