Religion and the presidential election

OPINION:

The Pew Research Center released a new report this week on religion and the 2016 presidential election.

The Washington Times reported Thursday on the fact that the Pew study found evangelicals supporting Republican Donald Trump, and atheists and agnostics backing Democrat Hillary Clinton.

There are, though, other tidbits from the study.

* Nearly eight in 10 white evangelical voters (77 percent) say that Mr. Trump would do a better job of improving economic conditions, compared to 14 percent who think Mrs. Clinton has the upper-hand in this area.

* At the same point during the 2012 presidential race, Republican Mitt Romney enjoyed a 15 percentage point advantage over Democrat Barack Obama among voters who attended church at least weekly. That gap is considerably narrower.

* There is decreasing concern over the importance of a president’s religious belief: 72 percent in 2008, 67 percent in 2012 and 62 percent in 2016.

The Pew survey polled 2,245 U.S. adults, including 1,655 registered voters, from June 15-26. It has an overall 2.4 percent margin of error.