The “Zeal of the Convert”: Is It the Real Deal?
People who have switched religions consistently exhibit higher levels of religious commitment than those who still belong to their childhood faith, but the differences are relatively modest.
Brides, Grooms Often Have Different Faiths
Buddhists and the religiously unaffiliated are the most likely to have a spouse or partner with a different religious background, while Mormons and Hindus are the least likely to marry or live with a partner outside their own faith.
Data: Faith in Flux: Reasons for Joining, Reasons for Leaving
Americans change religious affiliation early and often. In total, about half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives.
Faith in Flux
Americans change religious affiliation early and often. A new survey documents the fluidity of religious affiliation in the U.S. and describes in detail the patterns and reasons for change.
Not All Nonbelievers Call Themselves Atheists
About one-in-20 Americans say they do not believe in God, but that doesn’t mean 5% of Americans are atheists. In fact, 14% of nonbelievers self-identify as Christian. Only a quarter of those who do not believe in God consider themselves atheists.
No Decline in Belief That Obama is a Muslim
More than two months into Barack Obama’s presidency, as many people incorrectly identify him as a Muslim as did so during the 2008 campaign with white evangelicals and Republicans most likely to misidentify his religious affiliation.
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.
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.
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.
Palin Nomination Puts Spotlight on Pentecostalism
From the time she was a teenager until 2002, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin attended a Pentecostal church , a denomination that emphasizes such practices as speaking in tongues, prophesying, divine healing and other miraculous signs of the Holy Spirit.
