Religion & Politics

Introduction and Summary The relationship between religion and politics is a controversial one. While the public remains more supportive of religion’s role in public life than in the 1960s, Americans are uneasy with the approaches offered by both liberals and conservatives. Fully 69% of Americans say that liberals have gone too far in keeping religion […]

Navigate this Report Introduction and Summary Section I – Religion and Public Life Section II – Religion and Politics Section III – Religion and Science Section IV – Religious Beliefs About the Survey Introduction and Summary The relationship between religion and politics is a controversial one. While the public remains more supportive of religion’s role […]

Washington, D.C. For much of the 20th century, social scientists and policymakers argued that democratization and modernity would render religion insignificant and irrelevant. They were wrong, says Timothy Shah, senior Pew Forum fellow in religion and world affairs, who contends religion is booming in many countries and democracy has given religious leaders a growing political […]

by Gregory A. Smith, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and Peyton M. Craighill, Pew Research Center for the People & the Press In the immediate aftermath of George W. Bush’s 2004 victory over John Kerry, many journalists and other political observers declared the election to have been decided, in large part, on the […]

Phoenix Park Hotel Washington, D.C. In February of this year, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., led a coalition of 55 Catholic House Democrats in issuing a “Statement of Principles,” which explains how religious faith and the church’s social teachings influence them as legislators. The statement is also a public effort by Catholic Democrats to redefine themselves […]

Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists and distinguished scholars gathered in Key West, Florida, in May 2006 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Conference speaker William A. Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and formerly a key domestic policy adviser to President […]

Church leaders and members don't always agree about undocumented migrants.

University of Southern California Los Angeles, California April 2006 marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles, an event that is often cited as the birth of modern pentecostalism. Since then, pentecostalism has emerged as one of the fastest-growing Christian movements in the world. Nowhere is this more […]

Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Florida, in December 2005 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle conference on religion, politics and public life. Conference speaker Leigh Eric Schmidt, a professor of religion at Princeton University and author of several books on the history of religion in American […]

Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Florida, in December 2005 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Conference speaker Grace Davie, who has a chair in the Sociology of Religion at the University of Exeter and is the director of the […]