The increased reliance on web-based research for public opinion surveys is raising questions about the relevance of long-accepted political and social trends documented in decades of telephone polling. As a result, some religious leaders may wonder if it’s possible that…
Teens say social media deepens friendships. Some aren’t buying it.
If I have 1,100 people I am friends with on Facebook, how many of those friends do I really have relationships with?
Baptists, other Protestants spared from effort to restrict worship and evangelism
Issues of religious liberty in the United States are often discussed in terms of wedding cakes, taxpayer-funded church playgrounds and politics in the pulpit. In other parts of the world, it’s more about survival.
New American religious ‘types’ revealed in survey, quiz
Religion in the U.S. is morphing so fast that observers often are at a loss for words to describe it. Terms like “nones” and “dones,” unheard of just a few years ago, are now commonly used by universities, seminaries and…
Why Americans prefer a Bible in their hands to one at their finger tips
Americans are online for everything nowadays, but evidence shows most prefer paper and ink to read the Good Book. And that’s no surprise to Troy Dixon, the lead pastor at Normandy Park Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida. “As the world…
Research group sees Catholics, Baptists and Mormons as Christians (because they say so)
It isn’t hard to find Baptists and other Protestants who believe Mormons are not Christians. But about half of all Americans and nearly every Mormon believe they are, the Pew Research Center has found. So who is right? Well, what…
U.S. not only place where ‘nones’ on the rise
Looks like you don’t have to be American or European to give up on religion. And the same is especially true for young adults, who are becoming “nones” around the planet just as they are in the U.S., according to…
Churches must ‘count the cost’ of pursuing youth on social media
Youth have abandoned Facebook in favor of other social media platforms. Data recently released by the Pew Research Center shows Facebook rates fourth behind YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat among young people. So, should churches with strong Facebook presences follow younger…
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Seeking Restoration
Congolese refugees and CBF field personnel build Beloved Community in Raleigh By Blake Tommey In 1994, the first time the Pew Research Center polled Americans about the effect of immigrants on the country, 63 percent agreed that immigrants are “a…
Latino churches adapting to declining Hispanic identity, pastor says
It would be understandable for pastors of Hispanic churches in the United States to worry about new data showing that Latino identity is fading across generations. Wouldn’t that ultimately portend membership declines for ethnic congregations as fewer and fewer self-identify…
Secular Americans not alone in doubting Christmas story
Many Church of Christ members have historically drawn a sharp distinction between Christmas and the birth of Christ, usually dismissing the former as a commercial, even pagan, observance. Nowhere in the New Testament, preachers and Sunday school teachers have counseled,…
Is Christian decline in U.S. prompting evangelicals to seek government endorsement? Maybe.
Eighty-three nations have an official, state-endorsed religion or give preferred treatment to one over others, according to a Pew Research Center study, which lists the United States among 106 countries that have no official or preferred faith. But is that changing? It might appear so, as the increasingly rapid descent of organized religion may be fueling some Christians’ drive to codify faith in America.