Integrity News

I’m always looking for good sources of information - sources that are reliable, that provide data I can examine myself and that are unbiased or at least not promoting an “agenda” of their own. The Pew Research Center collected data last year about religion in America and they published two reports. The first report covers religious affiliation (What is your religion?) and the second report covers religious beliefs and political views. Both reports can be accessed through this link:

U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

Here are some findings that I thought were interesting:

Report 1: Religious Affiliation

Over 78% of Americans identify themselves as Christian. Over 51% identify as Protestant (Evangelicals = 26.3% and Mainline = 18.1%), and over 23% as Catholic. That means roughly 22% of Americans are not Christian: 1.7% are Jewish, 0.6% are Muslim, 1.6% are Atheist and 14.5% are Agnostic or “Nothing in Particular.” Of course, there are also Buddhists, Hindus, Native Americans faiths, Wiccan and other Pagan faiths making up the remainder.

My observations? Well, many Evangelical Protestants are ranting and raving about how they are coming under fire from other groups, yet they make up more than a quarter of all Americans. That’s a pretty large group. Plus Christians total more than three-quarters of Americans. Even if there were particulary powerful members of some of the smaller faith groups, I don’t see how they could be subjecting Evangelicals to so much discrimination. Honesty, I believe the fight comes from within. Let’s look at the second report.

Report 2: Religious Beliefs & Practics/Social & Political Views

Two-thirds of Protestants believe that other religions can also lead to eternal life, including 57% of Evangelicals. And nearly two-thirds believe there is more than one way to interpret Scripture.

Observation: For a long time I have told friends and family that there is a loud minority on one side of any issue, and a loud minority on the other side of the same issue, while most Americans fall somewhere between if they even have an opinion. I’ve seen it in numerous polls and surveys on gay topics, but I think this research on religious beliefs is further proof: one-third of one-quarter of Americans (in other words, 8% of all Americans) believe that their faith’s interpretations of the Holy Bible are the one-and-only way to interpret Scripture. Of course, we can’t forget that among that 8%, not all of them agree with each other. At the other end of the spectrum, 1.6% of Americans are atheist and would disagree with the need to interpret Scripture in the first place.

Some other details reveal some interesting aspects about specific beliefs. For example, only 86% of Evangelicals believe in the existence of Heaven. What about the other 14%? I thought belief in Heaven was a basic tenet of virtually every Evangelical church.

Now, moving on to homosexuality, there are some truly interesting results. Respondents were asked, is “homosexuality a way of life that should be discouraged”? Here are the results:

Protestants (Overall):   51%

Evangelicals:               64%

Mainline:                     34%

Catholics:                   30%

Jews:                         15%

The report examines other aspects of religious life in America and how it intersects with society. It’s truly fascinating and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in debating public policy or ideas.