Poll: Misconceptions On Obama’s Faith, Origins Remain

A recent poll from CNN found that false rumors about President Obama’s faith and origins persist, especially among Republicans. The findings highlight the ability of fake information to live on, even with the White House working to correct the misconceptions.

The CNN/ORC poll showed that 29 percent of Americans believe President Obama is Muslim (43 for Republicans). The POTUS’s actual faith is Christian.

Likewise, 20 percent believe Barack Obama was born outside the United States, with 9 percent saying that there is solid evidence his birth was elsewhere and the other 11 saying they just believed it is true.

The president was born in Hawaii.

The numbers are remarkably stable, despite the White House’s best efforts.

A 2010 ABC News/Washington Post poll found that the exact same numbers of respondents believed Obama was born abroad. Since then, the officials have released the president’s long-form birth certificate from Honolulu, Hawaii. That document apparently did not change any minds.

As for the President’s faith, his participation in the Trinity United Church of Chicago (affiliated with the United Church of Christ) became a political issue in his initial 2008 campaign for the presidency. Video surfaced of the Church’s pastor Jeremiah Wright making racially-charged comments about white people.

According to the New York Times, the controversy ultimately led to Obama leaving the church, but not his Protestant Christian faith.

Still, there are some on the left who also don’t fully believe President Obama’s religious back story.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, late night comedian and politically active liberal Bill Maher rejected Obama’s faith claims as a lie.

“Obama’s always spouting spiritual bulls***, and I don’t believe it for a second. He’s a drop dead atheist, absolutely.”

The CNN poll also found that 11 percent of respondents believed Obama was not religious. Ultimately, 39 percent of people correctly identified him as either Protestant or Christian.

Despite the misconceptions, there are some surprising results in the numbers.

In 2011, while considering a run for the White House, Donald Trump began promoting the idea that Obama was not born in the U.S. Shortly after the release of the long-form birth certificate, Trump admitted that he didn’t really know where the president originally comes from.

Nevertheless, the recent poll claims that 61 percent of current Trump supporters say that Obama was born in America. The findings show the misconceptions are not as prevalent as past polling suggested according to CNN.

The poll on Obama’s faith and origins took place between September 4 and September 8 with phone surveys to 1,012 adults.

[Image Credit: Getty Images]