All posts tagged: PRRI

US religious groups support LGBTQ+ rights, divide on medical care for trans minors

US religious groups support LGBTQ+ rights, divide on medical care for trans minors

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — Since coming into office, President Trump has signed a slew of executive orders that attempt to restrict the rights and care available to LGBTQ+ people and particularly transgender people. Among the president’s directives: excluding transgender people from serving in the military; blocking gender-affirming care for minors; and banning transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ sports. States are now following his example: Iowa’s Republican governor signed into law last week a measure that ends state civil rights protections for transgender people. But over the past decade, Americans have remained broadly supportive of non-discrimination laws and policies toward LGBTQ+ people. They are less supportive of gender-transition medical care for minors, a new PRRI survey shows. The survey, part of the American Values Atlas, which includes 22,000 adults from across the U.S. polled four times over the course of 2024, shows that support for same-sex marriage and non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people remains strong. Some 75% of Americans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people in housing, employment and public accommodation, up from 71% in 2015. “Support …

New survey points to correlation between Christian nationalism and authoritarian views

New survey points to correlation between Christian nationalism and authoritarian views

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — Americans who hold Christian nationalist views are also likely to express support for forms of authoritarianism, according to a new report, pointing to a possible link between those who advocate for a Christian nation and people who agree with statements such as the need to “smash the perversions eating away at our moral fiber and traditional beliefs.” The Public Religion Research Institute unveiled the new survey last week during Religion News Service’s 90th anniversary celebration in New York City, presenting the data to a room of faith leaders, advocates and reporters. A statement sent to RNS on Monday (Sept 16), Melissa Deckman, CEO of PRRI, framed the study as an effort to connect recent research on Christian nationalism with longstanding efforts to assess authoritarianism. “While most Americans do not espouse authoritarian views, our study demonstrates that such views are disproportionately held by Christian nationalists, who we know in our past research have been more prone to accept political violence and more likely to hold antidemocratic attitudes than other Americans,” Deckman said. In addition …

Understanding America’s overlooked religious middle

Understanding America’s overlooked religious middle

Published by Sam

(RNS) — In America’s religious landscape, the groups attracting the most public attention are those staking out the poles in our political divides: the shrinking, aging but still influential group of white evangelical Christians on the right vs. Black Protestants and the growing religiously unaffiliated cohort on the left. With the media, political and philanthropic spotlights all focused on the edges, however, America’s important religious middle remains in the shadows. To be sure, the religious groups at the poles powerfully demonstrate the eye-popping levels of political polarization in the country. In the 2020 election, according to the 2020 Pew Validated Voter Study and the 2020 AP Votecast Exit Poll, 84% of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, while 71% of religiously unaffiliated voters and 91% of Black Protestants voted for Joe Biden. You can also see the political chasms in the religious landscape on hot-button issues such as abortion and immigration: Three-quarters (75%) of white evangelical Protestants say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases; by contrast, 70% of Black Protestants and 82% of religiously unaffiliated …

UMC initiative connects people around non-church interests

UMC initiative connects people around non-church interests

Published by Sam

Melanie Nichols, a florist instructor from Troy, North Carolina, leads a flower arrangement class, Saturday, April 13, 2024, at Randall by the River in Norwood, North Carolina. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron) NORWOOD, N.C. (RNS) — With pruning shears in hand, 13 women gazed intently at the composition of alstroemerias, roses, carnations and eucalyptus branches they had carefully propped up in glass vases during a flower arrangement class on a recent Saturday. The one-hour class, inside a renovated church hall, was one of the monthly “bridge” sessions offered by a United Methodist congregation to anyone living in this small town along Lake Tillery, about an hour’s drive from downtown Charlotte. Of the 13 participants, only three were church members, though a few others had attended once or twice. Melanie Nichols, the florist instructor, made her way to each one, offering tips. “Pull off those extra leaves growing around the base of the flower,” she advised one. “If you place it at an angle, it helps open up your arrangement,” she recommended to another. The church, Randall by …

