Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The 2010 midterm elections renewed discussions about civil unions and same-sex marriage laws in several states, including Hawaii, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa. Hawaii The election of Democrat Neil Abercrombie as governor of Hawaii may make it more likely that a bill legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples could become law in the state, according to […]
Catholic bishops in Minnesota and Iowa have entered the pre-election fray over same-sex marriage. On Sept. 22, Catholic bishops in Minnesota mailed more than 400,000 DVDs to Catholics across the state in support of traditional marriage, according to the Star Tribune. Critics of the DVD campaign have said that the video amounts to an implicit […]
The Pew Forum’s religious knowledge survey included 32 questions about various aspects of religion: the Bible, Christianity, Judaism, Mormonism, world religions, religion in public life, and atheism and agnosticism. The average respondent answered 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions correctly. Just 2% of those surveyed answered 29 or more questions correctly (including just eight […]
Hawaii Lt. Governor James “Duke” Aiona‘s religious beliefs and his past involvement with an international Christian organization, the International Transformation Network, have become an issue in his bid for the governor’s office, according to Hawaiian media reports. Aiona, a Republican, is running against Democrat Neil Abercrombie, who represented Hawaii’s 1st District in Congress from 1991 […]
A new survey by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, shows that Hispanic registered voters currently support Democratic candidates by a three-to-one margin in the upcoming midterm elections (65% vs. 22%). The survey data show, however, that there is a sharp divide between Hispanics who identify their religion as Catholic […]
The Pew Forum’s Alan Cooperman and Greg Smith, along with Boston University professor and author Stephen Prothero and Krista Tippett of American Public Media, explore key findings from a new Pew Forum survey on how much Americans know about religion as part of a panel discussion at a national symposium on religious literacy in Washington, […]
Nearly eight-in-ten registered voters (78%) say they received printed mail from candidates or political groups during the 2010 election campaign. Nearly seven-in-ten (69%) received pre-recorded telephone calls about the election. The number of people receiving recorded telephone calls grew steadily over the final few weeks of the campaign, increasing from 55% in mid-October, to 60% […]
Overview Many Americans continue to say their religious beliefs have been highly influential in shaping their views about social issues, including abortion and same-sex marriage. But far fewer cite religion as a top influence on their opinions about several other social and political issues, including how the government should deal with immigration, the environment and […]