Poll: Americans want religious presidents, but are vague on details

(RNS) Americans want their presidents to be religious, but many have
trouble identifying the faiths of President Obama and leading GOP
contenders Mitt Romney and Rep. Michele Bachmann, according to a new
poll released Monday (July 25).

A majority of Americans (56 percent) say it's important for a
candidate to have strong beliefs, even if those beliefs differ from
their own, according to the poll conducted by Public Religion Research
Institute in partnership with Religion News Service.

Yet the religious groups most firmly behind this point -- white
evangelicals (73 percent) and ethnic minority Christians (74 percent) --
often falter when asked about politicians' religions.