Politics. How is religion influencing your politics . Morning. We will get to your calls in a minute. Phone lines are open. Joining us is robert jones who is the ceo of Public Religion Research institute to talk about a new report that Shows Americans are divided along religious lines. Explain how sharply divided they are. See hiss what we patterns that are consistent with historic patterns in the u. S. What is notable is nothing affects the religious voting theyrns more than how responded to the civil rights act. Overall, most elections since reagan you could say White Christian voters, whether you are protestant or catholic, if youre a and christian, you tend to vote for the republican president ial candidate and nine what christians, religiously unaffiliated americans and other nonchristians tend to vote democratic. That is the pattern that we see today. The most fundamentally religious groups strongly supporting donald trump is white evangelical protestants, about two thirds supporting donald trump. The group most likely to support Hillary Clinton are africanamerican protestants at 90 . Donald trump, only three Percentage Points for donald trump. The group we are watching in the middle are catholics. White catholics have been the quintessential swing group. They play an Important Group an Important Role in states like wisconsin where the makeup like three in 10 voters where they make up like three in 10 voters. It should be noted that romney won them by 19. Looks like among White Catholics show support to trump. Host the White Catholic gender gap, how is that playing out . Mr. Jones that is one of the main reasons for this pullback. There has been a gender gap. This year it is 20 percentage 26 pointsikely with men more likely to vote for donald trump. What wemost double would expect to see in an election. Host why is the catholic vote historically been important in president ial elections . Mr. Jones one of the main reasons is they are heavily present is a lot of these midwestern battleground states. I mentioned pennsylvania and wisconsin, three in 10 voters. Even in other states where you might not think about it, about a quarter voters in ohio and florida which are must win states for donald trump. Host how have the catholic vote swung in past president ial elections . Mr. Jones the other thing i point to is we talked about the catholic vote. I would say there are two catholic votes and have been for some time. As hispanic population has grown, it has changed the face of the catholic church. Ofk in the 1990s, the ratio whitenonWhite Catholics was two to one. What is remarkable about this is while catholics have a lean toward republican candidates, hispanic catholics have become to be supportive of the democratic cap democratic candidates. 84 supporting Hillary Clinton to 12 supporting donald trump. There is this great divide running along ethnic lines within the catholic church. Host what could that mean for next week in the battleground states . Mr. Jones where will see this showing up, new battleground states arizona, nevada, places where hispanic catholics outnumber White Catholics. Historically, hispanic catholics lower legislation and turnout rates. We will have to wait and see. We have some sense that hispanic registrations are of. Robert jones, ceo of the Public Religion Research institute. Thank you, sir. Mr. Jones thank you. Host lets get to your thoughts. Perry in Fort Lauderdale florida is a democrat. What religion are you . Caller it affects everybodys vote. It is why this country is in the shape it is an. The way it has been used by republicans. When you go to democratic when you dont hear you hear a debate with democrats, there is no religion. That is all they talk about is religion. That is how they get russians to vote. The right wing goes out and vote. They dont care how bad the candidate is. Ie candidates could be saying am going to screw you when i get into office and a vote for them believe inause they what i believe in. That is why we have so many republicans that do nothing. Hownow on youtube does this person get in office like Michele Bachmann . It ruins it. Host speak personally. For you, doesnt religion play any role and how you vote . Caller no, it should not play any role. Host lets go on to john, independent caller. Caller hello. Religion should be completely removed from this. Personally, i am not religious. Perry, republicans use this all the time. It is a big fake out, phony christians who have the most pun,rable excuse the attitudes about things. They look at things through their own eyes, and religion seems to trump civic awareness. Host it is important to many people out there. , certain their faith Public Policy issues certainly abortion, Supreme Court justices and how they may vote. It is important to many people. Caller it is important, but in many cases, particularly with the elected republicans, it is phony. Abortion,back is no but once you have the baby, they could care less about what happens to the baby, the mother and the family and society. Independent, an you say religion does not play a role. Who do you plan to vote for . Caller i am still undecided amazingly. I am deciding to vote for jill stein or Hillary Clinton. Trump is the worst thing that has come down the pipe. Host why would you not vote for jill stein . Voter it would be a against both hillary and trump. Jill stein is not going to win anything, but hillary is looking fairly good right now, but trump is a nightmare. It is mussolini and hitlers wrapped into one. Host jason in gaithersburg, maryland. Good morning. Caller i dont know the last caller did not make any sense. Religion has impacted the whole world. That is the truth. Everybody has to weigh in on religion, whether you are muslim, christian. Religion is a very important point in any regards. As far as the obama administration, i have experienced his behavior where i work