Evangelicals say polling skewed

WASHINGTON -- Influential evangelical leaders have called on pollsters to ask Democrats--and not just Republicans--if they are evangelicals when future primaries occur.

Pollsters "have pigeonholed evangelicals, reinforcing the false stereotype that we are beholden to one political party," wrote nine leaders, including Sojourners founder Jim Wallis and Christianity Today editor David Neff. "No party can own any faith," they wrote.

Their Jan. 10 letter was sent to polling and political directors of media outlets that are represented by the National Election Pool, which supplies poll data to ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC and The Associated Press.

An official from the National Election Pool was not immediately available for comment.

Writing as individuals rather than representatives of their organizations, they said, "By omitting the question of evangelical/born-again identification from the Democratic polls, you prevented the public from seeing the full picture of how the bipartisan courtship of evangelical voters [has] affected" voting this season.

COPYRIGHT 2008 National Catholic Reporter
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning