{"id":73900,"date":"2010-06-28T16:40:39","date_gmt":"2010-06-28T21:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2010\/06\/28\/alabama-recap-byrned-for-his-beliefs\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:13:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:13:41","slug":"alabama-recap-byrned-for-his-beliefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2010\/06\/28\/alabama-recap-byrned-for-his-beliefs\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Recap: Byrne\u2019d for His Beliefs?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Updated July 14, 2010<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the Alabama Republican gubernatorial primary, one candidate&#8217;s religious beliefs \u2013 especially on creationism and whether the Bible is to be taken literally \u2013 took center stage. Questions about Bradley Byrne&#8217;s beliefs arose after the <em>Press-Register<\/em>, a local paper, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.al.com\/live\/2009\/11\/some_gop_gubernatorial_candida.html\">quoted him<\/a> in November 2009 as saying, &#8220;I think there are parts of the Bible that are meant to be literally true and parts that are not.&#8221; Campaign ads on both sides focused on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/2010\/05\/13\/ad-questioning-candidates-faith-jolts-alabama-governor-contest\/\">Byrne&#8217;s religion<\/a>: An ad from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rlAjTQO11V0&amp;feature=player_embedded\">a group called True Republican PAC<\/a> attacked Byrne for supporting the teaching of evolution and for questioning the literal truth of the Bible, while two ads produced by the <a href=\"http:\/\/byrneforalabama.com\/blog\/comments\/new_tv_ad_-_protect\">Byrne campaign<\/a> touted his family, daily Bible reading and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8ezNdjq8clw\">Christian faith<\/a>. And GOP candidate Robert Bentley<a href=\"http:\/\/il.youtube.com\/watch?v=-UaCc3Cfq-E&amp;feature=related\">released an ad<\/a> that declares, &#8220;All the Republican candidates for governor are pro-life&#8230;. Most of us believe that the Bible is God&#8217;s word \u2013 I certainly do.&#8221; Bentley went on to <a href=\"http:\/\/thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com\/2010\/07\/14\/bentley-wins-run-off-in-alabama\/\">defeat Byrne<\/a> in the July 13 Republican primary runoff.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The attention paid to this debate in Alabama is perhaps not surprising when looking at the results from the <a href=\"http:\/\/religions.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/\">Pew Forum&#8217;s 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey<\/a>, which finds that <a title=\"Alabama is among the most religiously committed states\" href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/WorkArea\/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&amp;ItemID=13191\">Alabama is among the most religiously committed states<\/a>. More than half of Alabamians (56%) disagree with the statement that &#8220;evolution is the best explanation for the origins of human life.&#8221; A similar percentage (54%) of the state&#8217;s residents believe the Bible is the word of God and should be interpreted literally, word for word. These percentages are significantly higher than among the total U.S. population (45% of U.S. adults disagree that evolution is the best explanation for human life and 33% consider the Bible to be the literal word of God).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Continue the discussion on <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/pewforum\">twitter<\/a><\/b> or <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pewforum\">facebook<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated July 14, 2010 In the Alabama Republican gubernatorial primary, one candidate&#8217;s religious beliefs \u2013 especially on creationism and whether the Bible is to be taken literally \u2013 took center stage. Questions about Bradley Byrne&#8217;s beliefs arose after the Press-Register, a local paper, quoted him in November 2009 as saying, &#8220;I think there are parts 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