Appealing to Middle America

For John, BLUF:  Wisc Gov Scott Walker running for President.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I thought this was an interesting comment on how opinion formers (and pollsters are opinion formers) view religion:

And 90% of Americans believe in God — or as Gallup charmingly puts it "More Than 9 in 10 Americans Continue to Believe in God/Professed belief is lower among younger Americans, Easterners, and liberals."  (I love the "Continue to," which implies: Come on, people, after all the evidence, what's your problem?!)

The source is a blog post by Law Professor Ann Althouse.  I don't think she is pushing religion so much as commenting on how the media denigrates people who do believe in God.  The title of the blog post is "Did God Prank-call Scott Walker" (Scott Walker being the Governor of Wisconsin).  It refers to someone calling the Governor and pretending to be Mr David Koch (who is, in the mind of some, the personification of Evil, i.e., Satan himself).

In the course I am taking at UMass Lowell Continuing Education this term ($30 plus books for those 60 and older), Sociology of Religion, one of our texts, The Future of Religion,♠ suggests that while there is a lot of churn in religion, it isn't all people going from faith to unbelief.  Rather, forms are changing and new religions are being born.  As the authors point out, who would have credited eleven guys creating a fairly big religion and changing an empire after their leader was killed and one of their number took French Leave.♥

And, the blog post also mentions that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has a book about to come out, Unintimidated:  A Governor's Story and a Nation's Challenge.  Could he be prepping for a run for President?

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  By Stark and Bainbridge.
♥  French Leave?  Deserted.  In this case it was Judas Iscariot.