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Nov 19, 2009 - While most Americans oppose government funding of abortion, few cite funding as a reason for opposing health care reform legislation. If anything, opposition to reform has declined since abortion was debated, with currently 42% in favor and 39% opposed to the reform proposals in Congress.
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Nov 16, 2009 - More than eight years after former President George W. Bush unveiled his faith-based initiative to make it easier for religious groups to receive government funding to provide social services, such as feeding the needy, the policy continues to draw broad public support. But as was the case when Bush first announced the initiative, many Americans express concerns about blurring the lines between church and state.
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Oct 29, 2009 - A common perception about individuals who switch religions is that they are very fervent about their new faith. A new Pew Forum analysis finds that people who have switched faiths (or joined a faith after being raised unaffiliated with a religion) are indeed slightly more religious than those who have remained in their childhood faith.
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Oct 09, 2009 - A new report finds that a clear majority of Americans favor allowing civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. Over the past year, support for civil unions has grown significantly among those who oppose same-sex marriage while remaining stable among those who favor same-sex marriage. At the same time, opponents of same-sex marriage continue to outnumber supporters overall.
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Oct 08, 2009 - Many religious organizations have taken on the look of political campaigns, as advocates for and against health care reform preach their politics.
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Oct 08, 2009 - A new, comprehensive study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 1.57 billion Muslims of all ages living in the world today, representing 23% of an estimated 2009 world population of 6.8 billion. The report by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life offers the most up-to-date and fully sourced estimates of the size and distribution of the worldwide Muslim population.
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Oct 01, 2009 - Recently, Americans have become more opposed to legal abortion. New analysis of combined Pew Research Center surveys conducted over the past three years shows that in 2007 and 2008, supporters of abortion rights clearly outnumbered opponents of abortion (those saying it should be illegal in most or all cases) by a 54%-40% margin.
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Sep 24, 2009 - The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Oct. 7 in a case that has the potential to determine the fate of a cross on display in the Mojave National Preserve in San Bernardino County, Calif., as well as similar displays across the country. The court's decision might also determine who may bring Establishment Clause lawsuits in federal court in the future.
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Sep 09, 2009 - Eight years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Americans see Muslims as facing more discrimination inside the U.S. than other major religious groups.
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Apr 30, 2009 - A poll finds that most Catholics who have heard about the issue support the University of Notre Dame's decision to invite Barack Obama to speak and receive an honorary degree at their May 17 commencement. But the poll also finds a deep division on this issue between the most-observant Catholics and those who are less observant, as defined by frequency of worship attendance.
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Apr 27, 2009 - Americans change religious affiliation early and often. A new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life documents the fluidity of faith in the U.S. and describes in detail the patterns and reasons for change.
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Apr 01, 2009 - As was the case during the campaign, white evangelical Protestants (19%) and Republicans (17%) are among the most likely to view Obama as a Muslim.
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Mar 16, 2009 - An analysis of mainstream media coverage in 2008 finds that attention to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States in April was the single biggest religion story of the year, eclipsing even faith-related controversies surrounding the 2008 presidential election campaign. Overall, religion received about as much coverage as immigration, education, and race- and gender-focused stories.
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Mar 06, 2009 - Because Muslim Americans make up a very small percentage of the U.S. public, it is difficult to provide a reliable picture of their views and differences in survey design can crucially affect findings.
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Jan 30, 2009 - In advance of Black History Month, a new analysis by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that African-Americans are markedly more religious on a variety of measures than the U.S. population as a whole.
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Dec 19, 2008 - A new Pew Forum report compares the religious affiliations of the new Congress, which will be sworn in on Jan. 6, with the religious affiliations of the U.S. population as a whole.
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Dec 18, 2008 - Following the release of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, commentators wondered what survey respondents - particularly Christians - had in mind when they agreed that "many religions can lead to eternal life." A new Pew Forum analysis finds that a majority of all American Christians think at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life.
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Nov 20, 2008 - What was the big religion story of the general election, and which candidate got the most coverage? A new study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism in conjunction with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life examines how the media covered religious matters.
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Nov 05, 2008 - Among nearly every religious group, Barack Obama received equal or higher levels of support compared with the 2004 Democratic nominee, John Kerry, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Still, a sizeable gap persists between Obama’s support among white evangelical Protestants and his support among the religiously unaffiliated. Similarly, a sizeable gap exists between those who attend religious services regularly and those who attend less often.
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Oct 01, 2008 - On Sept. 28, more than two dozen pastors challenged IRS restrictions on the political activities of churches and other tax-exempt organizations. While a strong majority of Americans support religion’s role in public life, an equally solid majority oppose church involvement in partisan politics, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
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Sep 23, 2008 - Both Barack Obama and John McCain have said they plan to build on President Bush's faith-based initiative. But how might they do that? The Pew Forum turned to two experts for answers.
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Sep 22, 2008 - Since being named to the GOP ticket by John McCain, Sarah Palin has generated extensive coverage of many aspects of her background, her record in public office and her family life. But what are voters learning from the media about the Alaska Governor’s religious faith and beliefs?
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Sep 12, 2008 - This analysis based on the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey examines the demographic, religious and political characteristics of Pentecostals in the United States. GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin attended a church affiliated with the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination, from the time she was a teenager until 2002.
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Sep 05, 2008 - Now updated for the general election, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s Religion & Politics '08 offers in-depth profiles that tell the candidates' faith stories and explain their views of how religion should impact public life.
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Aug 21, 2008 - A new Pew Research Center survey finds a decline in the share of Americans who want churches and other houses of worship to be involved in political matters. Most of the drop in the past four years has come among political conservatives.
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Jul 17, 2008 - John McCain has a smaller lead among white evangelical Protestants than George W. Bush had at a similar point in the 2004 campaign, even though Barack Obama has made few inroads into this key constituency. Religiously unaffiliated voters, however, strongly favor the Democratic candidate.
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Jul 10, 2008 - This report from the Pew Forum and the Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that media coverage of religion in the presidential primary campaign from January 2007 through April 2008 rivaled coverage of race and gender combined.
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Mar 27, 2008 - When Pope Benedict XVI arrives in the U.S. on April 15, 2008, he will be greeted by a flock that is undergoing rapid ethnic and demographic changes.
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Mar 07, 2008 - A guide to the Internal Revenue Code restrictions on the political activity of religious organizations.
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Jun 01, 2007 - In this latest ruling -- the result of two related cases, Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood -- the court for the first time upheld a law that bans a specific abortion method.
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Apr 26, 2007 - A report on a comprehensive joint survey by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life about Hispanics and Christianity, specifically Catholicism.
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Apr 19, 2007 - The 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding a federal law banning a controversial abortion procedure may dramatically raise abortion's visibility in the 2008 presidential election campaign.
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Mar 27, 2007 - A March 2007 Supreme Court case involving the free speech rights of students is producing some very unusual alliances.
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Nov 21, 2006 - Religion has a vital role in foreign policy. Many people try to ignore it, but like the proverbial elephant in the room, it's there, regardless. Published in the Fall 2006 issue of Trust magazine.
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Sep 01, 2006 - A timely forum offers perspectives on the nature of political Islam and how it relates to the United States and the West more broadly.
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Aug 30, 2005 - Results of a summer 2005 public opinion poll on U.S. attitudes about religion and politics.
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Dec 20, 2004 - Survey of public opinion about environmental policy as it relates to faith traditions.
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View: Full Report (Adobe PDF)
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Jan 29, 2004 - A 2003 year-end report from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press summarizes nearly 50,000 interviews in the U.S. and worldwide.
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