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"<p>On the growing list of ways the &quot;outsiders&quot; election of 2016 is upsetting conventional political wisdom, here&rsquo;s a new entry:</p>\r\n\r\n<p>A contender&rsquo;s lack of strong faith is not the deal breaker it once was for voters, according to a survey released Jan. 27.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>The<a href=\"http://www.pewforum.org/2016/01/27/faith-and-the-2016-campaign/\" target=\"_blank\">&nbsp;&quot;Religion and Politics&quot; survey by Pew Research</a> even finds Americans have a kinder view of atheists as potential presidential timber than before. The share of Americans who said they&rsquo;d be less likely to vote for an atheist is down from 61 percent in August 2007 to 51 percent in the new survey.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>&quot;Religion, by and large, remains an asset for potential political candidates,&quot; said Greg Smith, associate director of research and an author of the Pew report. &quot;Far more people say they&rsquo;d be less likely to vote for a hypothetical candidate who doesn&rsquo;t believe in God than would vote for one that does.&quot;</p>\r\n\r\n<p>Yet they&rsquo;re much less concerned that candidates mirror their own personal religious convictions.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>And that can make a difference for candidates such as Democratic contender <a href=\"http://www.religionnews.com/2015/09/22/5-faith-facts-bernie-sanders-unabashedly-irreligious/\" target=\"_blank\">Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is proudly irreligious</a>, or Republican <a href=\"http://www.religionnews.com/2015/06/16/5-faith-facts-donald-trump-presbyterian-collects-bibles/\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump, who is nominally Presbyterian</a>.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>Past Pew surveys found&nbsp;that&nbsp;7&nbsp;in 10 Americans said it was important that a president have strong religious beliefs. However, the new survey of 2,009 U.S. adults, conducted Jan. 7-14, asked a different, related question instead, said Smith.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>&quot;We asked, &#39;How important is it to you to have a president who shares your religious beliefs?&#39; And that turned up much smaller numbers,&quot; he said. It was very or somewhat important for 64 percent of Republicans but for only 41 percent of Democrats.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>How much a candidate&rsquo;s religion or religiosity matters is only one consideration that people take with them into the caucus room or the voting booth, said Smith. &quot;There are other things they care about more.&quot; Hot topics in the 2016 campaign include the economy, foreign policy, taxes, terrorism and climate change.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>Signs that voters respond to a matrix of issues, not only one, already were evident in 2012, said Smith. Evangelicals, who fretted during the primaries about<a href=\"http://www.pewforum.org/2012/07/26/2012-romney-mormonism-obamas-religion/\" target=\"_blank\"> Gov. Mitt Romney&rsquo;s Mormon faith</a>, set that concern aside to vote for him in the race against Barack Obama, a mainline Protestant.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>Neither do voters care deeply about a candidate&rsquo;s theological sophistication -- whether Trump says &quot;Two Corinthians&quot; instead of Second Corinthians or his rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, admits he failed to tithe, or give 10 percent to charity, like a proper Southern Baptist.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>Trump, as one might expect of the high-profile business magnate with &quot;HUGE&quot; self-regard, breaks new ground in this survey, said Smith.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>He is viewed as a potentially good, even a great, president by many Republicans overall [56 percent], the survey found -- despite a high share of GOP voters who don&rsquo;t see him as religious.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>&quot;Among those Republicans and those who lean toward the GOP who think that Trump is religious, most [73 percent] said he would be a good president. But we can also see lots of Republicans [41 percent] who think Trump would be a good, even a great, president even through they don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s particularly religious,&quot; said Smith.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>&quot;That&rsquo;s a different pattern than you see for any other candidate,&quot; Smith said.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>&quot;Virtually all&quot; Republicans who said Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Marco Rubio or retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson would be successful presidents view these candidates as at least somewhat religious.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>For white evangelicals, the largest single bloc of GOP voters, it&rsquo;s a statistical three-way tie. Roughly 6&nbsp;in 10 see Trump, Cruz and Carson as religious. Only 44 percent say so for <a href=\"http://www.religionnews.com/2015/04/13/five-faith-facts-marco-rubio-catholic-always-catholic/\" target=\"_blank\">Rubio, a Catholic</a> who recently released an ad touting his Christian faith and promoting salvation through Christ.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>However, the report also points out considerable wariness about Trump among evangelicals: 29 percent said he would be a &quot;poor&quot; or &quot;terrible&quot; president, which is roughly twice the share of those who say this about Cruz or Carson.</p>\r\n\r\n<p>Among Democratic front-runners in the 2016 race, the survey came up with some curious findings.</p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>48 percent overall say former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a lifelong active Methodist, is not a religious person. Divided by parties: 65 percent of Democrats think she is at least somewhat religious. But the exact same 65 percent of Republicans say she&rsquo;s not.</li>\r\n\t<li>About two-thirds of Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party say Clinton is very or somewhat religious. Roughly half of Democrats [47 percent] say Sanders is at least somewhat religious.</li>\r\n\t<li>Evangelicals are skeptical of both Clinton and Sanders. Only 16 percent think Sanders would be a good president and 15 percent say so about Clinton. But 74 percent say she&rsquo;d be &ldquo;poor or terrible&rdquo; and 50 percent say Sanders would be equally bad.</li>\r\n\t<li>Both Democrats find their greatest support among &ldquo;nones&rdquo; -- people with no religious identity -- and among black Protestants. Sanders scored a good-or-great rating from 51 percent of nones and 36 percent of black Protestants.&nbsp;By contrast, Clinton drew high praise from 42 percent of nones and 62 percent of black Protestants.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;</p>\r\n"
<https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/voters-warm-candidates-who-are-not-religious>