Many Americans wanted religious institutions involved in politics over the past decade, but a recent study shows that a the majority (52 percent) say churches should keep out.
Among evangelicals, 36 percent say that churches should keep out of politics, a hike from 20 percent who said the same thing in 2004, a study from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows.
The study also shows that 68 percent of evangelicals said they support Sen. John McCain, which is down slightly from the 71 percent of evangelicals that supported President Bush in August 2004.
There has been a lot of talk about the broadening of the “evangelical agenda” since 2004 because evangelicals care about the environment and poverty. The study shows abortion and gay marriage rank fairly low on the “very important” list, but so does the environment, and poverty isn’t listed.
The chart below shows the list of what evangelicals consider “very important” from top to bottom.
