New posting: Moral State of the Union
America’s moral climate would not get high marks if many Americans were giving out letter grades.
That’s according to the “Moral State of the Union” survey results released today by the Religion News Service and Public Religion Research Institute.
The results come just as President Barack Obama’s third State of the Union address draws near.
The “Moral State of the Union” survey found that about 38 percent of Americans would give the country’s moral climate a “C.” Thirty-seven percent of the survey respondents said they would give America’s moral climate a “D” or “F” while only 22 percent said they would give the current climate a grade of “A” or “B.”
Survey responses showed a partisan divide as well. 
Perhaps this shouldn’t surprise anyone.
“We find Americans view the country moral climate through a partisan lens” said Robert P. Jones, CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute. “Both Republicans and those who identify with the Tea Party Movement are more than twice as likely as Democrats to give the nation’s moral climate a ’D’ or ‘F.’”
Read more about the survey results here: “Survey: Only 1 in 5 Give ‘Moral State of the Union’ High Marks.”
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Survey: Six of every 10 Protestant pastors disapprove of Obama
This just in from the Religion News Service: Six out of every 10 Protestant pastors say they disapprove of President Obama’s job performance.
The RNS based this report on a recent LifeWay Research survey.
LifeWay researchers said of the 61 percent who disapprove of Obama’s work, 47 percent disapprove strongly.
The RNS reported that the survey’s findings were released Oct. 21. The survey found that 30 percent of pastors approve of the president’s performance (including 14 percent who strongly approve). Nine percent were undecided.
According to the RNS, when the Southern Baptist-affiliated research group surveyed Protestant pastors about their voting intentions just before the 2008 elections, 20 percent indicated they planned to vote for Obama, compared to 55 percent who planned to vote for GOP candidate John McCain.
“If voting intentions and job approval measure similar things, the president hasn’t made many friends in the pulpits of America’s churches throughout the first year-and-a-half of his presidency,” Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, told the RNS.
The new research was based on interviews with 1,000 Protestant clergy Oct. 7-14 and had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
The Religion News Service said researchers also found that 84 percent of Protestant pastors disagreed with the idea of pastors endorsing political candidates from the pulpit.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Your views: Yoga and religious knowledge
Two recent religion stories caught my eye and I wanted to get some reader feedback on both of them.
One is about the Pew Forum’s recent U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey that surveyed people on the core teachings of major world religions. The Oklahoman’s Life section ran a story about the survey’s findings a few weeks ago. However, I thought some readers might be willing to have a little fun with this and challenge themselves.
Think you know the “ABCs” (the fundamentals) of the major world religions?
Then you are just who I am looking for.
I’d like to get a few volunteers from the Oklahoma City metro community-at-large to take a short quiz featuring some of the questions from the Religious Knowledge survey. If we can’t round up the volunteers to come take the quiz at one time, we could have each one take the quiz then agree to come back to meet with other volunteers about the quiz results.
For those unfamilar with the survey, it was conducted by the Washington-based nonpartisan Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.
If you are interested in taking the quiz (that I will create from the survey’s questions), let me know via e-mail: chinton@opubco.com.
I plan to write a story about the quiz and the results from local participants.
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Now, let’s talk about yoga.
A story that folks are still talking about involves a Southern Baptist leader who said Christians should avoid the ancient practice of yoga.
Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said yoga is not a Christian pathway to God and should therefore be avoided.
Mohler, on his blog, has said he has received lots of correspondence from yoga enthusiasts who disagree with him. Here’s one of his latest blog postings on the subject: “Yahoo, Yoga and Yours Truly”
I want to know what Oklahomans think.
Should Christians avoid yoga? Why or why not?
Send me your comments, plus your name, city and daytime phone number: chinton@opubco.com. Your comments could be used for a future story.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Interfaith family survey
InterfaithFamily.com wants to know what interfaith families are doing for Passover and Easter.The two holidays will coincide this year. The eight-day Jewish holiday of Passover, begins at sundown April 8. The Christian holiday of Easter is on April 12.
Interfaith families can fill out InterfaithFamily.com’s survey at Passover-Easter Survey by March 3. InterfaithFamily.com offers resources and services for interfaith families exploring Jewish life.
Survey participants will be eligible to win a $250 American Express giftcard.
The winner of the drawing will be announced March 17. InterfaithFamily.com will announce the results of the survey in late March. 
For more Passover and Easter resources, check out othe Web site’s Passover and Easter Resource Page.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
