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    New Pew-Templeton Survey to Explore the Role of Religion in Society in 19 Sub-Saharan African Nations

    Washington, D.C.—In a 10:00 a.m. EDT conference call for journalists on Thursday, April 15, 2010, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life will discuss its new survey that explores the role of religion in the lives and societies of sub-Saharan Africans. CONTACT Mary SchultzCommunications Manager202.419.4556mschultz@pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/religion “Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in […]

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    Broad Criticism of Pope Benedict’s Handling of Sex Abuse Scandal

    Amid new revelations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI’s job ratings for handling the scandal have plummeted. Only about one-in-ten (12%) say the pope has done an excellent (3%) or good job (9%) in addressing the sex abuse scandal; 71% say he has done a poor (44%) or only fair (27%) […]

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    In Brief: Christian Legal Society v. Martinez

    On April 19, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, a case that will determine whether a public institution can refuse to officially recognize a religiously based organization that prevents those who do not share its religious and moral values from becoming voting members. The case arose […]

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    Religion in the News: 2009

    Pope Benedict XVI and the Obama administration generated the most religion-related coverage in the U.S. press in 2009. The pope, though he made no visits to the United States last year, was the subject of two of the top 10 religion stories, while the Obama administration accounted for three of the top 10 religion-focused storylines […]

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    Briefing on U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy

    The following briefing by Brian J. Grim, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, was presented to the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight on the Pew Forum’s findings on restrictions on religion around the world. Good morning. I would like to begin by […]

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    Religion Among the Millennials

    Introduction and Overview MILLENNIALS This is part of a Pew Research Center series of reports exploring the behaviors, values and opinions of the teens and twenty-somethings that make up the Millennial generation. By some key measures, Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans. Fewer young adults belong to any particular […]

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    Millennial Generation Less Religiously Active than Older Americans

    But Pew Forum Finds Young Adults To BeFairly Traditional in Some Other Ways Washington, D.C.—By some key measures, Americansages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans,according to a new report released by the Pew Research Center’s Forum onReligion & Public Life. Fully one-in-four are unaffiliated with anyparticular faith.The report is part of […]

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    A Brief History of Religion and the U.S. Census

    Note: For a more recent overview of the Census Bureau’s history of asking about religion, read this April 2023 article. The U.S. Census Bureau has not asked questions about religion since the 1950s, but the federal government did gather some information about religion for about a century before that. Starting in 1850, census takers began […]

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    Little Support for Terrorism Among Muslim Americans

    Recent events such as the Fort Hood shootings and the arrest of five Muslim American students in Pakistan have raised questions about the threat of homegrown terrorism in the United States. However, the Pew Research Center’s comprehensive portrait of the Muslim American population suggests it is less likely to be a fertile breeding ground for […]

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    Event Transcript: Global Restrictions on Religion

    More than half a century ago, the United Nations affirmed the principle of religious freedom in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, defining it as “the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.” For just as long, journalists and human rights groups have reported on persecution of minority faiths, outbreaks of sectarian violence […]