(and other alarmist headlines from me).
Christianity Today, the thinking evangelical's magazine, has compiled a few statistics on First Amendment issues and the state of marriage.
Some other First Amendment ones:
- 85% would support posting the Ten Commandments "as 'one document among many historical documents.'"
- 6% of Americans "say they have too much religious freedom."
- 3% say the same thing about public school students.
More below the fold.
For the most part, these First Amendment statistics, while interesting, simply reflect today's conventional wisdom.
For example, 50% of Americans think public school students have too little religious freedom. But I'm willing to bet that if you informed those same respondents of students' actual rights (they are free to pray on their own, or to lead student-initiated prayer, free to wear religious clothing, etc.), some of those answers might change.
This one, however, intrigues me: 71% of "Americans...say that the phrase 'one nation, under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is primarily a statement related to the American political tradition rather than religious.'" I wonder how well-known the origins of the insertion of the words "under God" into the Pledge really are?
In any case, I believe the marital statistics have a little more meat to them. I'll cite just two of them to encourage you go read the whole article for yourself:
- 14%: Decrease in risk of divorce (in the first decade of marriage) for those having a religious affiliation vs. those who don't.
- 30%: Decrease for those with an annual income over $50,000 vs. those who make under $25,000.
As I say, go read it. Interesting stuff.