Stimulus Package Stimulates Church-State Debate
Economic stimulus legislation has brought on a church-state debate regarding school funding. The Pew Forum turns to church-state scholar Robert Tuttle.
In Mammon We Trust? Religions Agree Economy is Issue Number One
While members of all faiths see the economy as the top priority for 2009, they are not always in agreement on what issues the government should tackle. The divide is especially large on reducing crime and moral decline in America.
The Stronger Sex — Spiritually Speaking
Analysis of survey data shows that women are more religious than men on a variety of measures.
Cupid’s Arrow Often Hits People of Different Faiths
More than one-in-four (27%) American adults who are married or living with a partner are in religiously mixed relationships.
Darwin Debated: Religion vs. Evolution
Two hundred years after Charles Darwin’s birth, and 150 years after he published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Americans are still fighting over evolution. If anything, the controversy has recently grown in both size and intensity. In a multi-part package, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life explores the many facets of the debate as it has evolved from its origins to the present day.
A Religious Portrait of African-Americans
While the U.S. is generally considered a highly religious nation, African-Americans are markedly more religious on a variety of measures than the U.S. population as a whole, including level of affiliation with a religion, attendance at religious services, frequency of prayer and religion’s importance in life.
Higher Law: Faith-Based Hiring and the Obama Administration
During his campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama said he would overturn the Bush administration’s actions allowing religious groups that receive federal funds for providing social services to restrict hiring to those of the same faith. A scholar discusses the legal pros and cons of such a reversal.
The Religious Makeup of Congress
Although a majority of the members of the new, 111th Congress are Protestants, Congress — like the nation as a whole — is much more religiously diverse than it was 50 years ago.
Many Americans Say Other Faiths Can Lead to Eternal Life
Most American Christians, including evangelicals, have more than just other Christian denominations in mind when they say there are many paths to salvation. Also, roughly one-third of Americans believe that whether one achieves eternal life is determined by what a person believes, with nearly as many saying eternal life depends on one’s actions.
After Bush, Islam’s Real Challenge
Scholar Vali Nasr argues that the 2003 invasion of Iraq has fundamentally shifted the region’s balance of power and that the most important conflicts of the Middle East now revolve around the Shia/Sunni sectarian divide.
