Tag: catholics
New ‘Democracy Corps’ Poll: GOP Civil War Is An Opportunity For Democrats

New ‘Democracy Corps’ Poll: GOP Civil War Is An Opportunity For Democrats

A new poll from Democracy Corps, a Democratic non-profit political polling and consulting firm run by James Carville and Stanley Greenberg, reveals that Donald Trump’s supposedly universal support among the Republican base might have quite a few holes in it, especially among more centrist voters.

The poll looked at likely Republican voters as they belonged to one of four groups: the Tea Party, observant Catholics, moderates, and Evangelicals.

Asked to describe their feelings towards various political figures by assigning them a number, likely Tea Party and Evangelical voters favored Donald Trump +40 and +16, respectively, while observant Catholics and moderates responded, on average, -26 and -25.

Only 45 percent of moderates and 65 percent of observant Catholics said they would vote for Donald Trump in a hypothetical general election match up against Hillary Clinton, compared to 81 percent of Evangelicals and 81 percent of Tea Partiers. 9 percent of moderates and 5 percent of observant Catholic respondents said they would vote for Hillary Clinton in such a scenario.

Moderate respondents were especially resistant, when asked, to the tone and character of the Trump campaign thus far. If the New York billionaire continues at his current pace, he will almost certainly be the Republican nominee.

“Moderates form 31 percent of the Republican Party base, and they are solidly pro-choice on abortion and hostile to pro-life groups. About one in five are poised to defect from the party,” stated a press release that accompanied the poll.

“The strongest attacks that we tested centered on [Trump’s] character and leadership qualities: that he is an ego-maniac at the expense of the country, that he is disrespectful towards women, and that he cannot be trusted to keep the country safe and handle our nuclear weapons.”

Photo: Donald Trump reacts to supporters as he arrives to a campaign event in Radford, Virginia February 29, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Keane

U.S. Has Become Notably Less Christian, Major Study Finds

U.S. Has Become Notably Less Christian, Major Study Finds

By David Lauter, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. has become significantly less Christian in the last eight years as the share of American adults who espouse no systematic religious belief increased sharply, a major new study found.

For what is likely the first time in U.S. history — certainly the first since the early days of the country — the actual number of American Christians has declined. Christianity, however, remains by far the nation’s dominant religious tradition, according to the new report by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

The rapid increase in the number of adults without ties to traditional religious institutions has strong implications for other social institutions and for politics.

Whether a person attends religious services regularly is among the strongest predictors of how he or she will vote, with traditional religion strongly tied to the Republican Party, at least among white Americans.

The decline in traditional religious belief adds to the demographic challenges facing the GOP, which already faces difficulties because of its reliance on white voters in a country that has grown more racially diverse.

The interaction between religion and politics may work both ways. Some scholars believe that close ties between traditional religion and conservatism, particularly on issues such as same-sex marriage, have led many younger Americans to cut their ties with organized religion.

Almost one in five American adults were raised in a religious tradition but are now unaffiliated, the study found. By contrast, only four percent have moved in the other direction.

Because the U.S. census does not ask questions about religion, the massive religion surveys by the Pew Research Center have become a chief source of information on the U.S. religious landscape.

The current survey questioned 35,071 U.S. adults last summer. Its huge size allows detailed analysis of even fairly small religious groups. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus six-tenths of a percentage point.

The U.S. still remains far more religious than most other economically advanced countries, but the significant increase in the share of Americans who do not follow a traditional religious belief mirrors trends in Europe and elsewhere.

Just short of one in four Americans now describe themselves as being agnostic, atheist, or simply “nothing in particular,” up from roughly one in six in 2007, according to the new study. The ranks of the “nones,” as the study labels them, have grown in large part from people abandoning the religion in which they were raised.

By contrast, Christian ranks have eroded. Roughly 173 million adult Americans identify as Christian, just under 71 percent of the U.S. population. That’s down from 178 million, or 78 percent of the U.S., in 2007. The total U.S. adult population grew by about eight percent during that eight-year period.

Protestants, who once dominated the U.S. population, no longer form a majority, the study found. About 47 percent of the U.S. population identifies with some Protestant denomination, down from just over half in 2007.

The decline has been uneven, with mainline denominations, such as Methodists and Presbyterians, shrinking more quickly than evangelical churches.

Slightly fewer than one in six adult Americans identify with the mainline Protestant churches, according to the survey. Evangelicals, by contrast, make up about one-quarter of the adult U.S. population. They now form a majority among those who identify as Protestant.

Another seven percent of American adults identify with historically black Protestant churches, a share that has remained relatively stable.

Catholics, about one in five Americans, have also seen some decline in numbers since 2007, the study found, although some other studies have found a more recent uptick. Almost 13 percent of American adults are former Catholics — the largest single group of people who have left a faith in which they were raised.

Among non-Christian faiths, Judaism remains the largest in the U.S., although only about two percent of the U.S. population identifies as Jewish. The number is up very slightly from what the survey found in 2007.

Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism each have less than one percent of the U.S. population, although the Muslim and Hindu population have both grown rapidly, reflecting immigration from Asia.

Photo: Mor via Flickr

Appeals Court Hears Arguments From Catholics Against Mandate For Contraceptive Coverage

Appeals Court Hears Arguments From Catholics Against Mandate For Contraceptive Coverage

By David G. Savage, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Even as the Supreme Court considers one challenge to the Obama administration’s rule that female employees be offered health plans that include a full range of contraceptives, lawyers for the several prominent Catholic groups are seeking to set up a potential Round 2 in the fight.

