Nearly half of Americans believe the Bible should influence US laws
Almost half of adults in the United States believe that the Bible should influence the laws, with over a quarter saying that it should overrule the will of the people, according to a new report by the Pew Research Centre. A report by Pew’s Fact Tank published on Monday found that in a survey of American adults, 49 per cent of respondents believe that the Bible should have either “a great deal” or “some” influence on U.S. laws. By contrast, 19 per cent of respondents said they believe that the Bible should have “not much” influence on the laws, while 31 per cent responded “none at all.”
Among those who said the Bible should have “a great deal” or “some” influence on laws, 28 per cent said they believe the Bible should overrule the will of the people when they conflict.
White evangelicals were the religious group most likely to support the Bible having an influence on laws, with 58 per cent of respondents saying it should have “a great deal” of influence and 31 per cent saying it should have “some” influence.
Among white evangelical respondents who supported biblical influence on laws, 68 per cent believe that the Bible should overrule the will of the people when they conflict. This was the group that demonstrated the highest support for such an opinion among all surveyed religious groups. Black Protestants also largely supported biblical influence on laws, with 47 per cent responding with “a great deal” and 29 per cent responding with “some.”
For the report, Pew used data drawn from its American Trends Panel, which was conducted between the 4th to the 15th of February from a sample of 6,395 with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6 percentage points.
Source: christianpost.com
