Pew: Race Divides Democrat Party on Faith and Marriage

The Pew Research Center asserts that while partisanship appears to be the largest factor dividing Americans’ political views, perhaps surprisingly, the Democrat party is divided by race, especially where faith and marriage are concerned.

“[B]lack Democrats [are] much more likely than white Democrats to associate belief in God with morality and less likely to say that same-sex marriage has been good for society,” Pew observed in a report on a survey of 9,895 U.S. adults, conducted September 3-15.

The report continued:

Black Democrats have long been more likely than white Democrats to describe themselves as Christian and to attend religious services more frequently.

These differences are reflected in sharp divides between black and white Democrats and Democratic leaners in opinions related to faith and religion. White Democrats are nearly twice as likely as black Democrats to say that it is not necessary to believe in God in order for a person to be moral (89% vs. 44%).

When it comes to issues of faith and marriage, Pew noted the views of black Democrats are more similar to those of Republicans than to white Democrats.

Among Republicans surveyed, 53 percent said belief in God is not necessary for morality, while 46 percent said faith is necessary:

On the issue of marriage, black and white Democrats show great discrepancies in views of same-sex marriage.

Of those surveyed, 88 percent of white Democrats said the legalization of same-sex marriage is a positive social value, while only 52 percent of black Democrats voiced the same view.

Many leaders of the black church, for example, for whom faith in God and traditional marriage between one man and one woman are primary values, support President Donald Trump, whose administration has made religious liberty a central focus.

In a press statement this week, Rev. Bill Owens, president of the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP), spoke in support of Trump as Democrats in Congress seek his impeachment.

Owens, who with his wife, Deborah, coauthored A Dream Derailed: How the Left Hijacked Civil Rights to Create a Permanent Underclass, said:

We are closing 2019 with an opportunity to make a firm stand against the hatred of President Donald Trump by political rivals and many of their constituents. This is a dark day in America, but we can overcome it. I am calling on Black Americans and all Americans to stand up against this hate-filled agenda. Stand up for what is right and fair. Refuse to join the hate crowd, and support President Donald Trump and his positive agenda.

The Church of God in Christ (COGIC), one of the largest historically black Protestant churches in the U.S., also recently announced it had unanimously passed a resolution that affirms the value and dignity of all human life and condemns elective abortion – an issue highly associated with faith values.

Timothy Head, executive director of the Faith & Freedom Coalition and Rev. Dean Nelson, executive director of Human Coalition Action, noted at the Washington Examiner:

Something remarkable just happened in St. Louis that you probably didn’t hear about. The Church of God in Christ, a seven-million-member black denomination, unanimously passed a historic resolution affirming the value and dignity of every human life and opposing the practice of elective abortion in America.

A key excerpt from the Resolution on the Sanctity of Human Life reads:

COGIC is one of the largest historically black Protestant denominations, which also include the National Baptist Convention, the National Baptist Convention of America, the Progressive National Convention, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Like these other groups, COGIC does not have a history of institutional involvement with causes typically associated with the Republican Party. Yet given the direction that abortion policy is moving in this country, its leaders felt compelled to act.

Owens told Breitbart News that abortion has “decimated the black community and is in opposition to our faith.”

“But the left supports unlimited abortion policies that have led to black babies being aborted more than any other group,” he observed.

While white and black Democrats still largely agree on a greater amount of government intervention to solve America’s problems, the issues of faith, life, and marriage loom large as the Democratic National Committee (DNC) recently made a pointed effort to not only embrace secularism in the United States, but even to belittle Americans of faith.

In August, the DNC resolved that 70 percent of “religiously unaffiliated” Americans share the values of the party.

‘The religiously unaffiliated demographic represents the largest religious group within the Democratic Party, growing from 19% in 2007 to one in three today,” stated the resolution, passed during the DNC’s summer meeting in San Francisco.

In a reach for secularists or the nonreligious, the Democrats pointed out “religiously unaffiliated Americans overwhelmingly share the Democratic Party’s values, with 70% voting for Democrats in 2018, 80% supporting same-sex marriage, and 61% saying immigrants make American society stronger.”

The DNC further embraced and defended the nonreligious, asserting they “have often been subjected to unfair bias and exclusion in American society, particularly in the areas of politics and policymaking where assumptions of religiosity have long predominated.”

The Democrats continued by demeaning Americans of faith, referring to them as “those most loudly claiming that morals, values, and patriotism must be defined by their religious views.”

Further, the DNC said religious Americans have “used those religious views with misplaced claims of ‘religious liberty,’ to justify public policy that has threatened the civil rights and liberties of many Americans, including but not limited to the LGBT community, women” and others.

The DNC concluded that since “nonreligious Americans made up 17% of the electorate in 2018,” they also “have the potential to deliver millions more votes for Democrats in 2020 with targeted outreach to further increase turnout of nonreligious voters.”

Two recent polls showed that 34 percent of black likely voters approve of Trump’s presidency. This outcome is boosted further by polls showing black Americans also sharply disagree with the Democrat party on the issue of school choice.

A poll released in August by Education Next found black Democrats approve of targeted vouchers, universal vouchers, and charter schools at 70 percent, 64 percent, and 55 percent, respectively.

Another poll, commissioned by school choice proponents Democrats for Education Reform, found 81 percent of Democrat primary voters, including 89 percent of black Democrat primary voters, support a proposal to “expand access to more choices and options within the public-school system,” including charter schools, which are funded with taxpayer dollars but operated by private boards.

“It’s no mystery why black voters are leaving the far-left’s agenda,” asserted Owens in the release, adding:

President Trump asked black voters to give him a chance … and we did. Now, he’s delivering on his promises and gaining more support. The economy is doing well, black unemployment is at its lowest level yet, and he is protecting religious freedom. Based on the conversations we’ve had with other black voters, I suspect his support is even higher than the polls indicate.

Owens told Breitbart News that the left-wing activists who have taken over the Democrat party are taking black voters for granted.

“The black church has long been the center of the black community,” he said. “But leftists are now actively trying to push Christians out of the public square. When they’re not trying to silence us, they’re mocking us or our values.”