68 Percent of Americans Say Gov’t Should Not Be Involved in Church’s ‘Internal Religious Disputes’

A majority of Americans believe the government should stay out of a faith-based organization’s internal religious disputes, according to a new survey that showed widespread support for the religious liberty of churches protected by the First Amendment.

The poll, conducted as part of CARAVAN’s weekly omnibus survey among 1,004 U.S. adults, found that by a margin of 68-23 percent Americans believe that “an important facet of separation of church and state is that the government cannot get involved in a religious organization’s internal religious disputes.”

The survey was released Tuesday and conducted April 20-22 for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

“When it comes to important decisions about who can pass on a religious organization’s faith to the next generation, Americans agree that the buck stops well before Uncle Sam,” said Montse Alvarado, executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “Leaving important decisions about a religion’s future in that religion’s hands is a commonsense application of the First Amendment.”

The survey also found that:

• 66 percent of Americans believe a “religious organization should be able to make decisions about who it hires to teach its faith to the next generation, free from government control.”
• 59 percent believe the “government should never be allowed to resolve disputes about a…