Americans have serious concerns about the economy – primarily about the lack of jobs (26 percent), the budget deficit (17 percent), rising health care costs (18 percent) and the growing cap between the rich and the poor (15 percent). Nearly 47 percent of American adults say their generation is worse off than the generation before.
A much bigger percentage of the religiously unaffiliated describe the growing gap between the rich and the poor as the country’s most serious economic issue – with 27 percent of unaffiliated saying that, compared with 7 percent of Catholics, 9 percent of white evangelical Protestants and 15 percent of white mainline Protestants.
Those are among the findings of a new survey released July 18 by the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonpartisan group that does research on religion, values and public policy issues.
The institute conducted the telephone survey in partnership with the Brookings Institution, polling just over 2,000 U.S. adults from May 30-June 16 and measuring views on both economic issues and religious identity. The interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
Here are some of the survey’s findings.
Religious identification.Participants were categorized according to a “composite theological orientation scale” measuring these views: holding a personal vs. impersonal view of God; holding a literal versus non-literal view of the Bible or sacred texts; and holding a preservationist versus adaptive view of religious tradition. The survey found that the biggest chunk of Americans (38 percent) are theological moderates, while nearly three in 10 (28 percent) are theological conservatives. About one in five (19 percent) are theological progressives, and 15 percent are nonreligious.
Recent surveys have reported varying results regarding the numbers of religiously unaffiliated.
A 2012 poll from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that over the last five years, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15 percent to just under 20 percent of all U.S. adults — and a third of adults under 30.
Economic identification. Using a composite economic orientation scale – recognizing that some people can tilt one way theologically and another way economically – 25 percent of Americans are economic conservatives, 42 percent are economic moderates and 34 percent are economic liberals.
In religious terms, white evangelical Protestants were more likely than any other group to be economically conservative: 44 percent were economic conservatives and only 18 percent economic liberals. Among black Protestants, more were economically liberal (52 percent) than economically moderate (45 percent), but nearly half (49 percent) are theologically conservative.
White mainline Protestants are fairly evenly divided: about one-third (34 percent) are economic conservatives and 28 percent economic liberals. Among Catholics, 24 percent are economic conservatives and 32 percent economic liberals.
The most economically liberal group is religious Americans from non-Christian traditions. Among that group (including Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus), 45 percent are economic liberals and 18 percent economic conservatives.
Race and ethnicity. The survey found significant variation by race and ethnicity.
- Conservatives: Overall, nearly half of black adults in the United States (49 percent) are theological conservatives, as are 40 percent of whites and 28 percent of Hispanics, the survey reported.
- Moderates: About a third of U.S. blacks (30 percent) are theological moderates, along with a quarter of whites (25 percent) and 38 percent of Hispanics.
- Liberals: Among all three major ethnic groups, those identifying as theologically liberal were fewest in number. They amounted to 23 percent of Hispanics, 18 percent of whites and 14 percent of blacks.
- Nonreligious: Whites were more likely to be characterized as nonreligious (17 percent) than Hispanics (11 percent) or blacks (7 percent).
While religious conservatives now are a larger and more homogenous group than religious progressives, the survey found that religious progressives are a significantly younger and more diverse population: The mean age of progressives is 44 and the mean age of conservatives is 53, compared with the mean age of the general population of 47. Among Millennials (categorized as those ages 18 to 33), the survey found 17 percent are religious conservatives, 23 percent are progressives and 22 percent are nonreligious. (This survey gives different meanings to the terms “theological” and “religious.” The broader “religious” category combines the three scales of theological orientation, economic orientation and social orientation, giving each of the three measures equal weight.)
Religious progressives are also fairly diverse in terms of religious tradition. Among progressives, about three in 10 (29 percent) are Catholic, about two in 10 (19 percent) are white mainline Protestants and 9 percent are black Protestants. About 18 percent of progressives aren’t affiliated with a religious tradition but say religion is at least somewhat important in their lives. About 13 percent come from non-Christian traditions, including Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. Only 4 percent of religious progressives are white evangelical Christians.
Among religious conservatives, more than four in 10 (43 percent) are white evangelical Protestants, 17 percent are Catholics, 15 percent are white mainline Protestants and 8 percent are black Protestants.
Most black Protestants (57 percent) are theological conservatives, as are eight in 10 white evangelical Protestants. White mainline Protestants are fairly divided – with just over a third (36 percent) being theological conservatives and a quarter (25 percent) theological liberals.
Differing views. Religious conservatives and progressives hold differing views on what it means to be a religious person. Nearly eight in 10 (79 percent) of progressives say being a religious person is mostly about doing the right thing, while 16 percent say it is about holding the right beliefs. Among conservatives, more than half (54 percent) say that being a religious person is mostly about holding the right beliefs, and only 38 percent say it’s mostly about doing the right thing.
More than eight of 10 religious conservatives (82 percent) say that if enough people had a personal relationship with God, social problems would take care of themselves. Nearly seven in 10 progressives (68 percent) disagree with that view.
Regarding economic policy and the role of government, the views of religious progressives tend to blend more closely with those of moderates and the nonreligious. The views of religious conservatives are more distinct. For example, about four in 10 (37 percent) of conservatives say the government should do more to reduce the gap between rich and poor – a view held by 69 percent of moderates, 72 percent of the nonreligious and 88 percent of progressives.
Differences also can be seen in political affiliation. Among Republicans, more than half (56 percent) are religious conservatives, one-third (33 percent) moderates, 5 percent progressive and 6 percent nonreligious. For the Democrats, 28 percent are religious progressives, 42 percent moderates, 13 percent conservative and 17 percent nonreligious.
And differences in religious affiliation also correlate with differing views on economic problems and policies. Nearly two-thirds of white Protestant evangelicals (65 percent) and a majority of Catholics (55 percent) agree that family instability and the decline of the two-parent family are primary causes of the nation’s current economic problems. Most white mainline Protestants (54 percent) and nearly two-thirds of religiously unaffiliated Americans (65 percent) disagree.
