Newsweek (June 17) reports that a recent poll finds that most LGBTQ adults in the United States are religious, the majority of these being Christian. Conducted by Buzzfeed and Whitman Insight Strategies, the survey, the most extensive of its kind, surveyed a sample of 880 members of the LGBTQ community nationwide in late May. The […]
Most Protestant churchgoers define and practice tithing—giving 10 percent of one’s income for religious purposes—in a variety of ways, according to a new survey by LifeWay Research. About 50 percent of respondents said they could give their tithes to a Christian ministry instead of a church, and one in three said tithes could go to […]
A recent multigenerational study that spans five decades finds that more than one in five boomers became more religious as they made their way from their 50s to their 60s. The study, conducted by Merril Silverstein and Vern Bengston, used data from 599 respondents in its 2016 wave. Overall, 56 percent of aging boomers said […]
Despite anecdotal reports of minorities leaving white churches over their support of President Donald Trump, churches, especially evangelical ones, are gradually diversifying in race and ethnicity, according to a recent survey by LifeWay Research (March 20). The survey found that 81 percent of pastors report that their church consists largely of one racial group. While […]
In a new study, researchers find that Republicans who view God as actively involved in the world tend to support more generous welfare policies, in opposition to their party’s platform. The study, conducted by Paul Froese and Robert Thomson and published in the journal Sociological Forum (online January 30), is based on an analysis of […]
A new study, Going, Going, Gone: The Dynamics of Disaffiliation in Young Catholics, looks at a sample of former Catholics, aged 15 to 25, to shed light on the movement of young people exiting the church in recent years. The National Catholic Reporter (January 22) notes findings from the survey, which was conducted by St. […]
The downturn in religious affiliation in the U.S. has been interpreted as a sign of secularization and how America may be becoming more like European countries, but a recent article argues that it may be more the case that one segment of Americans is becoming more intensely religious than the rest of the population. Sociologists […]
The Amish community is showing a unique continuity in fertility behaviors across the generations, according to a new study by Cory Anderson (Truman State University), Joseph Donnermeyer (Ohio State University), and Samson Wasao. The preliminary study, which was presented at the recent meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, is based on […]
For all the talk about the growth of “nones,” a core of active young Christians has remained constant in American society, although such young believers are more ethnically diverse than in the past, according to research by Timothy Clydesdale. In a survey of 1880 young adults, the researchers found active twenty-something Christians represented about 30 […]
A recent study by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) reports a significant decline in whites claiming an evangelical identity—and also shows how difficult it is to measure such identity. The PRRI survey, based on 101,000 interviews, finds that there has been a six-point drop in those claiming a white evangelical identity since 2006 (down […]
