Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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The majority of the 16.1% of adults who describe themselves as unaffiliated, and 12.1% of the adult population overall, is made up of people who simply describe their religion as “nothing in particular.”
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has assembled a variety of resources on international religious freedom, including event transcripts, Q&As and news clips. Pew Forum Resources Q&A Ten Years of Promoting Religious Freedom Through U.S. Foreign Policy Oct. 16, 2008 Oct. 27, 2008 marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the International […]
On Aug. 7, 2008, the Third Church of Christ, Scientist filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the designation of its church building as a historic landmark. The church is a rare Washington, D.C., example of Brutalism, a modern architectural style popular in the mid-20th century. In December […]
Most religion-specific legislative accommodations, such as those discussed above, have focused on exempting religious individuals and organizations from particular laws. But in 1993, Congress departed from this more-focused approach by passing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which generally protects people of faith from all laws that unduly burden their religious practices. The impetus for […]
More tracking charts » Surveys by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press show that white, non-Hispanic Catholic support for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama has grown, taking him from a 13-percentage-point deficit in late September to an 8-point lead in late October. Pew Forum Senior Fellow John Green looks behind […]
On Sunday, Sept. 28, more than two dozen pastors challenged a provision in the tax code that restricts the political activities of houses of worship and other tax-exempt organizations. Arguing that they have a constitutional right to speak out on political issues, the pastors discussed the 2008 presidential candidates from the pulpit and, in some […]
The latest report from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows that, as in previous elections, differences in voting patterns by religion are amplified when church attendance is taken into account. For example, Barack Obama has made no headway among white evangelical Protestants who attend church at least once a week; […]
In most countries surveyed, majorities consider religion an essential part of their lives. However, younger people are generally less likely to say religion is very important to them. This is especially true in Western Europe, where relatively few young people say religion plays a key role in their lives, but the same pattern can be […]