You simply cannot get it all in one story. That was surely the case with an opinion poll on religion and politics conducted in late June and early July by the Pew Research Center and Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Widespread reports of the poll focused, reasonably enough, on two subjects: Americans' increasingly critical view of Islam and increasingly favorable view of gay marriage.
The number of Americans believing that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its adherents has grown sharply over the last year, even though the favorable view of Muslim-Americans remains little changed.
Although 53 percent of the sample continued to oppose gay marriage, compared with 38 percent in favor, that opposition has declined from 65 percent seven years ago. (But a more recent Gallup poll, reported in The Washington Post on Thursday, suggested that this trend may have reversed itself somewhat since the Supreme Court's ruling on June 26 striking down a Texas antisodomy law.)
The Pew findings were based on telephone interviews, conducted from June 24 to July 8, of a nationwide representative sample of 2002 American adults. The margin of error was said to be plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for questions asked the whole sample, and plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for questions only asked half the sample.
Not only did the findings deserve headlines, the Pew poll offered valuable details to aid much needed analysis. For example, some Muslim leaders blamed negative statements by conservative Christian leaders for the shift in perceptions of Islam. But the poll showed that white Catholics had shifted in their views as much as white evangelicals — and that people identified as "seculars," not the sort to be captivated by Pat Robertson or the Rev. Jerry Falwell, had shifted even more.
Less frequently noted in news reports was the finding that few Americans were distressed at political leaders' God-talk. In fact, the poll's sponsors point out, "nearly twice as many say there has been too little reference to religious faith and prayer by politicians (41 percent) than say there has been too much (21 percent)."
Almost two-thirds of the sample thought President Bush mentions his faith "about the right amount," compared with the 14 percent who said "too much."
But how do Americans react when faced not with a question about political leaders' use of religious references in general but with an actual example, like Attorney General John Ashcroft's declaration, "Unique among nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal"?
The poll asked whether respondents were "comfortable or uncomfortable" with that statement and three others. Half of the sample were told the source of each statement, and half were not. The only statement getting more "uncomfortable" (49 percent) than "comfortable" (44 percent) responses was "I have never believed the Constitution required our schools to be religion-free zones. . . ."
But among those informed that the source of this statement was President Bill Clinton, the reaction was quite different: 59 percent comfortable, 34 percent uncomfortable.
The findings are rich in unnoticed gems, about physician-assisted suicide, whether reporters should question political candidates about religious beliefs, and which parties and groups are seen as friendly, unfriendly or neutral toward religion.
It is fun to discover that 33 percent of the public thought Jesus would not drive a sport utility vehicle, while 29 percent thought he would, 31 percent offered no opinion and 7 percent volunteered the reply that he would not drive, but walk.
It is perhaps more valuable to discover that almost three out of four people either "completely" or "mostly" agree that "the government should guarantee health insurance for all citizens, even if it means repealing most of the tax cuts passed under President Bush." Yet it may be even more interesting that a healthy majority of Americans call this "a moral issue" compared with the 33 percent who see it as "strictly a political issue."
Possibly the most intriguing finding to go largely unreported was what the pollsters called "an important and often overlooked fact of American politics: African-Americans and white evangelical Christians are remarkably similar in their views about the role of religion in politics, yet they come to sharply different partisan conclusions."
Two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants think that churches should weigh in on day-to-day social and political issues. An even higher percentage of black Protestants agree. Similar percentages of the two groups would like to see more religious leaders serving as advisers to elected officials.
African-American Protestants come second only to white evangelicals — and well ahead of other groups — in saying that they frequently rely on their religious beliefs in deciding how to vote. The two groups line up the same way in expressing reluctance to vote for an atheist for president and in viewing Israel as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy about the second coming of Jesus. White evangelicals and African-Americans are the two groups whose views on gay marriage have remained virtually unchanged.
However, these shared religious starting points don't prevent white evangelicals and African-Americans from reaching sharply different conclusions about specific political policies. Regarding the death penalty, they are at opposite ends of the spectrum of opinion. Black Americans divide their sympathies between Israel and the Palestinians much as Catholics and mainline Protestants do and not at all like evangelicals.
Of course African-Americans and white evangelicals part company in attitudes toward President Bush and his Republican administration.
Perhaps most revealingly, where 78 percent of white evangelical Protestants said that President Bush relies on his religious beliefs "about the right amount" in charting his policies, 56 percent of African-American Protestants said Mr. Bush relies on his religious beliefs "too little."
Once again, one sees the distinction between general attitudes toward the role of religion in politics, on the one hand, and the practical political positions that may begin in religion but are inevitably shaped by different groups' historical experiences and consequent interpretations of their faith.
No one addressing the legitimate role of religions in American political life can ignore this pattern, among white evangelical and African-American Protestants, of parallel religious convictions but clashing political conclusions.