Clergy & Churches
Mormons and White Evangelicals: Not So Different After All?
[01.12.2012]A new survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life investigates how Mormons feel about American society and their place within it amidst increased scrutiny as the result of two Mormon contenders for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney and John Huntsman. The Pew Forum found that while some Mormons feel misunderstood and alienated from the American mainstream, others have a sense of optimism that the U.S. is ready to… more
Why Do Some Atheists Go to Church?
[12.09.2011]There’s no question that atheists are not the most popular group, at least in the United States. Not only do two-thirds of Americans say that they’d be uncomfortable with an atheist president (with 48% reporting that they would be very uncomfortable with this prospect), Americans are divided in their overall opinion of atheists. Forty-five percent say they have unfavorable views of atheists, while 46% report having a favorable view of… more
American Catholics Loyal to Their Faith, Less Aligned With Church Teachings on Political Issues
[10.25.2011]What does it mean to be a good Catholic? According to a new survey, Catholics in America: Persistence and change in the Catholic landscape, 86% of U.S. Catholics don’t think that following the Vatican’s teachings is the only way to be a loyal member of the faith. Almost 9-in-10 (86%) American Catholics say “you can disagree with aspects of church teachings and still remain loyal to the church.” Yet Catholics… more
Presbyterian Church Ordains First Openly Gay Pastor
[10.12.2011]The newly re-ordained Rev. Scott Anderson of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) resigned as pastor of his California church in 1990 after telling his congregants that he was gay. More than 20 years later, on Saturday October 8, he was welcomed back into the ministry as the denomination’s first openly gay pastor, several months after the Presbyterian national assembly decided to remove language from the church constitution that required clergy to… more
Millennials Leave Their Churches Over Science, Lesbian & Gay Issues
[10.06.2011]Churches are worried, and with good reason. A new study from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research released last week reported that over the past decade, America’s congregations have lost members and suffered a decrease in “spiritual vitality,” brought on, in part, by ageing congregations. And the Barna Group, a Christian-affiliated polling organization, recently completed a five-year project which has morphed into a book called You Lost Me: Why Young… more
New Survey Finds American Congregations Slowly Losing Members
[10.03.2011]Taking the temperature of America’s congregations might seem like an impossible task, given the country’s vast array of religious institutions, but a new survey from The Hartford Institute for Religion Research paints a vivid portrait of the status of American faith communities. In “A Decade of Change in American Congregations 2000- 2010,” survey author David A. Roozen shows that in the past decade, despite “bursts of innovation and pockets of… more
Evangelical Woman Criticizes “Biblical Womanhood” By Embracing It
[09.30.2011]Although the idea of Biblical womanhood may seem foreign to some, it’s a crucial concept for the solid majority (66%) of white evangelical Christians who believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. Last October, a self-identified evangelical Christian blogger and author named Rachel Held Evans set out to test this scriptural literalism by taking it to its logical extreme. In her year-long “Womanhood Project,” she resolved to… more
PRRI in the News | “For Catholics, Open Attitudes on Gay Issues”
[04.22.2011]Austin Considine posted a new article over at the New York Times today, in which he cites the portrait on Catholic attitudes on gay and lesbian issues we released last month. Check it out: Last month, the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit group, reported that 74 percent of American Catholics surveyed supported the rights of same-sex couples to marry or form civil unions (43 percent and 31 percent, respectively)…. more
“A Pastoral Letter Regarding Bullying and Suicide”
[01.27.2011]In the wake of the recent string of teen suicides, the Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), drafted a letter to the church calling on its members to stand up against bullying. In the letter, she cited the October PRRI/RNS Religion News Survey, conducted by Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with the Religion News Service. Dear Disciples, The wave of… more