Religion Redux: Faithful *less* bitter

Obama’s ‘bitter people clinging to religion’ comments yielded some interesting discussion in the media (and, I might add, in our household). Many pundits (and Americans, especially Democrats) defended the remarks, claiming that there was a lot of truth to his comments, that people were turning to religion and other traditions out of bitterness or disillusionment, financial and otherwise.

Rasmussen, not to be outdone, asked 1000 adults how important ‘faith and religion’ are to their lives. 80% said very or somewhat important, only 8% said ‘not at all important.’ Interestingly, the financially-secure, content people were MORE likely to be religious (so much for the theory that religion is the last resort of bitter, government-neglected losers.)

	Finances improving	Finances getting worse
How important is religion?	67% very important	55% very important
Attend church/worship?	51% attend once/week	31% attend once/week
Read Bible	58% read weekly or more	56% rarely or never read
	Not worried about job loss	Worried about job loss
How important is religion?	58% very important	47% very important
	Employer growing	Employer shrinking
Attend church/worship?	45% attend once/week	22% attend once/week

I'm not out to convert anyone (except, perhaps to McCainism!). But Americans deserve to know that their religious compatriots are actually more upbeat than less observant neighbors. Maybe Obama should start attending his church after all.