First up from the God machine this week is a religion/politics story we’ve been following for weeks with great interest: exit polling and faith-related questions.
In all of the major primaries and caucuses, the National Election Pool, including representatives of several major news outlets, conducts exit polls of voters. The problem this year, though, is that the NEP asks questions about religion of Republicans, but not Democrats.
If you want to know what percentage of voters in the Republican caucuses and primaries described themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians — and whom they voted for — exit polls will tell you. If you want to know what percentage of voters in the Democratic caucuses and primaries consider themselves born-again or evangelical Christians, well, sorry. No one knows. No one knows because the exit polls did not ask. […]
[I]t has not gone unnoticed that in five states, voters in Republican contests were asked their religious affiliation, and in four states they were asked how frequently they attended religious services. Voters in Democratic contests were asked those questions in only three states.
In four states, voters for Republican candidates were asked how much it mattered that a candidate shared their religious beliefs. Nowhere was that question put to voters for Democratic candidates.
And most notably, in every state voters in Republican caucuses and primaries were asked if they were born-again or evangelical Christians. Voters in Democratic caucuses and primaries were never asked.
My friends at Faith in Public Life, an interfaith group interested in broadening the religious agenda beyond issues favored by conservative Christians, have been doing all of the heavy lifting on this, and it’s beginning to generate attention. The group has been hounding NEP officials, arguing that exit polls have ignored “the bipartisan courtship of evangelical voters” and “perpetuated the misperception that all evangelical Christians are Republicans.”
This week, Howard Dean and the DNC picked up on the cause. “This bias in polling questions,” Dean said in a letter to the National Election Pool consortium, “has in turn shaped news coverage, making it appear that one party has a monopoly on religion in this race.”
Super Tuesday is just a few days away, and the bias apparently won’t improve.
What about Tuesday? The pool’s media coordinator, Jack Stokes, would not go beyond saying: “We choose the questions based on our internal editorial discussions. To protect the integrity of the process, we routinely do not talk publicly about what questions are on our surveys.”
On Election Day in November, exit polls will ask all voters the same questions. It will become apparent, for example, whether evangelicals experiencing Republican fatigue signaled that by voting Democratic or simply, as some polling for The New York Times suggests is more likely, by staying home.
In the meantime, the nine unhappy evangelical leaders fear a kind of vicious circle. Is “an outdated script” about religion and Republicans, in Mr. Dean’s phrase, unduly influencing the exit poll questions, the answers that are in turn influencing reporting and analysis by reporters, newscasters and pundits, which in turn influence future poll questions. Is campaign coverage and discussion being diverted from new developments among both evangelicals and Democrats?
Also from the God Machine this week, if you were planning to attend a church function tomorrow to watch the Super Bowl, forget it. The NFL isn’t going for this idea at all.
For years, as many as 200 members of Immanuel Bible Church and their friends have gathered in the church’s fellowship hall to watch the Super Bowl on its six-foot screen. The party featured hard hitting on the TV, plenty of food — and prayer.
But this year, Immanuel’s Super Bowl party is no more. After a crackdown by the National Football League on big-screen Super Bowl gatherings by churches, the Springfield church has sacked its event. Instead, church members will host parties in their homes.
Immanuel is among a number of churches in the Washington area and elsewhere that have been forced to use a new playbook to satisfy the NFL, which said that airing games at churches on large-screen TV sets violates the NFL copyright.
Ministers are not happy.
“There is a part of me that says, ‘Gee, doesn’t the NFL have enough money already?'” said Steve Holley, Immanuel’s executive pastor. He pointed out that bars are still allowed to air the game on big-screens TV sets. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
If you’ve ever seen a game, the text will sound familiar: “This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL’s consent is prohibited.”
There is no faith-based exemption.