Religion & Social Welfare

Ongoing debates regarding welfare reform and faith-based initiatives touch on a sensitive area of public discourse: how Americans should care for the poor and the needy. The creation of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives by President George W. Bush in 2001 brought the work of religious organizations to the forefront of this discussion. Policymakers and religious communities alike are still divided about the participation of faith-based organizations in the delivery of federally funded social services, but it appears that the faith-based initiative is likely to continue under President-elect Barack Obama.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama announced his support for partnerships "between the White House and grassroots groups, both faith-based and secular." Republican presidential nominee John McCain also had expressed his support for faith-based partnerships.

Americans strongly favor government aid to the poor. The Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in the summer of 2007, found that 62% of Americans agree that the government should do more to help needy Americans, even if it means going deeper into debt. There is considerable agreement among members of major religious traditions, including the unaffiliated, on this point. But Americans are divided on who they think can do the best job of providing social services for the needy. According to an August 2008 survey by the Pew Forum and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 31% of Americans say religious organizations can do the best job. The same number (31%) says federal and state government agencies can do the best job, and about as many (29%) say nonreligious, community-based organizations can do the best job.

Americans tend to support the idea of faith-based groups receiving government funding to provide social services. According to the August 2008 Pew survey, a solid majority of Americans (67%) favor allowing churches and other houses of worship to apply, along with other organizations, for government funding to provide social services. But Americans have concerns about government-funded organizations hiring only those who share their beliefs. Nearly three-quarters of Americans (73%) say religious organizations receiving government funds should not be allowed to hire only people who share their religious beliefs, and 61% oppose allowing groups that encourage religious conversion to apply for federal funding to provide social services

Religion & Public Schools

Issues involving religion and education are perennial topics of public debate. Members of various faith traditions often find themselves on opposite sides of conversations related to school prayer, the teaching of evolution and creationism, vouchers, the use of school space by religious groups, the recitation of the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and the question of how to teach about religion. While some argue that religion has an important role to play in public education, others maintain that a strict wall of separation is needed when it comes to religion and public schools.

The Pew Forum offers a variety of resources that probe the relationship between religion and public schools, including reports, event transcripts, polling data and the latest news.

RELIGION and the LAW

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution charges the government with guaranteeing religious freedom while prohibiting it from advancing the interests of any one church or faith. In recent years, the Supreme Court has ruled on a host of church-state issues, including school prayer, state-funded vouchers for religious schools, state financing of theological education and the placement of Christmas crèches, Ten Commandments monuments and similar displays on public property. But observers across the political spectrum often find these Supreme Court decisions confusing and sometimes find them contradictory, with different standards, principles and tests being applied at various times.

The Pew Forum offers a variety of resources that examine the relationship between religion and the law, including reports, event transcripts, polling data and the latest news.
In an ongoing series of occasional reports, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life explores the complex, fluid relationship between government and religion. Among the issues examined are religion in public schools, displays of religious symbols on public property, conflicts concerning the free exercise of religion, and government funding of religion

ISSUES

The United States has a long tradition of separating church from state, yet a powerful inclination to mix religion and politics. Throughout our nation's history, great political and social movements – from abolition to women's suffrage to civil rights to today's struggles over abortion and gay marriage – have drawn upon religious institutions for moral authority, inspirational leadership and organizational muscle. In recent years, religion has been woven more deeply into the fabric of partisan politics than ever before.