Marriage & Divorce

There is a stronger consensus in public opinion about the social cost of out-of-wedlock births than there is about the morality of these births.

The U.S. Religious Landscape Surveyfinds that more than one-in-four (27%) American adults who are married or living with a partner are in religiously mixed relationships. If people from different Protestant denominational families are included – for example, a marriage between a Methodist and a Lutheran – nearly four-in-ten (37%) couples are religiously mixed. The survey, […]

Nevada has the highest share of divorced women (16%), although Maine is close behind at 15%.

On Nov. 18, 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage following a ruling by the state’s highest court. In the five years since the Massachusetts decision, 26 states have amended their constitutions to ban gay marriage. Before the Massachusetts ruling, only three states had passed constitutional amendments prohibiting the practice – Alaska […]

To explore arguments for and against gay marriage, Senior Research Fellow David Masci interviewed Jonathan Rauch of The National Journal and Rick Santorum of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. The Q&A’s were done as part of the Pew Forum’s special report on gay marriage. Jonathan Rauch: The Case For Same-Sex Marriage “America’s problem is […]

The debate over same-sex marriage in the United States is a contentious one, and advocates on both sides continue to work hard to make their voices heard. To explore the case against gay marriage, the Pew Forum has turned to Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and now a senior fellow at the […]

The debate over same-sex marriage in the United States is a contentious one, and advocates on both sides continue to work hard to make their voices heard. To explore the case for gay marriage, the Pew Forum has turned to Jonathan Rauch, a columnist at The National Journal and guest scholar at The Brookings Institution. […]

The controversy ignited by the Massachusetts High Court ruling allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry continues to rage in state courts and legislatures as well as in churches across the nation.

Updated Nov. 21, 2008 In this article: The Debate Begins The Goodridge Case and Its Aftermath The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ignited a nationwide debate in late 2003 when it ruled that the state must allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. Almost overnight, same-sex marriage became a major national issue, pitting religious and social […]

The combination of widespread religious commitment and leadership in science and technology greatly enlarges the potential for conflict between faith and science in the U.S.