While only one in three American parents consider it important that their children follow Evangelical Christians led the nation, answering the question with a resounding “Amen!”.
A new Pew Research survey asked parents of all religious backgrounds, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus if it is important to them that their kids have similar religious beliefs to their own as adults. The overall response recorded 35% of U.S. parents with children under 18 saying it’s extremely or very important to them. But 70% of White evangelical Protestant parents responded by saying that it is extremely or very important that their children grow up to have religious beliefs that are similar to their own.
This compares to 53% of Black Protestant parents who expressed this view, 35% of Catholic parents, and 29% of White non-evangelical Protestant parents say it’s extremely or very important that their children grow up to have religious beliefs that are similar to their own.
Evangelicals also expressed a stronger hope that their children would grow up with their social values. 89% of White evangelical Protestant parents said that it’s extremely or very important for their children to grow up to become people who help others in need, as compared to ). Slightly smaller majorities of parents from other religious backgrounds, including 81% of Catholics and 76% of the religiously unaffiliated. Non Christian groups, including Jews, were also polled but there weren’t enough respondents to report separately on their view.
The results of the survey indicate that parents feel more strongly about passing on their religious views than their political views. Overall, 16% of parents say it’s extremely or very important that their children grow up to have political views that are similar to their own.