Survey: ‘No’ to official religion

Sat., Aug. 7, 2004

Religion News Service

The vast majority of Americans oppose the removal of the Ten Commandments from public buildings and “In God We Trust” from U.S. currency. But most also oppose the idea of making Christianity the country’s official religion, a new survey shows.

Sixty-six percent of Americans oppose “a constitutional amendment to establish Christianity as the official religion of the United States,” according to a poll by the Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif., consulting firm.

In other findings, 79 percent rejected the idea of “removing signs that list the Ten Commandments from government buildings,” while 84 percent believe the phrase “In God We Trust” should remain on currency.

Removal of the phrase “one nation, under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance also has little support, with 84 percent of adults surveyed dismissing such a change.

Asked about the teaching of creationism in public schools, 59 percent of adults favor it and 38 percent reject it.

The findings were based on a nationwide telephone survey of 1,618 randomly selected adults in the last week of May. The data had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

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