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News & Reporting

October 28, 2020

The following article is located at: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2007/september/137-11.0.html

News & Reporting, September 2007

Will Iraq Trump Abortion for Evangelical Voters?

Plus: Taliban kidnapper killed in battle, Bynum files for divorce, rounding up the Mother Teresa commentaries, and other stories from online sources around the world.

Compiled by Ted Olsen | posted September 10, 2007

Today's Top Five

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 ...

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