Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Religion

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    New analysis finds African-Americans are markedly more religious than overall U.S. population

    Washington, D.C.—On the eve of Black History Month, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life released a new analysis that paints a detailed religious portrait of African-Americans. The analysis finds that African-Americans are markedly more religious than the U.S. population as a whole on a variety of measures, including reporting a religious […]

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    The Religious Affiliations of U.S. Presidents

    Nearly half the nation’s presidents have been affiliated with the Episcopal or Presbyterian churches. John F. Kennedy remains the only Catholic to have held the nation’s highest office. Only three U.S. presidents — Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson — have been unaffiliated with a specific religious tradition. Sources: Ronald Reagan: The Ronald Reagan […]

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    Abortion Views by Religious Affiliation

    Thursday, Jan. 22 marks the 36th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark abortion ruling, Roe v. Wade (1973). Abortion remains a divisive issue in the U.S., with a slim majority (53%) in favor of keeping it legal in all or most cases and four-in-ten in favor of making it illegal in all or most […]

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    The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

    Updated Jan. 15, 2009 The Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem’s Old City. (Photo: Benjamin Rondel/Corbis) The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life has assembled a variety of resources on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including reports, event transcripts, polling data and news clips. Pew Forum Resources Event America and […]

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    Religion and the Presidency

    On Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life has assembled a variety of resources on religion and the presidency, including reports, event transcripts, polling data and a graphic featuring the religious affiliations of U.S. presidents […]

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    Faith on the Hill: 2008

    Members of Congress are often accused of being out of touch with average citizens, but an examination of the religious affiliations of U.S. senators and representatives shows that, on one very basic level, Congress looks much like the rest of the country. Although a majority of the members of the new, 111th Congress, which will […]

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    Breaking Barriers: Congressman Dalip Singh Saund

    Born near Amritsar, India in 1899, Dalip Singh Saund was an unlikely future candidate for national office when he came to the United States in 1920 to study food preservation at the University of California, Berkeley. But in 1956 Saund, whose career would span the vocations of mathematician, farmer, author, activist and judge, became the […]

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    The Religious Makeup of Congress

    The charts below highlight key findings from a Pew Forum report, “Faith on the Hill: The Religious Affiliations of Members of Congress.” The report shows that while Congress looks very much like the rest of the country, some religious minorities are underrepresented in the House and Senate, while others are overrepresented. For an in-depth examination […]

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    Leadership of the 111th Congress Reflects Religious Diversity

    Historically, most of the top leaders in Congress have come from the larger Protestant denominational families, such as Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians and Presbyterians. Although the leadership on Capitol Hill today is much more diverse than it once was, Protestants still fill a substantial number of the top jobs in the 111th Congress. Indeed, the returning […]

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    Many Americans Say Other Faiths Can Lead to Eternal Life

    In this report: Who can go to heaven? How does one obtain eternal life? Trends in opinions about religious exclusivity About the survey A majority of all American Christians (52%) think that at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life. Indeed, among Christians who believe many religions can lead to eternal life, 80% […]