Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Public support for gay marriage continues to edge upward. At the same time, support for legal abortion has rebounded, after declining in 2009. In contrast, there has been no movement in public attitudes toward gun control. The public remains evenly divided over whether it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own […]
Overview The public remains divided over whether Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers. Currently, 40% say the Islamic religion is more likely than others to encourage violence while 42% say it is not. These opinions have changed little in recent years. But in March 2002, just 25% saw […]
Overview Two weeks after U.S. and NATO forces began military operations in Libya, the public’s reaction to the situation remains mixed. Half (50%) say the United States and its allies made the right decision in conducting airstrikes in Libya, while 37% say it was the wrong decision – a balance of opinion virtually unchanged from […]
Washington,D.C. — In a new surveyby the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, most evangelicalProtestant leaders who live in the Global South (58%) say that evangelicalChristians are gaining influence on life in their countries. By contrast, most leaders who live in the Global North (66%)say that, in the societies in which they […]
Conflicts between clergy and their employers are fairly common within religious organizations, and courts are often called upon to resolve these disputes. The Supreme Court has decided two cases in this area of law that build on its ruling in Watson v. Jones and other church property decisions. In the first of these decisions, Gonzalez […]
The political overhaul of the U.S. Congress after the 2010 elections appears to have had little effect on the religious composition of the legislative body, which is similar to the religious makeup of the previous Congress and of the nation, according to an analysis by the Pew Forum.