Survey: Most Biden Voters Claim to Be Christian but Don’t Practice

Voters fill out and cast their ballots at the Cross Insurance Center polling location where the entire city votes in Bangor, Maine, on Nov. 3, 2020. Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Nearly two-thirds of self-identified voters who backed President Joe Biden in the 2020 election claim to be Christians, but they don’t take it very seriously, according to noted religion researcher George Barna.

Barna, who is director of research for the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, surveyed 1,000 adults immediately following the November 2020 election.

Barna found that among Biden voters, 65 percent called themselves Christians, but only 15 percent claimed to be “born-again,” the description typically associated with Evangelicals.

“Only three out of 10 (30 percent) believe that the Bible is the actual or inspired word of God and contains no errors,” Barna wrote in the survey report made public on Feb. 16.

“That helps to explain why three-fourths of Biden supporters do not identify the Bible as their most trusted source of moral guidance. Their dominant sources of moral guidance are their feelings, experiences, friends, and family.

“Consistent with that widespread rejection of the Bible, three-quarters of the Biden followers (75 percent) also believe that there is no absolute moral truth; in their eyes, ‘identifying moral truth is up to each individual, there are no moral absolutes that apply to everyone, all the time.’”

Other findings include the fact that only a third (31 percent) of the Biden voters said they are active in a local church congregation. Protestant voters gave Trump 47 percent, compared to 33 percent for Biden, while Catholics gave Biden 44 percent, compared to 40 percent for Trump. Among people claiming a non-Christian faith, 53 percent voted for Biden.

Barna also found that “the religious views of Biden’s voters directly translate to their policy preferences. For instance, 60 percent of his base, which is largely pro-abortion, argues that ‘the Bible is ambiguous on the matter of abortion; it is possible to make compelling biblical arguments either for or against abortion.’”

“Similarly, his base is overwhelmingly in favor of extending LGBTQ rights, which conforms to the finding that six out of 10 (58 percent) of his voters reject the notion that ‘the marriage of one man to one woman is God’s only acceptable plan for humanity, applicable to all cultures on earth.’”

Barna said that the views of Biden supporters expressed in his survey suggest that the president’s backers are more likely to support proposals opposed by many Christians, including the following:

• Allowing churches and all forms of worship to be restricted due to COVID.
• Eliminating tax exemptions for churches.
• Promoting alternative faiths in public school classrooms and curriculum.
• Broader support for abortion.
• More favorable treatment of Muslim nations and regimes.
• Government-determined values, morals, and public behavior.
• More extensive rights and protections for LGBTQ people.
• More lenient penalties for those convicted of crimes.
• Moving away from rule of law and the equal enforcement of laws.

“Unfortunately, if our government denies the core principles on which it was founded—which were originally derived from the Bible—in favor of modern philosophical preferences, the end will be chaos, constant disputes, and widespread dissatisfaction,” Barna said.