Fox News Poll: Christians feel under attack

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Organized religion is losing influence in the United States -- and Christianity is under attack.

That’s according to the latest Fox News national poll released Tuesday.

By a 53-10 percent margin, voters feel organized religion is losing rather than gaining influence in the country.  About a third says it is staying the same (34 percent).

In addition, those who see religion as losing influence are four times as likely to say that’s a bad thing as to feel it’s a good thing (73-18 percent).

CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS

Meanwhile, 56 percent of voters say Christianity is under attack in the U.S.  Forty-two percent disagree.  Views were about the same ten years ago, as 59 percent said Christianity was under attack in 2005.

The poll finds that among white evangelical Christians, a large 81-percent majority says Christianity is under attack, and more than two-thirds feel religion is losing influence in the country (67 percent).

The numbers are almost as high among Protestants: 68 percent say Christianity is under attack and 59 percent see religion losing ground.  Among Catholics: 54 percent say Christianity is being attacked and 50 percent say religious influence is waning.

Overall, nearly a third of voters say they attend religious services at least once a week (31 percent).  Most show up less often: 12 percent attend almost every week, 13 percent once a month, 23 percent seldom and 18 percent never.

Among weekly attenders, 73 percent believe Christianity is under attack and 59 percent say religion is losing influence.

Republicans are 45 percentage points more likely than Democrats to feel Christianity is under attack (80 percent vs. 35 percent).

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,019 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from July 13-15, 2015. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.