Republicans Seen as the Friendliest Towards Religion

Forty-eight percent view Republicans as friendly to religion and 12 percent as unfriendly, with 29 percent describing the GOP's attitude as neutral. Thirty-seven percent say the Obama administration is friendly to religion, 36 percent say it is neutral and 17 percent say it is unfriendly. Obama does better than the Democrats as a whole. Twenty-nine percent say the party is friendly to religion, 22 percent say it is unfriendly, and 39 percent say it is neutral.

The news media, scientists and Hollywood dwell at the bottom of this list.

Only 14 percent think the news media is friendly to religion while 35 percent call it unfriendly and 42 percent classify it as neutral. Twelve percent regard scientists as friendly, 35 percent say they are unfriendly and 42 percent call them neutral. Eleven percent see Hollywood as friendly to religion, 47 percent call it unfriendly and 34 percent say it is neutral.

Pew notes that the perceptions of Democrats on religion "have soured sharply" among Republicans and white evangelical
Protestants, but have also turned negative among independents and Democrats who describe themselves as moderate or conservative.

"For Obama as well as for both political parties, being viewed as friendly toward religion is closely associated with popularity generally," Pew said. "Among those who say the Obama administration is friendly toward religion, fully three-quarters approve of the job he is doing (77 percent), compared with half of those who say the administration is neutral toward religion (51 percent) and a scant 7 percent of those who say it is unfriendly. More than eight-in-ten of those who say the Obama administration is unfriendly toward religion disapprove of his job performance."

A Washington Post poll on the views of Republicans published Monday asked those surveyed if they would rather see a greater influence of religion on public life, about the same or less. Forty-eight percent said greater, 34 percent said about the same and 17 percent said less.