Most recent Pew survey sees Americans divided over role of religion in public life
But in rare agreement, vast majority oppose making Christianity the official religion
Slightly more than half of American adults, 52 percent, agree that conservative Christians have gone too far in trying to push their religious values in government and the public schools. And a similar number, 48 percent, say that liberal nonbelievers have gone too far in keeping religious values out of the government and the public square.
So says the most recent survey from the Pew Research Center, which also found that Americans are sharply divided on a variety of issues related to religion and the public square.
Although they are far from unanimous, Americans do reach a consensus of sorts on a few key issues. Only a small minority, 17 percent, for example, say that Christianity should be declared the official religion of the United States. And strong majorities among both Democrats and Republicans don’t want to see churches endorse political candidates.
But on some more general issues related to the role of religion in the country, U.S. adults are more narrowly divided:
🟪 A bit more than half of Americans, 55 percent, see religion has having a general positive view regarding the influence on American life. Almost a fourth, 22 percent, see the influence as negative, with the reminder having divided or undecided views.
🟪 A bit more than half, 51 percent, say that the Bible should have at least some influence on U.S. laws. Nearly all of the remainder, 48 percent, say the Bible should have no or not much influence on laws.
For both of those two questions, there is a strong partisan divide, with Republicans having the far stronger pro-Bible view.
Pew’s numbers are based on a nationally representative survey conducted April 6-12 among 3,592 U.S. adults.
In its report on the survey, Pew highlighted that there is growing familiarity with the term “Christian nationalism,” and that for the first time a majority say they have read or heard about the movement at least a little. Only 40 percent said they had heard nothing at all about the ideology, compared with 54 percent for surveys done in 2022 and 2024.
As more people have become familiar with the term, the numbers of people expressing both positive and negative views of Christian nationalism have grown, Pew noted:
On balance, sentiment toward Christian nationalism remains more negative than positive. Today, 31% of U.S. adults say they have an unfavorable view of Christian nationalism (up 6 percentage points since 2024), while 10% view it favorably (up 5 points).
Pew also highlighted that there is a growing number of Americans, although still a minority, who believe that the role of religion in American life is on the upswing. The survey found that 37 percent see a gaining influence, a figure that ties and is the highest since a survey in 2002 asked a similar question. A majority, 61 percent, see religion losing influence.