Mormonism is still growing, but slowly

Mormonism is still growing, but slowly

Published by Sam

(RNS) — It’s that time of year again. The April tulips are showing their colorful regalia, Americans are scrambling to finish their taxes and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has just released its annual statistics. But before I discuss the stats, I want to issue a PSA about data. I find data about religion fascinating, and I’m proud to have contributed to our knowledge about Latter-day Saints in the United States through ongoing quantitative and qualitative research. But I’m also very tired of the fever pitch that people can get into about Mormon data. The narrative from some quarters is that everyone is leaving the LDS church and that the denomination will inevitably wither and die in the wake of so many departures. Some seem so committed to this narrative that they ignore or reject any data that doesn’t support it (and send me emails and angry tweets if I stray from this narrative). The narrative from other quarters is that no one is leaving, or at least not anyone the church …

Unaffiliated Americans are the only growing religious group

Unaffiliated Americans are the only growing religious group

Published by Sam

(RNS) — Religious churn has been a key fixture of U.S. religion for a long time, but a new survey of changes in American religion finds that motion is not so much a swirling but a one-way stream heading out. A new PRRI survey shows that religiously unaffiliated Americans are the only group that has seen steady growth over the past decade — from 21% of all Americans in 2013 to 26% in 2023. These unaffiliated Americans — many of whom abandoned their childhood faith — are not looking for a spiritual home. Only 9% of people in this group said they were “looking for a religion that’s right for me.” Most may be unaffiliated for life. Only 3% of Americans who grew up without a religious identity said they joined a religion. Even those who remain religious — the vast majority of Americans, about 67% of whom are Christian — say religion is less important in their lives.  Only 53% of Americans say religion is the most important or one among many important things …

Poll shows slight dip in US support for LGBTQ rights across religious groups

Poll shows slight dip in US support for LGBTQ rights across religious groups

Published by Sam

(RNS) — While most Americans continue to broadly support LGBTQ rights, that support may be waning, including among religious Americans, according to a new poll from PRRI. The report, based on interviews with more than 22,000 U.S. adults in 2023, found that Americans are slightly less likely to support same-sex marriage and LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections and less likely to oppose allowing business owners to refuse to serve LGBTQ people for faith reasons, compared with the year before. “I think the big story is that most Americans of faith are broadly supportive of LGBTQ rights,” said Melissa Deckman, CEO of PRRI. “However, we do see slight declines in three of the questions we tracked when it comes to Americans’ attitudes on LGBTQ rights. …That was somewhat surprising to us.” Deckman said that for groups who advocate for LGBTQ rights, this data is akin to “a canary in the coal mine.” Seventy-six percent of American adults reported supporting LGBTQ nondiscrimination policies in public accommodations, housing and employment, the survey found, down from 80% the year before. The …

The Catholic Church needs to play a positive role in this year’s election

The Catholic Church needs to play a positive role in this year’s election

Published by Sam

(RNS) — This year’s U.S. presidential election is going to be of historic importance for both America and the world, and the Catholic Church in the United States is uniquely positioned to help foster nonpartisan conversation. By Catholic Church, I do not mean just Catholic bishops. All Catholic citizens, and even ex-Catholics, can make a difference. Catholics are important because there are lots of them. They are both Democrats and Republicans, and some of them are swing voters. Catholics make up 21.4% of the U.S. population (12.6% are white Catholics, 8.6% Hispanic Catholics), according to the Public Religion Research Institute. Another 13% of adult Americans are ex-Catholics, according to the Pew Research Center. Altogether, that is about a third of the country. By numbers alone, Catholics matter, but in addition many of them are in battleground states.  A majority of Catholics usually vote for the winner in presidential elections. From 1928 to 1968, Catholics voted solidly Democratic in presidential elections, with perhaps one exception: Gallup says they voted Democratic in 1956, while the National Election …