‘Born Again’ Being Redefined, Poll Finds

When Jimmy Carter first used the term born again, it had long been familiar to people in the nation’s Bible Belt: the South and parts of the Midwest. But a lot of political reporters from elsewhere wondered what he meant.

Since then the term has gained currency; one in three Americans (36%) use it as a personal adjective and presumably a badge of pride, surveys by the Gallup Poll indicate.

As a result, political writers and speakers are using the term more. But the effect can be misleading, because some are wrongly equating a born-again experience with a fundamentalist religious outlook and ultraconservative political views.

To Christians who use the term, born again describes an experience of accepting Jesus Christ as one’s savior and undergoing a spiritual renewal. Protestant denominations often label people who have had the same experience evangelicals-- and, indeed, the phenomenon is predominantly Protestant. Only 18% of Roman Catholics describe their religious beliefs as evangelical, but 50% of Protestants do.

The findings are based on Gallup Poll telephone and in-person interviews with 5,462 men and women, 18 and older, interviewed throughout 1992. The margin of error is plus or minus 1 percentage point.

Among evidence that born-again Americans are not necessarily political conservative is the following:

* Nearly as many Democrats (39%) claim to be born again as Republicans (41%). Political independents lag behind, but a sizable minority (31%) describe themselves as born again.

* People most likely to say they are born again are African-Americans (55%), who as a group lend little support to right-wing causes.

Groups with above-average tendencies to be “born-again” are women (40%); people 50 or older (44%); rural residents (44%); those who did not attend college (43%, and the non-affluent (44%).