Key West, Florida A voter at a New Hampshire polling station. Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in May 2008 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. William A. Galston, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution and an assistant for domestic policy […]
The presidential candidates have recently intensified their efforts to woo Catholic voters, underscoring the election-year significance of this key swing constituency. Pew Forum Senior Fellow John Green discusses Catholic voting trends in past elections, the challenges facing the campaigns as they reach out to Catholics and how the church’s growing Hispanic population may impact future […]
Washington, D.C.—Religion & Politics ’08 named one of five finalists for Best Politics Website of 2008 and honored in the Religion and Spirituality category. The Webby Awards have named the Pew Forum’s Religion & Politics ’08 one of five finalists for Best Politics Website of 2008. Religion & Politics ’08 was also named an official […]
Washington, D.C. http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?autostart=false&brandname=Pew%20Forum&brandlink=http:%2F%2Fpewforum%2Eorg&showplayerpath=http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf&file=http://isthegodgapclosing.blip.tv/rss/flash?sort=date&nsfw=dc&user=GGForum&showguidebutton=false&showsharebutton=true&showfsbutton=true&showplaylist=true&smokeduration=0 One significant pattern in the 2004 presidential election was the tendency of religiously observant Americans to vote Republican and the less observant to vote Democratic. But recent events suggest that this pattern, dubbed the “God gap,” may be changing, as reflected in the results of the 2006 midterm elections and the increased […]
May 6, 2008 Before the pope’s plane – dubbed “Shepherd One” – touched down at Andrews Air Force Base on April 15, the news media portrayed Pope Benedict XVI as a largely unknown religious figure about to introduce himself to American Catholics still recovering from the clergy sex abuse scandal. By the time he left, […]
Photo Credit: Peter M. Fisher/Corbis With a six-year grant from the John Templeton Foundation, UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute conducted a longitudinal study to assess the spirituality of college students during their undergraduate years. The study finds that while attendance at religious services decreased dramatically for most students between their freshman and junior years, the […]
As the historic 2008 presidential primary season came to an end, the presumptive Republican and Democratic nominees faced similar dilemmas. Both Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) decided to sever ties with controversial religious figures who had been backing their campaigns. As the general election campaign got under way, both […]
1. Where do the restrictions on religious organizations’ participation in the political process come from? The Internal Revenue Code prohibits intervention in political campaigns by organizations that are exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3),1 including religious organizations. The restrictions are one of the conditions of maintaining tax-exempt status. Although other restrictions – including […]
Washington, D.C. Peter Berger, an eminent sociologist of religion and a lifelong Lutheran, asked himself several years ago: “Would my moral convictions change if I woke up tomorrow as an atheist?” For Berger, this perplexing question led to a research project involving fellow Judeo-Christian religious thinkers, which will culminate in the publication of two books, […]