at. Gay marriage. Nted forced i dont want to get too much into details but it is an inverse relationship with christianity. It is not something you are forcing it on me to do a certain thing, to be a part. Abortion. Act it is a force on everybody because you have to pay into it with planned parenthood. I am fine with all the rights of woman, but dont force the bad behaviors i cant account for that behavior. Host jason, do you plan to vote for donald trump . Caller he is the more sensible option. Religion is a clearcut im not saying i dont think he that is a fact. She doesnt make appropriate comments saying that it is ok to do abortions. I think that is the most immoral thing across the board to tell me i have to pay into murdering babies. Dont get me involved in your bad behavior. That is my take. Host jason, is this the number one issue for you . Morality . Christine anti . Christianity . Caller if youre not morally responsible, youre not responsible, period. That is not a debate we should talk about. Host when you go to service, are you hearing from the about politics . Caller look, this is something it is something we can educate ourselves on. The bible is a standard for me. Pastors. We do have there is something we can read, and people they dont know nothing about the bible. They quote the bible everything every day and they dont know what they are talking about. People, they are not educated about the bible. Have to correct the people because they dont know what they are talking about. There are misinterpretations. Host jason, i asked that question because the p research the pewa Poll Research center did a poll about what people are hearing from the reverend or the priest when they go to the service. Nearly two thirds of recent churchgoers say the clergy have spoken about about one social or political issue. 40 of them say they have spoken 22 , environmental clergyand 18 say their have spoken out about economic inequality, something you have heard the pope talk about. Several of these issues. Carolina. Lisbury, republican. It is your turn. Caller hello, greta. Firsttime call. Host glad you called in. Caller i am a republican since august. Moved to cells very moved to cells very and there are no democrats. I had to change republican so i would have somebody to vote for in a primary. Getting to my religion, im a Wesleyan Sunday School teacher. Peoplenvinced that the that let the tv preachers are not reading the bible, and i would suggest they would read first second and third john and then matthew 25. Host when you became a republican in august, why was that . Caller we had two primaries because of the voter intimidation rulings. That being in this , it is locked up so i have to change it from the other side. Did the people who are not as crazy. Host what do you mean it is locked up . Caller i tell you what, even when i voted in the general election the first day, i could not vote anybody out of against any republicans in our general assembly. They are all running unopposed. Host i see what you are saying. Edward in west virginia. Good morning to you. How does religion impact your vote . Caller well, i am not a religious person. I have a lot of religious values, and i think it makes my vote because other things obviously the 10 commandments. Thou shall not steal, thou shall not murder. There is a values that you have to live by. Usually if you are religious, even though some people become extremists on every things, christians, muslims. A lotk religion matters because it teaches you values. Host edward, who are you voting for . I dont like either one. I value my vote. It is an important thing for me. I had a friend of 63 years who is mad at me because she asked me who was i voting for . And i said i am not voting because i cannot bring myself to vote for either one of these people. She got hostile with me. 63 years of peace. I cannot believe it. She shut up the phone and i was amazed. [indiscernible] me, religion matters. Not that you should vote for a religious person. I had a grandfather who never went to church. Host because you are not voting because you feel both of these candidates fail the test of christianity . Of being kind and having morals . Caller it is not because i dont know if they are christians are not. It is not for me to judge. I am a voting, because of their values. Neither one of them seem to have any real values. Hillary or whats his name . Votededward, heavy always have you always voted . Caller i missed a couple. I voted for republicans four times and democrats three times for president. I am really independent to the bone. Ive got to like you. I cant vote for somebody i dont like. Host edward in west virginia. Where asking all of you, how does religion influence your politics . Or maybe it doesnt. Tell us why. It is making a lot of news, especially the catholic vote. The Washington Times we spoke to robert jones. Catholics and brown states could sway the vote in battleground states could sway the vote. Into mrs. Clintons emails. This is a change from last week where another poll found that Hillary Clinton was ahead, so days earlier, a surprise announcement that it had renewed its investigation into clintons emails those numbers were reversed. The pri joined others at the National Press club to discuss the religious vote and a columnist spoke there about the importance of the catholic vote this election. Listen to what he had to say. [video clip] catholics are not a block vote. We go back to the 1960s and 4 election of john kennedy and 1964 election of john kennedy. Lbj holt held onto most of that, he got 64 . Just one election before jfk when ike was running against adlai stevenson. Eisenhower got 44 of the catholic vote. There is no block catholic vote. Even when youre nominated catholic, post john kennedy. John kerry did not secure anything like that majority. The important part is precisely because catholics are