Losing My Republican Religion

It appears gays aren't the big boogie men that Republicans are hoping for:

WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign today released a new nationwide poll that shows the aggressively coordinated attempts by anti-gay right-wing leaders and anti-gay groups to brand the Mark Foley scandal as a gay issue are a resounding failure.

The new, nationwide poll shows that, by a 2-to-1 margin, voters believe that “this type of behavior is typical of politicians” over “this type of behavior is typical of gay men.” The poll also showed support for either civil unions or marriage for same-sex couples at 66 percent, which is consistent with other polls on the same question.

For the record: Human Rights Campaign is a pro-gay organization. The poll leans 27 to 22 Democratic. The sampling is rather small. There is a 34 to 25 conservative to liberal advantage. The poll reflects people's cynicism with politicians. Nothing surprising about that. What is interesting is that 48 percent of those polled were not evangelical or fundamentalists. A Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey sheds some light on this.

A national survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life on Aug. 24 shows ambivalence about the relationship of religion to politics and social issues, and unhappiness with extreme positions. The public is not polarized into liberal and conservative camps, the poll suggests, but yearns to find middle ground on contentious social issues.

There is distress about both ends of the political spectrum: 49 percent of American adults say conservatives are too assertive about trying to impose their religious values on the nation, yet 69 percent say liberals go too far in trying to keep religion out of schools and government.

Americans want to seek spirituality in it's many forms. Just not with politics involved.