Gallup's Five Key Findings on Religion in the U.S.

Gallup recently released a summary of key findings on religion in the U.S.  Below I list the five key findings word-for-word but without explanation;  for explanation see their site here.

1. America remains largely a Christian nation, although less so than in the past.
2. The trend away from formal religion continues.
3. A majority still say religion is important in their eyes.
4. Americans continue to say that religion is losing its influence in American society.
5. Religion remains intertwined with political self-identification.

Probably No Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church

Just months ago Pope Francis said that the possibility of ordination of women in the Catholic Church should be investigated (see here).  But just yesterday he said that the issue was settled by Pope John Paul II in 1994.  According to this article:

Francis was referring to a 1994 document by Pope John Paul that closed the door on a female priesthood. The Vatican says this teaching is an infallible part of Catholic tradition. 

The reporter then pressed the pope, asking: “But forever, forever? Never, never? 

Francis responded: "If we read carefully the declaration by St. John Paul II, it is going in that direction."

Pope Francis's recent remarks were made while speaking in a somewhat informal news conference on a plane headed from Sweden to Rome, so they do not constitute a formal statement.  It was also not clear whether he has made the careful investigation that he proposed be done.  However, it does signal that he considers the matter mostly closed and so may be less likely to pursue the matter.  There is also the matter of women's roles in other forms of leadership (e.g., as deacons), but this was apparently not discussed.

Increase in Percent of Americans Raised in Inter-faith Homes

The Pew Research Center has just released the results of a study on inter-faith homes here:

[T]he number of Americans raised in interfaith homes appears to be growing. Fully one-quarter of young adults in the Millennial generation (27%) say they were raised in a religiously mixed family. Fewer Generation Xers (20%), Baby Boomers (19%) and adults from the Silent and Greatest generations (13%) say they were raised in such a household.

A number of other findings are also reported, such as those from an inter-faith home are much more likely to adopt the mother's religious affiliation than the father's.

Income Distributions of Different US Denominations' Members

The Pew Research Center recently released the following graphic in this article.





The graph is generated using 2014 data, and it reports patterns that have been in place for quite some time.  Jewish and mainline Protestant denominations have the highest income profiles; they also have the highest education rates on average.  Stricter churches tend to be closer to the bottom.

Reducing the Frequency of Regular Worship Services in the Church of England

A committee tasked with identifying and recommending possible changes to make in the Church of England is considering a change in a church requirement on the regularity of church services.  A few facts provide the context.  First, there are official church policies requiring that certain worship services be held on certain days and times of the year (Canons B11 and B14), irrespective of how many people are in attendance.  Second, the Church of England has experienced tremendous decline in attendance during the last decades.  Third, in many rural areas these worship services are held even when only one or two people are in attendance.  This results in an inefficient allocation of church resources because a lot of resources are required to produce those worship services.  Relaxing the requirement would allow parishes to adapt their worship services to the local conditions.  This article summarizes the situation.

Enabling the parishes to better adapt to local conditions sounds like a perfectly reasonable change to make.  It frees up clergy and church resources for other ministering activities.  However, what those other activities should be is less clear.  The Church of England's long-run decline will not be stopped by this change, and holding fewer services does not seem like a spark that will ignite growth.

Perhaps the Church of England can learn from other denominations that consolidate congregations when membership shrinks in an area.  For example, parishes could be closed or combined, e.g., combining two small, struggling parishes into one larger, thriving one.  The Church of England is congregationally based, so having thriving congregations will be the key to success because it is in the congregations that most religious production and consumption occurs.

This story also highlights a tension that can exist between congregation and denomination.  The denomination's policies require the congregations to undertake certain very costly activities that yield relatively low value due to the poor attendance.  Relaxing denomination policies to grant more autonomy to the parishes would allow the parishes better latitude in adapting their activities.

USCIRF 2016 Annual Report

The USCIRF recently released its 2016 Annual Report on religious freedom.  Find the full report here in pdf format.  The overview in pdf can be found here.  See here for a page with links to other parts of the report.

The USCIRF recommends that nine countries be redesignated as countries of particular concern: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.  It also recommends that eight other countries be designated as CPCs:  Central African Republic, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan, and Vietnam.  Ten other countries have been identified as having serious violations of religious freedom, though not to the point of deserving the CPC designation:  Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Russia, and Turkey.

Choosing a New Place to Worship

The Pew Forum recently reported survey results from asking Americans about the factors that influence a change in place of worship.  See the overview here.  Not surprisingly, moving residences figures prominently in why people change the place of worship.

But when searching, the most commonly cited factor in choosing the new place of worship is quality of service.  Style of service is the third most cited factor.  Both of these relate to what we in our class call the ideal strictness of the individual.  Having friends or family in the congregation is also important, which matches the notion of religious capital.

Is Installing Solar Panels a Form of Religious Activity?

A Unitarian Universalist Church in Bedford, Massachusetts is claiming that it is, see here.  Because their church building, which was built in 1817, is located within the town's historic district, it is subject to certain construction regulations.  The town's Historic District Commission denied the church's request to install solar panels, presumably because it would negatively affect the historic look of the building.  The church has now sued the Commission claiming that denying their request violates the free exercise of their religion.  They claim that their members have a religious calling to undertake energy-conscious activities.

How courts have ruled in such matters has shifted over the decades, and it is unclear what will happen here.  One issue that could be relevant is the degree to which installing solar panels can be depicted as something that is tied to fundamental tenets of the church.