They “have a way of talking to each other in which they can reinforce a cultural identity that becomes unquestioned.”
By Yonat Shimron
National Reporter and Senior Editor
Religion News Service
Should America be a nation made up of people from a wide variety of religions?
A growing number of religious and non-religious Americans say yes, according to a new study from Public Religion Research Institute.
But there’s one religious group that stands out: White evangelical Christians; 57% indicate they’d prefer the U.S. be a nation primarily made up of people who follow the Christian faith. Only 13% of white evangelicals say they prefer the U.S. to be made up of people belonging to a wide variety of religions. The remaining 30% fell in between.
“On this question, there is really more going on than politics,” said Robert P. Jones, PRRI’s CEO. “One relatively small but powerful group is willing to live in a mostly Christian country. Everybody else is somewhere quite different.”
Their preference for Christianity comes up again in relation to Islam. Seventy-five percent of white evangelicals say the values of Islam are at odds with American values and ways of life — significantly more than any other U.S. religious group (white Catholics were the next, at 58%).