Obama says prayer helps him do his job

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WASHINGTON, March 30 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama says crises around the world have led him to "a lot of praying" lately.

"I am praying that I'm making the best possible decisions, and that I've got the strength to serve the American people well," he said in an interview with ABC News Tuesday.

At the National Prayer Breakfast last month, Obama said the Tucson, Ariz., shootings had deepened his faith and seeing his daughters grow up makes him rely on God more.

"My prayers sometimes are general: Lord, give me the strength to meet the challenges of my office," he said. "Sometimes they're specific: Lord, give me patience as I watch Malia go to her first dance. Where there will be boys, Lord, have that skirt get longer as she travels to that dance."

But despite Obama's repeated professions of Christianity, many Americans still doubt his faith.

Nearly a fifth believes he is a Muslim, and the percentage identifying him as Christian dropped from 48 in March 2009 to 34 in August 2010, a poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found. Forty-three percent said they did not know what Obama's religion is at all.