01: A widely publicized survey on religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life either shows a growing rate of disenchantment with organized faiths or greater religious pluralism and dynamism, depending on one’s own place on the religious spectrum. The survey made headlines around the world for its finding that more than […]

01: Recent immigrants are less likely to practice their faith than in their home countries, especially in the period when they first come to the U.S., according to a new study. In a preliminary study of the religious involvement of new immigrants, Phillip Connor of Princeton University found a decline in active religious participation among […]

01: The rise of “political anti-fundamentalism” is largely a reaction to messages about conservative Christians from the media, according to a recent study by political scientists Louis Bolce and Gerald De Maio. In a paper presented at the Association for the Study of Religion, Economics and Culture (ASREC) in Tampa, Florida in early November, Bolce and […]

01: The U.S. is becoming a more secular country judging by the decreasing amount of time Americans spend on religious activities, including Sunday worship, according to a recent study. Drawing on time-use data (which is obtained through respondents recording their own daily activities) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, researchers Ariela Keysar, Barry Kosmin, and Benjamin […]

01: Though there has been sharp debate over whether church attendance is declining in the U.S., a recent analysis of data suggests a pattern of stability. In the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion(September), Stanley Presser and Mark Chaves write that such debate has intensified as self-reporting attendance figures have been found to tend toward over- […]

01: A survey of religious political action groups and their effectiveness in influencing state legislatures finds that the use of lobbyists and building a strong membership base are more important than holding a specific ideology. The study, presented at the meeting of the ASR, is based on a survey of 15 Indiana legislators (exactly 10 percent […]

01: Muslim Americans most closely resemble white evangelicals and black Protestants in their level of religious commitment, according to an analysis of recent surveys from the Pew Research Center. Among American Muslims, black Protestants and white evangelicals, large majorities (72 percent of Muslims, 87 percent of black Protestants, and 80 percent of white evangelicals) say […]

01: There has been a sharp increase of Catholics training for lay ministries in the church, according to a recent study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). The report notes that the biggest change in 2006-2007 was in the number of people working toward degrees or certificates for “lay ecclesial ministry” — […]

01: American Muslims have a generally positive view of the U.S., seeing little conflict between Islam and being an American citizen, and they are more likely to reject Islamic extremism than their counterparts in Europe, according to a new survey. The survey by the Pew Research Center finds that a majority of respondents (53 percent) said […]

01: The achievement gap between white and minority students, as well as between children of high- and low-socioeconomic status, is considerably narrower in religious, mostly Christian, schools than in in public schools, according to a recent analysis. In an article in theInterdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion (Vol. 3, 2007), William H. Jeynes of California State […]