In arguments Thursday before a U.S. appeals court, lawyers for the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington clashed with administration attorneys over whether Catholic schools, colleges and charities should have a complete religious exemption from the contraceptive mandate included in President Barack Obama’s health-care law.

For now, the legal fight between religious freedom and women’s health is being played out in a friendly forum for the administration. The three-judge panel had two new Obama appointees: Judges Nina Pillard and Robert Wilkins.

But theirs will not be the final decision. That is likely to come from Supreme Court, probably next year.

The justices heard arguments in March over whether private companies may refuse to pay for contraceptives if their owners cite a religious objection. A decision in that case, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, is due by late June.

But separately, dozens of religiously affiliated nonprofit groups, including schools and colleges, have sued and raised a somewhat different challenge.

Rules issued under the Affordable Care Act in effect create three groups of companies and institutions. Most employers, including those such as Hobby Lobby whose owners have strong religious beliefs, are fully covered by the mandate to provide a full range of contraceptive devices. At the other end of the spectrum, churches are entirely exempt.

A third category, which includes religious nonprofit groups, like Catholic schools and colleges, falls in between. Under a compromise offered by the administration last year, those employers need not pay for contraceptives, but are required to sign a form to certify that they have a religious objection. Insurers, not the employer, would pay for the contraceptive coverage in those cases.

For now, that requirement has been put on hold for most Catholic institutions. On New Year’s Eve, Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an order temporarily shielding the Little Sisters of the Poor from complying with the regulation, and other justices handed down similar orders.

The Catholic groups say that even signing a form goes too far. Doing so would “make them morally complicit” in violating Catholic doctrine, attorney Noel Francisco told the judges, because their insurers would then step in.

The judges said they had no doubt the Catholic leaders had a sincere religious objection to providing contraceptives. However, they did not seem persuaded that the bishops’ claim met a key test in federal law — whether religious freedom was being placed under a “substantial burden” by the administration’s plan.

“Even writing a letter to the secretary to opt out? You would object to that as well?” asked Judge Judith W. Rogers, a Clinton appointee.

“Yes, if their employees get the contraceptive coverage,” answered Robert Muise, a Michigan attorney who represented Priests for Life, one of the several groups challenging the requirement.

The two sides sounded far apart, and the outcome could potentially affect tens of thousands of employees in schools, colleges and hospitals.

But at other moments, the dispute seemed to turn on a minor matter of paperwork. The attorney for the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said he would have “no problem” with a system that allowed female employees, rather than their employers, to sign a form telling the government and an insurer that they wanted contraceptive coverage. This could achieve the same end, but the church officials would have no part in arranging the coverage.

Photo: OZinOH via Flickr 

Want more Obamacare analysis? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! 

Obama Meets With Pope Francis For The First Time At The Vatican

Obama Meets With Pope Francis For The First Time At The Vatican

By Kathleen Hennessey, Tribune Washington Bureau

VATICAN CITY — Greeting a man he calls an “inspiration,” President Barack Obama paid his first visit to Pope Francis on Thursday, opening a meeting the White House hopes will highlight the leaders’ shared views on economic inequality and poverty and perhaps drown out the president’s conflicts with the Catholic Church hierarchy at home.

A cordon of Swiss guards greeted the president in a modest Vatican courtyard behind St. Peter’s Basilica as he arrived for his first encounter with a man whose popularity and international fame match few figures, one of those, perhaps, being Obama himself — five years ago.

“It is a great honor. I’m a great admirer,” Obama said to the pontiff as he arrived Thursday morning. “Thank you so much for receiving me.”

Obama and the pope met privately for about 50 minutes. The president was joined by Secretary of State John F. Kerry and his national security advisor, Susan Rice, as well as a small group of top aides.

The White House views the meeting as a chance to align the president with Francis and his focus on economic justice.

The pope’s emphasis on inclusion and the Church’s positions on economic issues have impressed him, Obama has said, putting the president in the ranks of many left-leaning Americans who have cheered the new tone coming from the Vatican in the year since Francis became pope.

The president has publicly associated himself with Francis’ message several times in recent months. He’s referred to the pope in speeches, most notably an address on income inequality Obama delivered last fall.

Obama explained the choice in a written interview with an Italian newspaper published Thursday.

“Given his great moral authority, when the pope speaks, it carries enormous weight,” Obama told Corriere della Sera. “He doesn’t just proclaim the Gospel, he lives it. We’ve all been moved by his humility and acts of mercy. His deeds, the simple act of reaching out to the least of these, is a reminder that every one of us has an individual responsibility to live in a righteous way.”

Despite the admiration, this is the first time Obama has met or spoken to the pope. Obama met with Pope Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, at the Vatican in 2009. He noted the meeting as he arrived Thursday.

“I bring greetings from my family,” the president said. “The last time I came here to meet your predecessor I was able to bring my wife and children.”

During Pope Benedict’s tenure, Obama, who is not Catholic, rarely aligned himself with the church. His most public dealings with the hierarchy involved contentious fights with American archbishops over abortion rights, contraception and religious freedom.

The U.S. bishops have waged a pitched fight against elements of Obama’s signature healthcare law, saying it forces Catholic institutions to pay for contraception for employees in violation of Church doctrine.

Even on economics, there are clear limits to Obama’s agreement with the pope, a Jesuit who spent most of his career in Latin America. Francis has spoken out against the perils of globalization and “throw away” culture. Obama’s regularly preaches the virtues of capitalism and free trade.

In the interview, Obama acknowledged the differences. “It doesn’t mean we agree on every issue, but his voice is one that I think the world needs to hear. He challenges us.”

AFP Photo/Saul Loeb