Note: Full article appears in Newsweek/Washington Post On Faith.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer met with President Obama yesterday to discuss the controversial immigration law (SB 1070) she recently signed. The law would require state law enforcement officers to ask for proof of citizenship from anyone they suspect to be an illegal immigrant, and authorize them to arrest anyone without such proof.  President Obama has said he is troubled by the law, which he called a “misdirected effort,” because it could lead to racial profiling, with one group of Americans being treated differently than others simply because of the way they look.

One little known fact about Gov. Brewer is that as Secretary of State she launched a program in 2003 to establish Arizona as a Golden Rule state, recognizing “those who treat others the way they would like to be treated and who make a difference in Arizona.” At the opening ceremony of the initiative, Brewer handed out Golden Rule marbles, saying “Living the ‘Golden Rule’ really is contagious. The positive effect from just one person living the rule often influences many others to do the same.”

As part of the initiative, Arizona stamped out specialty “Live the Golden Rule” license plates, and Brewer continues to promote the Golden Rule program as governor. Just last month she was honored by the Arizona Interfaith Movement for promoting the Golden Rule in Arizona.  But now, since she signed SB 1070, Bishop Kirk Stevan Smith of the Episcopal Church in Arizona has suggested that Brewer give back the plaque.

Indeed, there is good reason to think that Gov. Brewer may have lost her Golden Rule marbles.

In March 2010, our organization, Public Religion Research Institute-a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization-conducted a nationwide poll on religion, values, and immigration reform. We found Americans strongly supported a comprehensive approach to immigration reform, and also strongly believe that immigration policy and reform should be guided by a set of moral values that include the Golden Rule.   A strong majority of Americans (71%) say following the Golden Rule-”providing immigrants the same opportunity that I would want if my family were immigrating to the U.S.”-is a very or extremely important moral guide for immigration reform.  A commitment to this value carries across partisan lines: nearly two-thirds (65%) of Republicans, 72% of Independents, and 75% of Democrats support the Golden Rule as a very important guide for immigration reform.

See Newsweek/Washington Post “On Faith” for the rest of the article.

New Poll, Focus Groups: Strong Support for Comprehensive Immigration Reform in Ohio, Arkansas Across Religious Lines

New polling finds increase in optimism following health care reform passage
Full Reports available here.

A national re-contact survey and three state-level reports released today show strong support for immigration reform among residents of Ohio and Arkansas. “Like Americans overall, Ohio and Arkansas residents support a comprehensive approach to immigration reform by approximately a 2-to-1 margin,” said Dr. Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, which conducted the studies. Jones also noted that this strong support persists despite higher anxiety among Ohioans and Arkansans about economic vulnerability and competition with illegal immigrants for jobs. These state-level findings are generally consistent with findings from Public Religion Research Institute’s national survey on religion, values, and immigration reform, which was released in March. The national re-contact survey following up on the survey released last month found a significant increase in satisfaction with the direction of the country at the national and state levels, compared to attitudes prior to the passage of health care reform.

In addition to the state-level poll reports, an analysis of four focus groups among politically moderate white Protestant and Catholic voters in Columbus, Ohio, showed significant differences among Catholic and Protestant participants – with Catholics more strongly connecting to their families’ own immigration experience and holding more sympathetic views toward the challenges facing immigrants today.

Re-contact Survey

PRRI conducted a short re-contact survey March 31-April 5, 2010, with participants of the original national and state surveys on attitudes toward immigrants and immigration reform that were fielded March 5-11, 2010. The purpose of the re-contact survey was to assess whether the passage of comprehensive health care reform on March 21, 2010 had influenced public attitudes about the direction of the country and support for Congress tackling immigration reform this year.

• We found a significant increase in satisfaction with the direction of the country, compared to attitudes prior to the passage of health care reform. While nearly two-thirds (64%) of Americans remain dissatisfied with the direction of the country, we found a significant 9-point increase (from 20% to 29%) in the number of Americans who said they were satisfied with the direction of the country.
• Consistent with previous findings, the public remains evenly divided about whether Congress should tackle immigration reform this year.

State Poll Results

Residents of Ohio and Arkansas are more likely than Americans nationwide to report being in fair or poor shape economically and to have a negative view of the contributions of immigrants. Ohio and Arkansas residents are also more likely than the general public to believe illegal immigrants take jobs that American workers want – a view held by 58% of Arkansas residents and 56% of Ohioans, but only 48% of Americans generally.

