More than Half of U.S. Republicans want to make Christianity the National Religion

By Alison Lesley --
03 Mar 2015 --

In blatant disregard of the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of religion, more than half (57%) of Christian Republicans in the U.S. are in favor of establishing Christianity as the national religion for the United States.

While America’s Founders may have had very clear ideas about the separation of church and state, apparently the majority Christian Republicans favor turning the U.S. into a theocracy. On the other side of the equation, there were roughly three in ten Christian Republicans who were against establishing Christianity as the national religion, while about one in eight (13%) said they were unsure. According to the Bill of Rights, the U.S. government is expressly prohibited from favoring one religion over any other and must not prohibit “the free exercise thereof.”

The poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, found that women were more amenable to Christianity being established as the national religion, with a full two-thirds (66%) giving an affirmative response. In contrast, men were less likely to respond in the affirmative, with only 49% saying that the establishment of Christianity was a good idea.

@RichardDawkins How scary is this? 30% of Republicans polled oppose establishing Christianity as US national religion pic.twitter.com/j4X88XCF1S
— Todd Stiefel (@ToddStiefel) February 28, 2015

Religion was not the only subject respondents were asked about. Science was a hot topic, with only 27% of self-identified Tea Party Republicans embracing the scientifically valid theory of evolution. Overall, 37% of all respondents were amenable to the theory of evolution, while a shocking 49% did not believe it was valid. Among Tea Party members, more than 60% rejected Charles Darwin’s theory outright.

Climate change was also viewed as false by two-thirds of respondents, only about a quarter of the respondents said climate change was occurring. More than nine in ten Tea Party members deny that climate change is taking place, despite a resounding consensus within the scientific community.