Latest news with #PewReligiousLandscapeStudy
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How U.S. Catholics see the role of the Church and the pope in their lives — CBS News poll
Most U.S. Catholics say they rely on the pope and the Church's teachings for difficult moral questions, this is particularly the case for those who call themselves strong Catholics. For most U.S. Catholics, their Catholic faith is important in their daily lives, including many who call it extremely or very important. (Behind this is a big difference however. Their Catholic faith is especially important to those who routinely go to Mass, but less so for those who rarely or never go.) The pope is, for a majority of U.S. Catholics, equally important in their connection to the Church as their local priest and parish. But the next pope will also lead a U.S. laity with some differences within it. A sizable number of the U.S.' current Catholics feel they have become less connected to the Church over their lives. They aren't frequent mass attenders and don't currently consider themselves very strong Catholics. This group tends to be a little older than those who say their connection hasn't changed, and are relatively less likely to prioritize tradition over change. Just under half of Catholics today don't feel the Church is in touch with their personal needs. (This, even as Catholics overall said the Church is more in touch now after Francis' papacy compared to before it.) One reason why those who feel the Catholic Church is out of touch with their own needs, say so: reports of past sexual abuse of children by priests. It's a matter most Catholics think has been handled poorly by the Vatican. Relatively fewer, although sizable numbers, point to the church's political views and stands on issues like abortion and divorce, or church doctrine itself, as reasons they feel the church is out of touch with their needs. Those who think it is out of touch still mostly believe the Church respects women as much as men, just not to the extent that those who call it "in touch" do. Big majorities feel the Catholic Church currently provides them with spiritual guidance, forgiveness from sin, along with connection to tradition and belonging and community. And they'd like the next Pope to be someone compassionate, also most want one who'd be outspoken. —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 1,298 adult Catholics living in the U.S. interviewed between April 30-May 5, 2025. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education and Mass attendance according to the 2023-24 Pew Religious Landscape Study. The margin of error is ±3.8 points. Sneak peek: The Depraved Heart Murder Why Hegseth is calling for cuts to senior ranks across U.S. military Reporter's Notebook: Who pays for tariffs?
Fox News
11-04-2025
- General
- Fox News
To perpetuate faith, there is no place like home
Our son first met his distant cousin when they were both students in an advanced Jewish studies program overseas. Walking home from their study hall together in the last days of winter, they began to compare notes on how their fathers would conduct the Passover seder. They were shocked to discover that their long-separated families chanted much of the Passover Haggadah, the story recited during the festive meal, to identical beautiful but obscure tunes. Though their great-grandfathers had been driven apart by world wars and forced emigration more than a century earlier, not only their faith but even the shared religious flavor and music of their family home was alive and well four generations later. As remarkable as this is, it is not unusual. It is why Jews everywhere will put such emphasis on gathering their families around their seder tables this Passover, knowing that it is around those tables that they will forge the ties of their children to the faith they so cherish. This assumption is woven into the Passover narrative itself, as the seder commemorates the night before Moses led the Jews out of Egypt. Instead of departing the land directly from the fields and construction sites where they had labored, God insisted that they first spend that entire night in their family homes where they could reconnect to both family and faith as they offered and partook in a meal of a sacrificed lamb or goat. It was in their homes around the renewed family table that they would find God and God would find them. The home – not the Temple or the synagogue – was the setting in which the foundations of faith were laid and it is the setting we replicate each year in our desire to perpetuate that faith, to ensure that future generations continue the tradition. What does the future hold for our tradition and religion in general in America? This haunting question gnaws at clergy and parents across faith communities. Studies continue to show serious rates of decline in attendance at religious services across many faiths and denominations. Even the steadying of this decline found in the recent Pew Religious Landscape Study is obviously short term, as that data shows overwhelming gaps in religious observance between younger and older Americans. How do we address this decline? Much can and must be accomplished with engaging and relevant religious services, programs and teachings and by truly compassionate, moral and inspiring faith leaders. Clergy and institutions cannot allow themselves to become or remain stale and must instead promote the truths and traditions of faith along with fresh and compelling ideas and experiences. But – as decades of research have shown – an even more impactful predictor of our children's religious future is the extent to which we weave our faith into the fabric and atmosphere of our homes and families. This was underscored by a recent qualitative study conducted by the Center for Communal Research of the Orthodox Union exploring attrition and connection in American Orthodox Judaism that discovered that even among those who reported that they had left Orthodox Judaism, most continued to maintain the rituals, traditions, and practices they observed at home, toward which they maintained warm and fond feelings. For example, those who violate Orthodox norms of the sabbath by driving or using their phones continue to recite the Friday night blessings over wine and challah bread, or to hold a Passover seder meal. The extent to which connection is forged at home should lead parents to ensure that their religious home life is warm, full, and meaningful and that it leaves their children with positive associations that fortify religious bonds. Houses of worship, religious schools and institutions play a crucial role in building faith communities, creating the enduring framework for worship and conveying religion's fundamental truths, but the most consequential houses of faith are our own homes. An ancient Talmudic teaching notes that the Temple altar of days bygone has been replaced by the dining room table around which family and others are welcomed and cared for, where we sing the praises of God and the joys of our faith, and where the table talk teaches and explores Torah and its values. That is our seder table, our family table, where – if we play it right – we will plant the seeds for the perpetuation of our faith and the faith of our fathers and where the songs of faith that we sing today will resonate for generations.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Pew polling shows years of U.S. Christianity decline slowing, possibly stabilizing
Feb. 26 (UPI) -- The decline in the number of people in the United States identifying as Christian has slowed down and might have leveled off, according to a new Pew Research Center poll published Wednesday. The Pew Religious Landscape Study showed 62% of poll respondents identify as Christian while 29% are religiously unaffiliated. Pew said in an executive summary of poll findings, that "the Christian share of the population, after years of decline, has been relatively stable since 2019." The poll found the Christian share of the U.S. adult population between 2019 and 2024 stayed between 60% and 64%. The decline in Christianity in America had been happening since 2007 before appearing to level off in this poll. Pew said in action statement, "The latest RLS, fielded over seven months in 2023-24, finds that 62% of U.S. adults identify as Christians. That is a decline of 9 percentage points since 2014 and a 16-point drop since 2007." Among those who said they were Christian in the poll, 40% identified as Protestant, 19% Catholic and 3% are other Christians. Pew's poll sampling 36,908 adults found 2% of poll respondents were Jewish and 1% each said they are Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu. Much higher percentages reported having spiritual beliefs, with 86% believing in the existence of a soul, 83% believing in God or a universal spirit, 79% believing in something spiritual beyond the natural world and 70% believing in an afterlife and heaven or hell or both. The Pew poll found younger people are far less religious than older Americans. Among Americans older than 74, 80% said they are Christian while just 46% of people 18-24 identified as Christian. Daily prayer was reported by 58% of the older group, with just 27% of the younger group reporting daily prayer. Pew said in a statement, "One driver of the long-term trend is 'generational replacement.' Older, highly religious, heavily Christian generations are passing away. The younger generations succeeding them are much less religious, with smaller percentages of Christians and more 'nones.'" The poll showed political polarization among those identifying as Christian. Among Conservative poll respondents, 82% said they were Christian. Moderates reported 61% identifying as Christian. For liberals, just 37% said they were Christian in this poll.
