A new national survey of likely voters shows a sharp contrast among Catholics, the nation's largest religious group and one with significant membership in swing states such as Florida and Ohio, when it comes to choosing between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
The American Values Survey, released Monday by the Washington-based Public Religion Research Institute, found that overall, likely Catholic voters are divided between the two candidates -- with 49 percent favoring Obama and 47 percent favoring Romney -- but differ greatly when broken down by race and religiosity.
A slight majority of white Catholics (54 percent) said they preferred Romney, while a significant majority of Hispanic Catholics (70 percent) said they favor Obama. Among Catholic voters who attend church at least weekly, six out of 10 said they supported Romney, while among those who attend church once a month or less, six out of 10 said they supported Obama.
There are about 77 million Catholics in the U.S. About 35 million voted four years ago, making up 27 percent of the popular vote. Obama won 54 percent of Catholic votes that year.
The winner of the majority of Catholics' votes has won the popular vote in presidential races for the past 40 years, but the study's authors emphasized that the faith group is anything but unified in its political views.
?The survey confirms that there is no such thing as 'the Catholic vote,'" said Robert P. Jones, PRRI CEO and co-author of the report. "There are a number of critical divisions among Catholics, including an important divide between 'social justice' and 'right to life' Catholics."
Obama, who is pro-choice, has been strongly criticized by Catholic bishops for his health care law's requirement that most religious institutions, including hospitals and schools, provide employees with birth control with no co-pay as part of insurance plans. Earlier this year, the Obama administration revised the rules to put the burden of paying for contraception coverage solely on insurance companies, but many Catholic institutions have protested because they are self-insured.
Vice President Joe Biden, a Catholic, has faced the same criticism from conservative Catholics, who have also criticized his and Obama's support of same-sex marriage rights.
Romney, who called himself pro-choice in previous campaigns but more recently identifies as pro-life, has said he believes that the Obama's contraception mandate violates religious freedom. His Catholic running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), has been criticized by bishops for his controversial budget plan that would cut government programs that aid the poor.
At least 30 lawsuits have been filed by Catholic and evangelical hospitals, universities, businesses and dioceses against the Obama administration's contraception mandate on the grounds of violations of religious freedom. The survey found that nearly 60 percent of Americans said that "religious liberty is being threatened in America today," including almost 80 percent of white evangelicals and nearly 60 percent of white Catholics.
But specifically on the contraception mandate, 56 percent of those surveyed said religiously affiliated colleges and hospitals should be required to provide employees with health care plans that cover contraception or birth control at no cost. That included majorities of white Protestants (54 percent) and the overall Catholic population. In contrast, majorities of white evangelicals (56 percent) and white Catholics (51 percent) said the opposite.
On the church's role in public policy, the survey found that 60 percent of Catholics believe it "should focus more on social justice and the obligation to help the poor, even if it means focusing less on issues like abortion and the right to life," while 31 percent said the opposite. Sixty percent of "social justice" Catholics support Obama, the survey found, while 67 percent of "right to life" Catholics support Romney.
"Even among Catholics who attend church once a week or more, a group that is often considered more socially conservative, a majority believe the Catholic Church should emphasize issues related to justice and our obligations to the poor," said E.J. Dionne, Jr., Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a co-author of the report.
The survey results were based on 3,003 bilingual telephone interviews of adults in the U.S. conducted between Sept. 13 and Sept. 30.
Click through the slideshow to see most and least Christian states in the United States:
Utah
78,438 Christian adherents per 100,000 people. <br>
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Parowan_Utah_Church.jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
North Dakota
66,950 Christian adherents per 100,000 people. <br>
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Catholic_Church_in_Warsaw,_North_Dakota.jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Alabama
62,467 Christian adherents per 100,000 people.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:16th_Street_Baptist_Church.JPG" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Louisiana
59,598 Christian adherents per 100,000 people. <br>
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St._Stephens_Episcopal_Church_(Innis,_Louisiana).jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Oklahoma
58,598 Christian adherents per 100,000 people. <br>
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Catesby_Oklahoma_Church.jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Mississippi
58,342 Christian adherents per 100,000 people. <br>
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mississippi_Church.jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
South Dakota
58,212 Christian adherents per 100,000 people. <br>
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Methodist_Episcopal_Church_Pierre_South_Dakota.JPG" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Minnesota
55,280 Christian adherents per 100,000 people. <br>
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_near_Flom,_Minnesota.jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Massachusetts
55,023 Christian adherents per 100,000 people.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sandwich_Church,_Massachusetts.jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Arkansas
54,985 Christian adherents per 100,000 people.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Our_Lady_of_Perpetual_Help_Church_silhouette_altus_arkansas.jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Nebraska
54,776 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Visitation_Church_%28O'Connor%2C_Nebraska%29_church_from_S.JPG" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Tennessee
54,764 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/First_Baptist_Church_Donelson_Tennessee_04032012.JPG" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Rhode Island
53,576 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Texas
53,525 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Iowa
53,403 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Wisconsin
52,863 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Pennsylvania
51,883 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Illinois
51,442 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
South Carolina
51,374 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Kentucky
51,055 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Idaho
50,695 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
District of Columbia
49,903 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Kansas
49,666 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
New Jersey
49,575 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Georgia
49,374 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons. <br>
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Washington_(Georgia)_Presbyterian_Church.JPG" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Connecticut
49,096 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
New Mexico
49,044 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Missouri
48,436 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
North Carolina
46,737 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carolina_Baptist_Church.jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
New York
44,488 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons. <br>
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_in_Rye,_New_York.jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Indiana
43,788 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Ohio
42,744 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
California
42,430 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Virginia
41,304 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Michigan
40,186 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Delaware
39,575 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_Church,_Dover,_Delaware.JPG" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Wyoming
39,341 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Maryland
39,214 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Montana
37,824 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Florida
37,104 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Colorado
36,461 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Hawaii
36,103 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Arizona
35,842 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
West Virginia
35,211 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
New Hampshire
34,617 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Nevada
33,395 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/StJoanofArcCatholicChurch_in_Las_Vegas_founded_1910.jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Washington
33,065 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Methodist_Church_at_Historic_Washington_State_Park_IMG_1467.JPG" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Vermont
32,954 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Alaska
32,810 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Original photo <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Orthodox_church_in_Seldovia%2C_Alaska.jpg" target="_hplink">here</a>.
Oregon
30,101 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
Maine
27,098 Christian adherents per 100,000 persons.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/22/american-values-survey-obama-romney_n_1997805.html
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