a swing vote. Group. Ere 4040, 20 there is a larger swing among catholics. Catholics are strategically located. Recovered that discussion at the National Press club. If youre interested in learning more, you can go to cspan. Org. On the washington journal here we talked to Christian Broadcasting Network chief Political Correspondent, david brody. This is what he had to say about the importance of the evangelical vote. George w. Bush in 2004 one the evangelical vote with 47 of evangelicals. Donald trump is going to have to be in that 75 even closer to 85 of evangelical vote to win. That is a tall order, especially with what has happened. Can he do it . Yeah, there is a punches chance. He will have to continually engage with the individual close. Thats with the evangelicals. We go back to the primaries and we say he did very well with evangelicals. Yes, he did. Now you have a much larger pool of evangelicals and those are a lot of the evangelicals right now that is having that distaste for donald trump. Even evangelicals who were at him at the beginning who were with him at the beginning are still with him today. Host we turn to you today with your religious affiliation is it influencing your vote . John is a democrat. Good morning. Pray thathope and trump aint the antichrist. Trump that host that what . That he ate the antichrist. Antichrist. Int the i hope and pray that he ate the antichrist. Host are you planning to vote for him . Colin in ellicott city. Good morning. Caller yes, i am a devout Catholic Christian and i live in the state of maryland. I voted already. I voted democratic. Religion should be brought into the public square. Who am i to judge . Gay . Mebody is or someone has committed an abortion . Religion is something personal. I think that it is not given play in Rural Regions because if that were the case, the socalled evangelicals would not have been voting for trump, because trump has offended every group of people, women, muslims, immigrants. I dont think religion will play any role. [indiscernible] oklahoma. , thirdparty oklahoma thirdparty candidate. What are your thoughts . Caller it is such a false premise. 2003 heard note one minister preach against war. Not one. If you go to war, you are going to go kill somebody. The first tenant of the 10 , follow those and you are following jesus christ. You thou shall not kill, period. Everyone of these socalled christians have the Death PenaltyChristian States have the Death Penalty. The thing i do not understand is why our ministers so silent on war . They claim to be christians and they are against abortion. We have to be truthful to ourselves. Not just to get money. Look at these big churches down there in texas. I will call his name. Long. T the ones eddie he gets caught with young boys and his congregation, 25,000 there is no way he can minister to that many people. Yet and still, they are like that is my preacher. It is only the poor that congregate around religion. Forget that in the south, the term picnic came in came just bring a basket into eat after sunday service, we are having a lynching. You can see pictures down in virginia. We went to in fredericksburg in the center of the town. There is an auction block. They would have people there with a hung them. They are christian and follow the tenants of jesus christ. Thank you. Host on the front pages of the newspaper, will stop start with the Washington Post. The candidates are starting their final push. Clinton and trump appeal for turnout. States like florida and not kill and i are getting extra attention. Inside the west and post a story, they know this trump has been focusing on the fbis latest probe. In a land of he said that all 650 dozen there is that in the Washington Post. The New York Times says on the front page that donald trump has strong appeal with the nations veterans. There is also this in the wall street journal. The New York Times. Michael grace, a columbia lobby for certain shirt served in the treasury department. Here is what they write. That means he was paid no salary they are writing that, those two gentlemen. There is this in the New York Times. Some voters that were attracted to president obamas candidacy in 2008 when he called for change now find it in mr. Trump. Mr. Trump is able to attract some obama voters back from 2008 because they believe he can be one to shake up washington. We are asking this morning all of you, whether religion is impacting your vote this election . Richard in kingsport, tennessee. Independent. Go ahead. Caller hi greta. Good morning. I made a few notes. Maybe i can stick to the points today. I guess i should speak to two points. Official religion and unless it is just a social activity that people engage in a timer to a week, in my opinion, religion informs every area of life whether it is family, work, politics, business, money, charity every decision comes under it is guided by ones religious beliefs. Unless one divorces that inputs religion in a box by itself. Take for example, clinton and Mccain Clinton and kaine. They both claim that religion has had an impact on the policy which in turn affects how they view policies. To those democrats who are calling and saying religion should be kept out of politics, they should listen to the candidates. They are appealing to their background as religious people. The other point is in a broader sense, everyone has a religion. Maybe not an official religion, but if you if your beliefs that are hardcore and dont change from day to day, then people are voting based upon what they feel and they use words like right and wrong what is fair. What is that based on . That has to be based on some standards. People, if you listen to people who are really partisan, they may say they are atheist, nonreligious, but that is their religion in a broad sense. If we are going to vote based upon our beliefs, then religion, that is a part of ou