Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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For most of the nation’s history, public religious displays were not controversial. But in recent decades, a growing number of citizens and civil liberties groups have sued towns, cities and states over religious symbols in the public square, arguing that these displays should be removed because they violate the First Amendment’s prohibition on government establishment […]
Muslim publics around the world increasingly reject suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets in the defense of Islam. Overall, majorities in 15 of 16 Muslim publics surveyed say that suicide bombings can be rarely or never justified. Fully 77% of Muslims in Indonesia – and nearly as many in Bangladesh, Pakistan […]
Iran’s image remains negative throughout much of the world, and has eroded significantly over the past year in several countries, including Turkey, Egypt and Indonesia. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to inspire little confidence internationally. However, the poll finds Shia Muslims in Lebanon holding overwhelmingly positive opinions of the Iranian president, reflecting a broad divide […]
A second category of Supreme Court decisions focuses on permanent, rather than seasonal, religious displays that involve some form of government sponsorship. Most of these cases involve displays of the Ten Commandments. The Stone Decision The court’s first such decision came in Stone v. Graham (1980), a case that focused on a Kentucky statute requiring […]
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, one of the founders of the Christian right movement, died Tuesday, May 15, 2007. The Pew Forum has assembled a variety of resources on Falwell’s passing, including news articles and reflections on his life. Also see a Pew Forum Q&A with Senior Fellow John Green about the future of the Christian […]
Renewalist Christianity places special emphasis on God’s ongoing, day-to-day intervention in human affairs through the person of the Holy Spirit. Renewalists believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is manifested through such supernatural phenomena as speaking in tongues, miraculous healings and prophetic utterances and revelations. Renewalist Christianity is one of the largest and fastest-growing […]
Washington, D.C. The Pew Forum invited former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to discuss the fate of social conservatives and how he sees religion playing out in 2008 and beyond. He also addressed how he has witnessed religion impacting public affairs in his roles as a pastor and governor, and how his own faith guides his […]
Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in May 2007 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Philip Jenkins, a Penn State University professor and one of the first scholars to call attention to the rising demographic power of Christians in […]