Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the findings of a new survey published by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life:
Only 35 percent of the American people think the Democratic Party is “friendly to religion,” while 54 percent say the Republicans are. When asked specifically about the Obama administration, 39 percent see it as “friendly,” and 23 percent see it as “unfriendly.” But in 2009, only 17 percent said the administration was “unfriendly to religion.”
The big problem for Obama is with Catholics, especially white Catholics. The percent of Catholics who say the administration is “unfriendly to religion” has jumped in the past three years from 15 percent to 25 percent. Among white Catholics, the percent who say the administration is “unfriendly” has gone from 17 percent to 31 percent.
It is not hard to fathom why the Obama administration is having a hard time with Catholics. After all, it is trying to force its secular agenda down their throat by making those who work in Catholic non-profit groups pay for abortion-inducing drugs in their insurance premiums.
Moreover, the administration recently denied funding to a Catholic social service agency that helps women and children merely because it is pro-life. Obama has appointed people such as Kathleen Sebelius to his cabinet, even though she has been at war with the Catholic Church for decades. He tried to get a big post for a woman who once worked on an ACLU lawsuit trying to strip the Catholic Church of its tax-exempt status. He hosted a forum for some of the biggest Catholic bashers in the nation when he welcomed the Secular Coalition for America in 2010. He has opposed school choice—vouchers for indigent parents to send their children to a parochial school—while funding the “choice” of aborting their babies. The list is endless.
Everyone knows that Protestants vote Republican and Jews vote Democrat. It’s Catholics who are up for grabs.