In spite of these more negative attitudes, residents of Ohio and Arkansas, like Americans generally, agree on the importance of a set of values—including protecting human dignity and keeping families together—that should guide reform, and residents of both states overwhelmingly support an earned path to citizenship for illegal immigrants:

• Overwhelming majorities of Ohio and Arkansas residents say enforcing the rule of law and protecting national security (87% and 88% respectively), ensuring fairness to taxpayers (80% and 89%), keeping families together (79% and 80%), and protecting the dignity of every person (78% and 81%) are very or extremely important values that should guide immigration reform.
• Nearly 9-in-10 Arkansas and Ohio residents, like Americans overall, support an earned path to citizenship for illegal immigrants (85% Ohio, 87% Arkansas, and 86% America), which is one of the key provisions of comprehensive immigration reform.
• Like Americans generally, Ohio residents favor comprehensive immigration reform over more limited enforcement-oriented alternatives by approximately 2-to-1, and Arkansas residents favor comprehensive reform by nearly the same margin. When asked to choose between a description of comprehensive reform and an argument that illegal immigrants should not be rewarded with amnesty or taxpayer-funded social services, 66% of Ohioans choose comprehensive reform with an earned path to citizenship, compared to 25% who embrace the opposing position. Fifty-seven percent of Arkansans choose comprehensive reform with an earned path to citizenship, compared to 30% who embrace the opposing position.

The Ohio and Arkansas survey reports also examine differences in attitudes toward immigration and approaches to immigration reform across lines of religion, gender, income, and educational attainment.

Catholic-Protestant Focus Groups: Ellis Island vs. Home Depot

The Ohio focus groups among white moderate voters demonstrated significant differences in attitudes toward immigration between Catholics, whose initial impressions were mostly positive and grounded in their own families’ immigration stories, and Protestants, whose initial impressions of immigrants were more likely to be negative and associated with images like day laborers looking for work at a Home Depot parking lot. Other findings from the focus group report:

• Lack of knowledge and the power of stories. Participants across all groups were quick to say that they believed the current immigration system was broken, but they had little concrete knowledge of how it was broken. When participants heard stories about hardships of becoming a citizen, ideas shifted in a more supportive direction.
• Openness to clergy leadership in the appropriate setting. Nearly all participants were wary of hearing about a political issue such as immigration reform from the pulpit, but they were open to clergy leadership in discussion or informational settings. Very few had heard anything about immigration reform at church, and nearly all were unaware of any official position of their denomination on the issue.
• Concerns about commitment of contemporary immigrants to the U.S. Moderate religious voters are not fully convinced that, given the opportunity, illegal immigrants would fully invest in a path to citizenship and “put out their whole being” into being here. These participants see the willingness to learn English both as an important policy point and as a proxy of immigrants’ commitment to investing in the U.S.

About the Survey and Focus Groups

PRRI’s nationwide telephone survey of 1,201 Americans (1,047 voters), along with two state surveys of Ohio (n=402) and Arkansas (n=402) residents, was conducted March 5–11, 2010. PRRI also conducted a brief re-contact survey March 31-April 5, 2010, with participants of the original national and state surveys. The focus group report analyzes four focus groups held in the greater Columbus, Ohio, area on January 28, 2010, among politically moderate white Christian voters who attend religious services at least once or twice per month. Two groups were comprised of self-identified Protestants, and two groups were comprised of self-identified Catholics. The study was sponsored by the Ford Foundation.

A new article by the Oregonian profiles a new survey conducted by Public Religion Research on the issue of torture among southern white evangelicals.

Torture and Evangelicals: Faith takes a back seat
By Tom Krattenmaker

The new findings about evangelicals and torture certainly won’t help in that regard. Commissioned by Mercer University and the Washington-based Faith in Public Life, and conducted by Public Religion Research, the survey finds that 57 percent of white evangelicals in the South believe torture can be justified. By comparison, an earlier poll by the Pew Research Center finds just 48 percent of the general public in support of torture.

Even more illuminating is this finding from the new poll: The evangelicals surveyed are far more likely to turn to life experience and common sense (44 percent) than Christian teaching (28 percent) in forming their opinion on torture. In other words, the segment of the population presumably most serious about their Christian faith is disinclined to be guided by the Bible on one of the central moral questions we face.

