Reports on Religious Liberty, Christian Nationalism, and Antisemitism Released

On February 17, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released their "Annual Report on the State of Religious Liberty in the United States" (full text). In a press release announcing the new report, the USCCB said in part:

The report summarizes developments on national questions and federal policies affecting religious liberty in the U.S., including the role of religion in American public life, and the challenges and opportunities of the present moment. 

The report identified six areas of critical concern for religious liberty in 2026:  Political and anti-religious violence; Unjust terms and conditions on federal grants, and unreliability of government; Access to sacraments for ICE detainees and immigration enforcement at houses of worship; School choice and the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit; Repeal of provisions that prevent religious organizations from participating in government programs; Further repudiation of gender ideology.

On February 17, PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute) released its Report "Mapping Christian Nationalism Across the 50 States" (full text) (Web friendly version). A press release announcing the release of the Report said in part:

... Based on interviews with more than 22,000 adults conducted throughout 2025 as part of the PRRI American Values Atlas, the new study examines the connections between support for Christian nationalism and Trump favorability, partisanship, religion, media habits, and more.

At the national level, a majority of Republicans (56%) qualify as either Christian nationalism Adherents (21%) or Sympathizers (35%), compared with one in four independents (25%) and less than one in five Democrats (17%). Overall, roughly one-third of Americans qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents (11%) or Sympathizers (21%), compared with two-thirds who qualify as Skeptics (37%) or Rejecters (27%). These percentages largely have remained stable since PRRI first asked these questions in late 2022....

On February 10, the American Jewish Committee released its Report "The State of Antisemitism in America 2025." The Report is comprised of three parts-- a Survey of American Jews, a Survey of the General Public, and a comparison of the views of the two groups. Links to all three parts are available at this website. On February 17, AJC released additional survey data on antisemitism experienced by Jewish college students. In an analysis of the data, AJC said in part:

The vast majority of American Jews feel less safe due to violent antisemitic incidents in America in 2025. Most American Jews believe that, since October 7, antisemitism has increased in the United States and that Jews are less secure than the previous year. About one in three were the personal target of antisemitism, and over half of American Jews changed their behavior in at least one way out of fear of antisemitism. Among the U.S. general public, there is overall awareness of antisemitism as a problem, while over four in 10 has personally seen or heard antisemitism in 2025....

Online and on social media is by and large where American Jews experience antisemitism the most....

 AJC’s 2025 Report shows how American Jews ages 18-29 experience antisemitism differently than those ages 30 and over....

New Report on Antisemitism in the U.S. Released

This week, the American Jewish Committee released its report on The State of Antisemitism in America 2024. The report is comprised of a survey of American Jews, a survey of the U.S. general public, and a comparison of the two surveys. Among the report's key findings are:

77% of American Jews say they feel less safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. because of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks.

Nearly six in 10 (56%) American Jews say they altered their behavior out of fear of antisemitism in 2024 – a sharp increase from previous years. In 2023, this number was 46%, and 38% in 2022.

90% of American Jews say antisemitism has increased in the U.S. since the Hamas terrorist attacks.

One-third (33%) of American Jews say they have been the personal target of antisemitism – in person or virtually – at least once over the last year.

2 Reports Survey the State of Religious Liberty in the U.S. in 2024

Two broad reviews of the state of religious liberty in the United States were released yesterday. Becket Fund for Religious Liberty released the 6th edition of its Religious Freedom Index: American Perspectives on the First Amendment (full text). The 119-page report is based on an online poll of a nationally representative sample of 1000 American adults conducted by an independent research company. The report says in part:

The survey consists of 21 annually repeating questions that cover a broad range of topics, from the rights of religious people to practice their respective faiths to the role of government in protecting religious beliefs. The responses to these questions are broken down into six dimensions: 1) Religious Pluralism, 2) Religion and Policy, 3) Religious Sharing, 4) Religion in Society, 5) Church and State, and 6) Religion in Action....

 Across multiple questions in our Index, one message rings loud and clear: Americans deeply value their First Amendment freedoms, even in the face of tough, controversial issues....

We are pleased to report that political division did not seem to negatively impact Americans’ convictions about the importance of religion and religious liberty....  Americans also report being more accepting of people of faith and more appreciative of their contributions than ever before. Encouragingly, both people of faith as a whole and non-Christian people of faith reported feeling more accepted in society than in 2023.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops yesterday released its 2025 annual report on The State of Religious Liberty in the United States (full text) (Executive Summary). The 83-page Report, which reviews developments at the national level in 2024 in Congress, the Courts and the Executive Branch, says in part:

... [B]ecause control of the two chambers of Congress was divided, most bills that threatened religious liberty—that is to say, immunity from coercion in religious matters—did not move forward. Legislation aiming to increase access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) was introduced in 2024. The most significant threats to religious liberty at the federal level came in the form of finalized regulations by federal agencies, such as the Section 1557 rule, which implements the nondiscrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These rules heavily focused on imposing requirements regarding abortion, sexual orientation, and gender identity....

The five areas of critical concern—threats and opportunities—for religious liberty are:

• The targeting of faith-based immigration service

• The persistence of elevated levels of antisemitic incidents 

• IVF mandates, which represent a significant threat to religious freedom, while the national discussion of IVF represents an opportunity for Catholics to share Church teaching and advocate for human dignity

• The scaling back of gender ideology in law

•  Parental choice in education, one of the longest-running areas of concern for American Catholics

New Report on Cultural Issues and the 2024 Election

The Pew Research Center yesterday published the results of an extensive survey on Cultural Issues and the 2024 Election. The 80-page report (full text) deals with attitudes on various topics, including religious values, sexual orientation and gender identity, and issues of family and reproductive rights. The Report says in part:

Voters who support Joe Biden and Donald Trump have starkly different views of the role religion should play in the U.S. government and politics. 

Across several measures, Trump supporters are much more likely than Biden supporters to favor an expansive government role in support of religion. Biden and Trump supporters differ on government support for religion and the Bible’s influence on the nation’s laws.

At the same time, larger shares of Trump supporters than Biden supporters also say religion – and particularly the Bible – should have influence on government policy....

 A majority of Trump supporters (56%) say religion should be kept separate from government policy, while 43% say government policies should support religious values. By more than six-to one (86% vs. 13%), Biden supporters say religion should be kept separate from government. 

These views differ by race and ethnicity and – especially among Trump supporters – by religious affiliation.

New Report Finds 63% of Americans Support Legalized Abortion

Yesterday, the Pew Research Center released a new report on public attitudes toward legal abortion. The Report (full text) is titled Broad Public Support for Legal Abortion Persists 2 Years After Dobbs. The Center's Summary of the Report says in part:

About six-in-ten (63%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. This share has grown 4 percentage points since 2021 – the year prior to the 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe....

A narrow majority of Americans (54%) say the statement “the decision about whether to have an abortion should belong solely to the pregnant woman” describes their views extremely or very well. Another 19% say it describes their views somewhat well, and 26% say it does not describe their views well.

... About a third of Americans (35%) say the statement “human life begins at conception, so an embryo is a person with rights” describes their views extremely or very well, while 45% say it does not describe their views well....

Americans say medication abortion should be legal rather than illegal by a margin of more than two-to-one (54% vs. 20%). A quarter say they are not sure.

A second report concludes:

Seven-in-ten adults say IVF access is a good thing. Just 8% say it is a bad thing, while 22% are unsure.