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Meddling Bishops Accuse Clinton of Meddling

By Patricia Miller

…No other position—not support of the death penalty, cuts to social safety net programs or enthusiastic military incursions—has caused the bishops to shun candidates. At the same time, many bishops have been happy to sway Catholics toward an increasingly polarized and polarizing Republican Party over the issues of abortion, same-sex marriage and “religious liberty.” In fact, the loudest chorus of boos for Trump last night came when he said Clinton…

Data-Mining Denominations: Same-Sex Marriage Edition

By Daniel Schultz

…other hand, really, really dislike same-sex marriage, as do evangelical members of the Churches of Christ or Disciples of Christ. Interestingly enough, Orthodox Christians—a tradition hardly known for its liberalism—hover around Hindus, both in size and net approval. My unscientific guess? We’ll probably see both pros and cons continue to move in their respective directions, with precious little left in the middle. And of course, that big blue bal…

Is the Rise of “Nones” Actually the Decline of Catholics?

By Patricia Miller

…s, which saw a 4.5-point loss, while white evangelical denominations saw a net drop of only 2.2 points, largely because they have both a lower rate of disaffiliation and a fairly robust rate of new adherents. Meanwhile, the faith of no faith saw a nearly 16 percentage point increase. According to PPRI’s Director of Research, Daniel Cox, 36% of all those who left their childhood religion were Catholic. This means that Catholics are punching above t…

White Supremacy, Mental Illness, or Society: What’s to Blame for Religious Violence?

By Michael Schulson

…e ideologies are pervasive in the culture at large. The blame casts a wide net, not in order to single out a minority group, but in order to implicate a culture that’s been saturated with these ideas. In short, not all ideological blame is alike. But there is a common thread here in the tendency to focus exclusively on ideas as the motivation for an attack. That focus can be revealing, because ideology alone never fully explains violence. Plenty o…

David Brat: Catholic, Calvinist, and Libertarian, Oh My!

By Julie Ingersoll

…the responsibility of the family and the church and any government safety net is labelled “socialism.” It is the model in which education is the sole responsibility of families, leading to the goal of eliminating public education and any state regulation of private education and home schooling. At the very heart of this version of Calvinism is the goal of bringing all areas of life “under the Lordship of Christ.” So yes, Catholic, Calvinist, and…

Going Negative: Traditionalist Churches Gang Up on ‘Progressive Christianity’ in Arizona

By Daniel Schultz

…ation seems to be growing ever more polarized along ideological lines. The net effect is roughly analogous to when campaign ads go negative: the base is kept strong and in line, but the majority of people say “to hell with the both of you, I’m staying home.” The only discernible difference between the civil declension is that one takes place on a Tuesday and the other on a Sunday. It may work often enough for political campaigns, but I can’t recom…

Georgetown Poverty Summit Impoverished on Women in More Ways Than One

By Patricia Miller

…ve’ relative to an issue like abortion. And while he is right that both Catholics and Evangelicals often seem more worried about children before they are born than after (though the Catholic Church is more consistent in its support for safety-net programs) the reality is that abortion rights can’t be separated from the larger issue of reproductive justice, which itself can’t be separated from the issues of poverty and opportunity—as many women get…

5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Overthink the New Pew Data’s Impact on Politics

By Sarah Posner

…opulation). But their overall numbers are up because they have experienced net gains from religious switching. Here “evangelical” includes the Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of God, Churches of Christ, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Presbyterian Church in America, and “0ther evangelical denominations and many nondenominational congregations.” Sixty-two million Americans fall into this demographic, two million more than in 200…

2 Steps Forward, 3 Steps Back, 1 Step Sideways: The Chaotic Progression of LGBTQ Inclusion at Christian Colleges

By Donovan Ackley III

…ts at Christians schools I mention above have been in dialogue with Safety Net, a national non-profit advocacy resource to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer, and allied (LGBTQ&A) students, alumni, faculty, and staff at Christian colleges, before, during and after the events unfolded in social media. As co-chair of the Board of Directors, I work with other board members advising administrators, faculty, and students at Christian univers…

Six Overlooked Gems from the Future of World Religions Report

By Timothy King

…“unaffiliated” category will benefit the most from the “switchers” with a net gain of 61.5 million, many of them men and women who formerly identified as Christian. But by 2050 the “unaffiliated” are expected to comprise an older (and less fertile) demographic that won’t be able to welcome new folks to their team fast enough to sustain that kind of growth in the long term, according to the report. But statistics about religion switching (aka “she…