Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The release of the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey has generated record traffic on the Pew Forum’s website as well as many individual emails from readers. We are very grateful for the feedback. Here are some of the most common questions we’ve been receiving. Why didn’t you include smaller religious groups such as Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, […]
For Immediate Release Washington, D.C. — A new national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that a substantial and growing number of Americans say that Barack Obama is a Muslim, while the proportion saying he is a Christian has […]
Preface In his 2007 book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – And Doesn’t, Boston University professor Stephen Prothero wrote that “Americans are both deeply religious and profoundly ignorant about religion.” To support his contention, Prothero offered many compelling anecdotes and some isolated findings from public opinion polls. He also cited a few […]
Religion’s Influence on Society and Government Two-thirds of Americans (67%) currently say that religion is losing its influence on American life, compared with 59% who said this in July 2006. More people now say religion’s influence is on the decline than at any time since 1994, when 69% of respondents in a Gallup poll said […]
For Immediate ReleaseSept. 15, 2010, 12 p.m. EDT Washington, D.C. — A new report by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, “Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe,” profiles several of the oldest, largest and most influential Muslim groups operating in Western Europe today. CONTACT Mary SchultzCommunications Manager202.419.4556mschultz@pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/religion The report focuses […]
Origins and Growth 1910s-1920s: In 1912, the first pentecostal missionary arrives from Finland. In the same year, a charismatic movement known as Roho (“Spirit”) emerges in the Anglican Church. In 1918, North Americans establish a mission that later affiliates with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. The churches resulting from this mission become independent in 1965 […]
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” – the 17-year-old policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military – has become a heated issue in elections in Nevada, Missouri and Florida. The issue gained prominence in late May, when the Senate Armed Services Committee and the full House of Representatives voted to allow the Department of […]
The Democratic Party made a concerted effort to court religious voters in the 2008 presidential election that pitted Democrat Barack Obama against Republican John McCain.1 Led by Obama himself and aided by progressive religious activists, the Democrats reached out to numerous religious groups in hopes of narrowing the “God gap,” a media catchphrase for a […]