Officials should not compromise beliefs.

• Position: Public Office - Brief Article

As public officials continue to wrestle with hot-button issues ranging from abortion to gay rights to the death penalty, they may find thinner ranks of citizens supporting compromise. Those are some of the findings from a national survey by Public Agenda, New York, that compares how Americans' views of religion in public life have changed between 2000 and 2004.

The survey found a smaller number of people who believe that deeply religious elected officials sometimes have to compromise in the political arena, with major decreases among those who attend religious services weekly.

For example, in 2000, 84% of U.S. citizens overall declared that "Even elected officials who are deeply religious sometimes have to make compromises and set their convictions aside to get results while in government." In 2004, that number dropped to 74%, with even sharper declines among weekly service attenders (82% in 2000 vs. 63% in 2004) and Evangelicals (79% in 2000 vs. 63% in 2004).

Concerning the issues of abortion, gay rights, and the death penalty, the majority of Americans who attend services weekly now say that deeply religious...