A poll to chew on

My 24-hour take-home open-book-but-dastardly comprehensive exam is tomorrow. I'll be offline and up all night squeezing every last minute out of those hours. The Better Half bought me a case of Tab, my "drug" of choice since I was but a teen (and not available in San Francisco!), to assist in maintaining wakefulness (no promises for coherence).

While I'm writing, and then weeping, and then spending the holiday weekend curled into a fetal position, digest the results of the latest Pew Poll on Religion and Public Life, which says Americans yearn for the via media on this issue.

One of the interesting points to me: "Only 7 percent of Americans identify with the "religious left" (an increase, nonetheless), but "32 percent of the public identify themselves as 'progressive Christian'"! They "tend to be more moderate than left-of-center on political issues." That is an unhelpful distinction, since there are moderates on both "sides" of the center. I won't be able to dig into the specifics before Friday, but if you want to, the full report is here.