Exit polling by Edison Research, published by the Washington Post, shows the percentage of voters of various religious faiths who voted for each of the two main presidential candidates in the 2024 November elections:
Catholic: 58% Trump; 40% Harris.
Protestant and Other Christian: 63% Trump; 36% Harris.
Jewish: 22% Trump; 78% Harris.
Other Religion: 34% Trump; 59% Harris.
No Religion: 26% Trump; 71% Harris.
White Evangelical Born-Again Christians: 82% Trump; 17% Harris.
Last week, the American Jewish Committee released its report The State of Antisemitism in America 2023. The Report includes a Survey of American Jews, a Survey of the General Public, a Comparison of the Attitudes of the two groups, and a Methodology Report. AJC CEO Ted Deutch, commenting on the Report, said in part:
With nearly half of American Jews reporting they changed their behavior in the past year because of fear of antisemitism, we need to take action – now. AJC’s report also found that over the last year, 4 in 10 Jewish college students have felt the consequences of antisemitism, with one-in-five saying they have been excluded from a group or event because they are Jewish. This should alarm everyone especially with the dramatic increase of antisemitic activity on college campuses that has continued into 2024.
[Thanks to Burt Shifman for the lead.]
Becket yesterday released its 2023 Religious Freedom Index (full text). This is the fifth year the Report has been compiled. The Executive Summary of the 99-page report says in part:
The Index is designed to give a holistic view of American attitudes toward religious freedom by surveying a nationally representative sample of approximately 1,000 American adults each year. 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 and promoting 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....
In addition to the 21 repeating Index questions, the survey contains additional questions that differ from year to year and ask Americans about timely or special topics. This year, the Index asked about the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (which is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its passage), religion and parental rights in education, and the proper standard for religious accommodations on issues like abortion and Native American sacred sites....
Across a variety of questions, this year’s Index shows that Americans are deeply committed to the rights of parents to educate and raise their children in accordance with their faith and values....
Religion Unplugged reviews information on the religious affiliation of 12 candidates still in the Presidential primaries for 2024. It also quotes notable things each candidate has said about faith. For example:
Joe Biden (Catholic): “Like so many people, my faith has been the bedrock foundation of my life: it’s provided me comfort in moments of loss and tragedy, it’s kept me grounded and humbled in times of triumph and joy.”
Donald Trump (Raised Presbyterian, now a non-denominational Christian): “I grew up going to church with my family in New York City. My parents taught me the importance of faith and prayer from a young age...."
Nikki Haley (Raised Hindu, converted to Christianity ): “When you have God, you quickly understand there's nothing you can't overcome.”
Pew Research Center has released its survey of the religious affiliations of members of the incoming 118th Congress. Titled Faith on the Hill, among the findings are that of the 469 total members of the House and Senate, 303 are Protestant, 148 are Catholic, 33 are Jewish, 9 are Mormon, 8 are Orthodox Christian. Among the faiths that have 3 or fewer members, 3 identify as Muslim, 2 as Hindu, and 1 as Messianic Jewish. The full report has additional specifics.
Becket Fund for Religious Liberty this week released its fourth annual Religious Freedom Index. The 99-page Report (full text) (summary) is described in its Executive Summary:
The Index is designed to give a holistic view of American attitudes toward religious freedom by surveying a nationally representative sample of approximately 1,000 American adults each year. 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 and promoting religious beliefs. The responses to these questions break 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.
According to Becket's press release:
When asked about religious pluralism, more respondents than ever said that they think people should be free to choose a religion, to worship without fear of persecution, and to practice religion in daily life. Since 2020, this dimension of religious freedom increased by over 10 points, with over 90 percent of respondents completely or mostly agreeing to protect these freedoms.
Americans’ support for religious minorities was also high. New questions on the Index asked respondents about protections for Native American sacred sites on federal land. Overall, 89 percent of respondents supported these protections, with strong support for these protections (57 percent) dwarfing strong opposition (three percent) by nearly 20 to 1.
The Pew Research Center last week (Oct. 27) released an extensive poll on the attitudes of the American public about religion's role in public life. It asked questions about whether the U.S. should be a Christian nation, whether respondents have heard of Christian nationalism, and much more. The 65-page report (full text) on the poll says in part:
Overall, six-in-ten U.S. adults – including nearly seven-in-ten Christians – say they believe the founders “originally intended” for the U.S. to be a Christian nation. And 45% of U.S. adults – including about six-in-ten Christians – say they think the country “should be” a Christian nation. A third say the U.S. “is now” a Christian nation.
At the same time, a large majority of the public expresses some reservations about intermingling religion and government. For example, about three-quarters of U.S. adults (77%) say that churches and other houses of worship should not endorse candidates for political offices. Two-thirds (67%) say that religious institutions should keep out of political matters rather than expressing their views on day-to-day social or political questions. And the new survey – along with other recent Center research – makes clear that there is far more support for the idea of separation of church and state than opposition to it among Americans overall.