It comes as some relief to know that a different result emerged when the pollsters tweaked the question and challenged those surveyed to re-approach the issue with the Bible in mind, particularly its “do-unto others as you would have them do unto you” precept. Then, a majority agreed that torture should never be used.

Religion scholar Robert P. Jones, whose polling firm conducted the survey, believes evangelicals’ support for torture probably stems from two major impulses: Fear, and the understandable but unrealistic yearning for absolute safety from terrorists.

“When you reach for ultimate security and find it ever more elusive, you then begin to rationalize your principles in the way you treat people,” says Jones, author of the new book “Progressive and Religious.” “It extends all the way down to doing things that [before 9/11] would have been unthinkable, like rationalizing away the Geneva Conventions, and talking about how in these times we’re living in, the old morals don’t apply.”

…

You can read the full article from the Oregonian here.

I had the privilege of presenting the findings of a poll conducted by our firm, Public Religion Research, at A National Summit on Torture: Religious Faith, Torture, and our National Soul. The poll was commissioned by Faith in Public Life and Mercer University and demonstrates the conflicted attitudes on torture among white evangelical Christians in the South.

The press conference included remarks by Katie Barge of Faith in Public Life, David Gushee of Evangelicals for Human Rights, and Tyler Wigg Stevens of Two Futures. You can download the polling memo here, and see a video of the press conference releasing it here.

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Close to six-in-ten white evangelicals in the South say that torture can be often (20%) or sometimes (37%) justified in order to gain important information. This compares to roughly half (48%) of the general public who believe that torture can be justified, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll (02/2008).

Despite high levels of religiosity, white evangelicals in the South are significantly more likely to rely on life experiences and common sense (44%) than Christian teachings or beliefs (28%) when thinking about the acceptability of torture. And only about one-in-twenty white evangelicals rely on the advice of government leaders when it comes to torture. These different sources of moral thinking lead to strikingly different attitudes.

Among those influenced by Christian teachings, a majority (52%) oppose torture—14 points higher than white evangelicals in the South overall. In contrast, among those who rely most on life experiences and common sense, less than one-in-three (31%) oppose torture.

A majority (52%) agree with the Golden Rule argument against torture—that the U.S. government should not use methods against our enemies that we would not want used on American soldiers. This movement represents a 14-point increase from the 38% of white evangelicals who initially said that torture is rarely or never justified. Appeals to three other moral and theological frames did not significantly influence views on torture.

An appeal to the Golden Rule increases opposition to torture among every subgroup of white evangelicals. For example, only about one third (34%) of white evangelicals who attend worship services more than once a week say torture is never or rarely justified, but a majority (50%) of this group was persuaded by the Golden Rule argument against torture. This represents a 16-point shift in opinion among the most frequent attending white evangelicals in the South.

Other Findings
A majority (53%) of white evangelicals in the South believe that the government uses torture as part of the campaign against terrorism, despite repeated claims made by government officials that the U.S. does not engage in torture. Only about one third (32%) say that the U.S. does not use torture as a matter of policy.

Among white evangelicals in the South who are registered voters, 65% support Republican John McCain, 14% support Democrat Barack Obama, and 21% remain undecided. These findings are consistent with the recent Time Magazine poll (08/04/2008) that showed 66% supporting McCain, 17% supporting Obama, and 17% undecided among white evangelicals nationwide.

Two thirds of John McCain’s supporters say torture can often or sometimes be justified, compared to only 46% of Obama supporters and undecided voters.

About the Survey
This survey was commissioned by Mercer University and Faith in Public Life and conducted by Public Religion Research. Results for this survey were based on telephone interviews conducted under the direction of Opinion Access Corporation among a sample of 600 white evangelical Christian adults, age 18 years or older in the southeastern United States. This region includes the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. The survey was fielded from August 14-22, 2008.

The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 4.5% at the 95% confidence interval. In addition to sampling error surveys may also be subject to error or bias due to question wording, context and order effects. The data was weighted using demographic weighting parameters derived from the Religious Landscape Survey. Conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life from May 8 – August 13, 2007, the Religious Landscape Survey is a national survey of 35,000 adults with detailed information on religious affiliation and identity.