On the flight home from our family vacation on Saturday, my phone lit up with messages about the horrific and thankfully unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at his rally in rural Pennsylvania. In the wake of that awful event,…
He may be slick, but Ralph Reed is as wrong as ever
Ralph Reed is as slick as ever. And still as wrong as ever. The one-time wunderkind of the Christian Coalition has gone more underground of late as founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, but he’s still orchestrating and spewing…
Legislatures and courts defy the will of the people when they severely restrict abortion, new national poll confirms
A majority of Americans, including most people of faith, support legalized abortion in some form and only 9% want the procedure banned outright, according to a new survey by Public Religion Research Institute. The study, “Abortion Views in All 50…
Leave it to the states? Five takeaways about abortion attitudes in all 50 states
PRRI, where I serve as president and founder, just released one of the largest surveys ever conducted on abortion attitudes in America. Throughout 2023, PRRI interviewed more than 22,000 adults as part of its American Values Atlas, giving us not…
Understanding America’s overlooked religious middle
In America’s religious landscape, the groups attracting the most public attention are those staking out the poles in our political divides: the shrinking, aging, but still influential group of white evangelicals on the right vs. Black Protestants and the growing…
The dangers of minority rule
America is a nation being held hostage by fundamentalism. In our recent BNG webinar with Robert P. Jones and Greg Garrett and Timothy Peoples, the single thing that stuck with me most is a comment by Jones, who is among…
Americans are not equally divided on culture wars, Robert Jones explains in BNG webinar
The popular view that the United States is split in half on cultural, religious and political values is a fallacy propagated by the evangelical-controlled Republican Party, according to Robert P. Jones, president of Public Religion Research Institute. “Two-thirds of the…
‘Broken Churches, Broken Nation?’ A crisis of our times
“The very worst omen of the times is the fact that the religious (people) of the country stand apart to so great an extent in this hour of trial. Most of the Churches have split on the very rock upon…
PRRI finds small declines in Americans’ support for LGBTQ rights, although a majority still affirm
Americans of faith contributed to a small decline in overall support for LGBTQ rights in 2023, even as most U.S. adults continued to oppose discriminatory policies and practices aimed at gender and sexual minorities, according to a new study by…
Just the facts on abortion attitudes
In preparation for a recent appearance on The Joy Reid Show, I prepared the following talking points that might be of interest to others. NATIONAL TRENDS. Two thirds (64%) of Americans favor the legality of abortion, vs. one third…
‘Christian nationalism is more than attitudes; it’s a political dysfunction’
The political-religious movement known as Christian nationalism has taken hold in all 50 states, posing an immediate, dire threat to democracy and religion, says an extensive new study. Public Religion Research Institute President Robert P. Jones said the study, based…
The threat of Christian nationalism in all 50 states, illustrated in eight charts
I’m pleased to share with you insights from the largest survey of Christian nationalism ever conducted, which was released today by PRRI. The survey was fielded among a sample of more than 22,000 Americans throughout 2023. This large sample size…