Despite the political endorsements of about two dozen pastors from their pulpits on September 28, including one in Rio Rancho, most Americans think politics should be kept out of churches.

A survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in August found that the majority of Americans — 66 percent — oppose political endorsements from the pulpit.

Table from Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Table from Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

The act of civil disobedience by the pastors was organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, a socially conservative organization that believes clergy have the constitutional right to endorse political candidates from the pulpit. The protest was explicitly meant to trigger a legal examination of the IRS rules that bar such endorsements by tax-exempt organizations, with the goal of having the issue wind up in front of the Supreme Court.

And they may get their wish. On September 29, an organization called Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed complaints with the IRS about six of the sermons that were publicized. All six of the pastors endorsed John McCain or advocated against Barack Obama.

Regardless, the Pew Forum survey suggests there is widespread agreement among religious groups that politics during election periods have no place in church:

“… among religious groups, white evangelical Protestants are nearly as opposed to such endorsements as are those who are unaffiliated with any particular religion (64% vs. 68%). Black Protestants register the lowest level of opposition, but even among this group, those who oppose such endorsements outnumber those who favor them by almost 20 percentage points (55% vs. 36%).”

The survey also found that those who identify as very committed to religion, as well as those who attend services once a week, oppose political endorsements in church in numbers larger than 60 percent.