White Mainline and evangelical Protestants are less likely than Catholics, or the general public, to believe that the government should do more to battle poverty or reduce the gap between rich and poor, according to a new Pew poll:
When asked how much the government should do to reduce poverty, 47% of U.S. Catholics say “a lot” and an additional 31% say “some.” Among the general public, 53% say “a lot” and 29% say “some.” Religiously unaffiliated Americans are particularly likely to answer “a lot” (59%), while 26% say “some.” White evangelical Protestants (39%) and white mainline Protestants (41%) are somewhat less likely than the unaffiliated to say “a lot.”
The results are similar on the question of how much the government should do to reduce the gap between the rich and everyone else. The share of Catholics (42%) saying “a lot” is roughly the same as the share of the general public (43%) that takes the same position on this question, while, again, religiously unaffiliated Americans are more likely to say “a lot” (56%) and white evangelicals (30%) and white mainline Protestants (28%) are less likely to do so.
How does this correspond with your view of White Protestants in America? Read more here.