On Tuesday. the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation released its third annual report on the Fortune 500’s Commitment to Workplace Religious Inclusion. (Summary)(Full Text). The top four companies in its Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index 2022 are: American Airlines, Intel, Dell Technologies and PayPal.
Becket yesterday released its third annual Religious Freedom Index (full text) along with a one-page summary of the full 122-page report. Becket's press release describes the report, in part:
... Religious Freedom Index [is] the only annual poll that tracks trends across the full spectrum of opinions on American religious freedom. This year’s Index reached a new high as Americans bounced back from a uniquely divisive year with revitalized support for religious liberty. In addition to the Index’s standardized annual questions, this year Becket also asked about Americans’ opinions on faith-based organizations, free speech, and the pandemic.
The Pew Research Center yesterday released a 248-page survey Jewish Americans in 2020. (Summary of Report) (Full text of Report). The report estimates the Jewish population in the United States to be 7.5 million. Its one-sentence summary of the detailed and extensive report is:
U.S. Jews are culturally engaged, increasingly diverse, politically polarized and worried about anti-Semitism.
Pew Research Center yesterday published its survey of the religious affiliation of members of the new 117th Congress. Of the 98 Senate seats and the 433 House seats that were filled as of yesterday, 294 members are Protestant, 158 are Catholic, and 33 are Jewish. Smaller numbers are Mormon (9), Orthodox Christian (7), Muslim (3), Unitarian Universalist (3), Buddhist (2), Hindu (2), Unaffiliated (1).
The Religious Freedom Index is designed to give a 30,000-foot view of changes in American attitudes on religious liberty by surveying a nationally representative sample of 1,000 American adults. Rather than focus on the most hot-button issues dominating the news-cycle, questions asked in the Index cover a wide spectrum of religious liberty protections under the First Amendment. The responses to these questions statistically group 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. The composite Index score is the average score of these dimensions.A Key Finding was:
In 2019, the majority of Americans accept and support religious freedom as a fundamental right as indicated by the Index score of 67. Although that fact may not come as a surprise, the Index clearly shows that Americans support a much broader array of religious freedom principles than current news cycles might suggest.
Close to half (46%) of Americans believe that the owners of wedding-based businesses, such as caterers, florists, and bakers, should be allowed to refuse to serve same-sex couples if doing so violates their religious beliefs, while about as many (48%) say these types of businesses should be required to serve same-sex couples. One year earlier, a majority (53%) of the public said wedding-based businesses should be required to serve gay and lesbian couples, while only about four in ten (41%) said they should not.....
Among major religious groups, white evangelical Protestants express the strongest support for allowing wedding businesses to refuse services.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the public express support for same-sex marriage. Only 28% of Americans oppose allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.... More than seven in ten (71%) Americans say they favor laws that would protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people against discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations....
Relatively few Americans believe Jewish people in the U.S. are experiencing a considerable amount of discrimination. Only 30% say that Jewish people face a lot of discrimination..... Americans are far more likely to say Muslims are experiencing a substantial degree of discrimination in the U.S. More than six in ten (62%) Americans say there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims....
The American religious landscape is undergoing a dramatic transformation. White Christians, once the dominant religious group in the U.S., now account for fewer than half of all adults living in the country. Today, fewer than half of all states are majority white Christian. As recently as 2007, 39 states had majority white Christian populations. These are two of the major findings from this report, which is based on findings from PRRI’s 2016 American Values Atlas, the single largest survey of American religious and denominational identity ever conducted. This landmark report is based on a sample of more than 101,000 Americans from all 50 states and includes detailed information about their religious affiliation, denominational ties, political affiliation, and other important demographic attributes.Among the other findings of the Report:
White Christians have become a minority in the Democratic Party. Fewer than one in three (29%) Democrats today are white Christian, compared to half (50%) one decade earlier. Only 14% of young Democrats (age 18 to 29) identify as white Christian. Forty percent identify as religiously unaffiliated.
White evangelical Protestants remain the dominant religious force in the GOP. More than one-third (35%) of all Republicans identify as white evangelical Protestant, a proportion that has remained roughly stable over the past decade. Roughly three-quarters (73%) of Republicans belong to a white Christian religious group.
Americans are divided about whether American culture and way of life have changed for worse (51%) or better (48%) since the 1950s.....
No group has a dimmer view of American cultural change than white evangelical Protestants: nearly three-quarters (74%) say American culture has changed for the worse since the 1950s....
In 2016, Americans’ social networks are strongly segregated by party loyalties.... There is also evidence that American churches are highly segregated by party. More than eight in ten (83%) Trump supporters who attend religious services at least weekly estimate that most of their fellow church members are supporting Trump. Similarly, more than three-quarters (78%) of Clinton supporters who attend religious services at least weekly estimate that most of their fellow church members are supporting Clinton.