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1. What else is in that Pew poll
A survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press made some headlines last week for its findings on which presidential candidates are perceived as religious.

Oddly, nearly a third of voters think that Hillary Clinton is not religious — about twice the percentage of the other candidates (except for Giuliani, whom 23% of voters consider not religious). Oh well, I guess it's not a big surprise that voters are uninformed about the candidates. Take another example from the poll: "Overall, just 22% of the public —and just 31% of Republicans — know that Giuliani is pro-choice," says Pew's report. "Even among Republican and Republican-leaning voters who rate social issues as very important, just 33% are aware of Giuliani's position on abortion." But it may not matter: "Giuliani's favorability rating among social-issue Republican and Republican-leaning voters who are aware that he is pro-choice is not significantly lower than among those who are unaware of his position on abortion (76% vs. 80%)."

Evangelical Protestants are even less informed about Giuliani's stance than the general populace; 21% know he is pro-choice, 6% think he is pro-life, and 71% say they're not sure of his position on the issue.

This may be why Giuliani is polling well among pro-life evangelicals. So does abortion still matter to social-issue voters ("values voters")? Less so, says Pew:

Social issues are lagging in importance among members of both parties. White evangelical Protestants are the only major political or religious group in which a majority (56%) says that social issues like abortion and gay marriage will be very important in their presidential voting decisions. Even among white evangelicals, however, social issues trail domestic matters and the war in Iraq: 72% of white evangelicals cite the economy and other domestic issues as very important, while 66% rate the war in Iraq as very important to their vote.

The poll does have some good news for pro-lifers:

After showing consistent increases between 2002 and 2005, the survey finds that support for stem cell research has declined slightly since then, from a peak of 57% in July 2005 to 51% today. Roughly one-third of the public (35%) opposes stem cell research, saying that protecting the potential life of embryos is more important than conducting the research.

2. Hostages home, but the story continues
There have been some important updates to the story of the South Korean Christian aid workers since their release by their Taliban kidnappers:

• The Korea Times reports that Saemmul Community Church pastor Park Eun-jo tendered his resignation, but that the church rejected it. "He will leave the church for two months to have personal prayer time, according to church members," the paper reported. (Be sure to read our interview with Park if you haven't already.)
  
  
• Saemmul Community Church held a funeral for pastor Bae Hyung-kyu Saturday, with the former hostages in attendance. Bae was deemed a martyr from the pulpit.
  
  
• The Afghan military says it killed Mullah Mateen, a Taliban commander behind the kidnappings.
  
  
• The male hostages were beaten "for refusing to take part in Islamic prayers or for rejecting a demand to convert," according to the chief of the Seoul hospital that treated them after their return. The hospital chief said the men were also beaten for protecting the female hostages, though he downplayed reports that the women had been at risk of sexual assault.
  
  

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September (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51