01: While politicians and the media often refer to faith-based organizations (FBOs) as generic entities with monolithic strategies and goals, they actually hold diverse and sometimes conflicting “practical theologies” that drive their activism, according to an analysis in the Review of Religious Research (June). Sociologists Jo Anne Schneider and Patricia Wittberg conducted a study that […]

01: While it is not difficult to find a correlation between individuals’ religious views and their rate of cohabitation, a new study argues that a similar association is present on the country-wide level. The study was presented at the April meeting of the Association for the Study of Religion, Economics and Culture (ASREC) in April, […]

01: An analysis by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life finds that supporters of the Tea Party tend to have a conservative take on social and religious matters, as well as on economics. They are also more likely than registered voters as a whole to say that religion is the most […]

01: The number of religious “nones,” or the unaffiliated, in the last two decades has grown significantly, but this group may be about evenly split between secular and more religious elements, according to a recent study. Surveys showing the percentage of religious nones have indicated that they range be-tween 11 percent and 20 percent of the […]

01: Thirty years ago, Americans were more likely to think of God as a friend rather than as a king; in 2008, the reverse was true. That is one of the preliminary findings of a paper presented by Rebekah Peeples Massengill and Conrad Hackett at the August meeting of the Association for the Sociology of […]

01: Americans born in the 1960s and 1970s will probably be less likely to disaffiliate from religion as they grow older compared to those born in the 1940s and 1950s, according to an analysis by University of Nebraska sociologist Phillip Schwadel. In the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (June), Schwadel analyzes data from […]

01: American denominations are experiencing a “clergy glut” after a decade-long shortage of clergy in U.S. pulpits. The economic decline is causing a situation in many churches where there are two ministers for every vacant pulpit. In the Presbyterian Church (USA) there are 532 vacancies for 2,271 ministers seeking positions. The United Methodist Church, Assemblies […]

01: While scholars have found that many Americans are “believing without belonging,” there are many who belong to religious groups but don’t believe, according to sociologist Darren Sherkat. Writing on the Immanent Frame, a blog of the Social Science Council, Sherkat writes that many scholars are “somewhat dismissive” of trends in disaffiliation, arguing that Americans […]

01: Megachurches have a significant impact on the growth and decline rates of other congregations, both inside and outside of their vicinity, according to a recent study by Jason Wollschleger of the University of Washington and Jeremy Porter of Brooklyn College. In a paper presented at the meeting of the SSSR in Baltimore in late […]

01: A new study by the Pew Research Center Forum on Religion and Public Life finds that 64 nations have high or very high restrictions on religion. The most overall cases—and highest level—of religious restrictions are in the Middle East and North Africa, while the Americas have the lowest rate. The survey looked at both […]