Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
A new survey finds signs of public uneasiness with the mixing of religion and politics. The number of people who say there has been too much religious talk by political leaders stands at an all-time high in Pew Research Center surveys, and most Americans continue to say that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of politics.
In Europe, there is a crisis of confidence in the economy, in the future, in the benefits of European economic integration, in EU membership, in the euro and in the free market system. The crisis has also exposed sharp differences between some Europeans, especially the Germans and Greeks.
UPDATED FEBRUARY 16, 2012, WITH MORE COMPLETE DATA. As courts and legislatures address the question of whether same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry, public support for gay marriage continues to grow. Polls in 2011 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that an average of 46% favor allowing […]
The biggest religion stories of 2011 involved tensions over Islam and questions about faith in presidential politics, especially Mormonism, according to an annual review of religion in the news.
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, the Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon” and other popular treatments of Mormonism in entertainment media have brought sustained attention to Mormons and their religion, but Mormons themselves think that the American people are ill-informed about Mormonism and reluctant to accept Mormonism as part of mainstream American society. More than four-in-ten […]
With additional women coming forward with sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain, the 2012 presidential race was the No. 1 story for the second week in a row.
With more and more partisans choosing up sides on the issue, the Occupy Wall Street protests continued to fuel economic coverage last week. Mitt Romney took front and center in the 2012 presidential campaign, and the unraveling of an Iranian plot on U.S. soil raised more questions than answers.
With a Mormon candidate in the race for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, there has been intense media, academic and public interest in Mormons and their religion. The Pew Forum recently held a roundtable discussion with journalists, scholars and policy experts on some of the latest research on Mormons and their place in American society and public life.