According to a recent survey released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, people across the globe favour leaders who arise for his or her constituents with religious beliefs, even when the beliefs usually are not their very own.
This survey was conducted between January and May of this 12 months and reflects the info from nationally representative surveys of greater than 53,000 respondents in 35 countries.
Residents of Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines stood out as those that most desire national leaders who arise for individuals with religious beliefs. Indonesia had the best percentage of adults (90%) who say it is vitally/somewhat necessary.
Indonesians and Filipinos also placed at the highest of nations where respondents wanted their leader to have strong religious beliefs of their very own, together with Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Indonesians and Bangladeshis were the most definitely to say they need their leaders to share their beliefs. Both countries are majority Muslim.
Swedish adults were the least more likely to say it is important to have a main minister with strong religious beliefs, with just 6% sharing that view.
In every country, the religiously unaffiliated were the least more likely to say that leaders should arise for individuals with religious beliefs. While that could be expected, the survey presented a wrinkle: Though there is commonly an age gap with regards to religiosity, younger and older adults largely agreed in Pew’s survey that their president or prime minister should arise for religious residents and have a faith of their very own.
The exception, said Jonathan Evans, senior researcher at Pew Research Center, is Latin America, where adults under 39 “are consistently less more likely to say that every of those traits is very important.”
Evans said Pew found that the United States stood out amongst wealthier nations within the findings: 64% of US respondents said it will be important to have a frontrunner who stands up for religious beliefs, a bigger percentage than other industrialized nations. Only 42% of respondents in Germany and 25% of respondents in France agree.
In the US, two-thirds of respondents say that it will be important to have a frontrunner on the national level who stands up for individuals with religious beliefs. Less than half of respondents believed that it is important for his or her leader to have strong religious beliefs or have religious beliefs which might be similar to their very own.
This finding has implications because the US election approaches. Vice President Kamala Harris identifies as a Christian and grew up with a Hindu mother, while her running mate, Minnesota Governor Timothy Walz, is a Lutheran who grew up in a Catholic home.
Former President Donald Trump identifies as a Christian and has drawn support from evangelical Christian voters. His vice presidential pick, US Senator JD Vance, is an adult convert to Catholicism.
© Religion News Service
