Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Political Issues

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    Abortion Wild Card In Battle Over O’Connor’s Successor

    Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s decision to step down from the Supreme Court sets up a possible next chapter in the nation’s culture wars. If the debate over O’Connor’s replacement turns into a referendum on Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision establishing a woman’s right to abortion, the argument is likely to galvanize a significant […]

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    Iraq News Increases Calls for Troop Withdrawal

    Summary of Findings The steady drip of negative news from Iraq is significantly undermining support for the U.S. military operation there. With the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq exceeding 1,700, there is widespread awareness of the rising American death toll. As a consequence, baseline public attitudes toward the war are gradually turning more […]

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    Supreme Court Rules RLUIPA Does Not Violate Establishment Clause

    Church-State Experts React to Unanimous Ruling The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the constitutionality of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a federal law that aims to protect the religious freedom of inmates and others held in state and local institutions. The unanimous decision in Cutter v. Wilkinson reverses a ruling by the […]

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    The Islamic Paradox: Religion and Democracy in the Middle East

    Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Florida, in May 2005 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle conference on religion, politics and public life. Conference speaker Reuel Marc Gerecht, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Middle East specialist for the CIA, argued that […]

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    With Ben Franklin’s Blessings: A Primer on the Faith-Based Initiative

    Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Florida, in May 2005 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle conference on religion, politics and public life. Conference speaker John DiIulio, a University of Pennsylvania professor and former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, discussed the […]

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    The Coming Religious Wars? Demographics and Conflict in Islam and Christianity

    Pew Research Center Washington, D.C. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Council on Foreign Relations co-hosted a roundtable to explore geopolitical implications of the growth, distribution and migration of Muslim and Christian populations. Population momentum – rapid growth due to previously high fertility rates – is a critical issue in the […]

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    Health Information Online

    Eight in ten internet users have looked online for information on at least one of 16 health topics, with increased interest since 2002 in diet, fitness, drugs, health insurance, experimental treatments, and particular doctors and hospitals.