By Charlie McCarthy From Newsmax

A majority of Americans believe religion is under attack, a new I&I/TIPP poll found.

A total of 52% said they agreed with the statement that “religion is under attack in the U.S.” But 40% of respondents said they disagreed with the statement, and about 9% said they weren’t sure, tippinsights reported Monday.

A whopping 74% of Republicans, and 44% of Democrats, agreed with the statement.

Conservatives (76%) were more inclined to agree with the statement than liberals (34%), the I&I/TIPP survey results said.

A total of 62% of Christians agreed that religion is under attack in the country. Only 44% of all “other religions” said likewise, though, as did 29% with no religion.

A large majority of Protestants (64%), Catholics (57%), Mormons (69%), and other Christian groups (67%) agreed with the statement, as did a majority of Muslims (56%).

However, only 32% of Jews and 42% of respondents belonging to the various Orthodox Christian churches agree.

“There is little question that attacks on religion have picked up in recent years, especially during the pandemic and recent riots in major American cities,” tippinsights said.

Among those aged 18-24, just 40% said religion was under attack, while 52% disagreed. That was the only age group below 50% on agreeing with the statement.

While progressive politics have played a part in religion being attacked, according to tippinsights, it added another reason was Americans becoming less religious.

Two Gallup polls last year found that just under 75% of Americans identified themselves as having a specific religious faith, with 69% being Christian, 2% Jewish, and 6% “other.”

Another 21% said they “have no religious preference,” Gallup said.

Those numbers indicated a significant drop in people identifying as being Christian.

As recently as 2000, 84% identified as Christian, 2% as Jewish and 5% as “other.” Only 8% said they had “no religion” — a shift of 13 percentage points.

Axios reported in late October that U.S. hate crimes in 2021 were on pace to surpass even the spike in 2020 — and many of them were linked to religious bigotry.

There were 100 acts of hate recorded against Catholic sites in the U.S. since May of 2020, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said.

The Federalist reported in June that a rise in hate crimes targeting Catholics in the U.S. virtually was being ignored by the mainstream media.

The online I&I/TIPP survey was conducted Jan. 5-8 among 1,308 adults. It has a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.

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