Fascinating report released today by the Pew Forum on how American's religious beliefs relate to their social and political attitudes.

In just skimming the report, I think the far left is in trouble if it's going to attempt to demonize religious conservatives again (just like it did in 2000 and 2004.)

Democrats should learn from their past mistakes and avoid religion during the campaign. If your candidate (Barack Obama) was raised by an athiest grandmother and had a Muslim for a father, you should avoid casting stones at the other candidate.

Some interesting findings from the study:

* Religion is closely linked to political ideology. The survey shows that Mormons are among the most politically conservative groups in the population. Jews, Buddhists and Hindus, by contrast, are among the mostlikely to describe their ideology as liberal.

* People who regularly attend worship services and say religion isimportant in their lives are much more likely to identify as conservative,and this pattern extends to many religious traditions. For example, withinthe evangelical, mainline Protestant, historically black protestant, Catholic, Mormon and Orthodox Christian traditions, those who attend church weekly are significantly more likely than those who attend less often todescribe themselves as political conservatives. And among Jews, those whosay religion is very important to them or pray every day are more likelythan others to be politically conservative.

* The connection between religious engagement and political attitudesappears to be especially strong when it comes to hot button social issues such as abortion or homosexuality. For instance, about six-in-10 Americans who attend religious services at least once a week say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases, while only three-in-10 who attend less often share this view. This pattern holds across several religious traditions.

Follow the link below to review the full study:

New Report from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life Finds Religion in U.S. is Non-Dogmatic, Diverse and Politically Relevant