Faith on the Hill: The Religious Composition of the 113th Congress
A handful of congressional seats have changed hands or been decided since the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life first published an analysis of the religious affiliations of the members of the 113th Congress in mid-November. The Congress being sworn in today reflects the increasing religious diversity of the country as a whole. See the updated analysis: http://pewrsr.ch/TO7T6V
Are you celebrating Christmas today? The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has new data on religious populations around the globe. Christians number 2.2 billion, or about one-in-three (32%) people worldwide — the largest majority, followed by Muslims and the unaffiliated.
CNN’s Dan Merica has a piece today on the Pew Forum’s latest study, The Global Religious Landscape. He identifies five major findings:
1.) Muslims and Hindus are noticeably young
2.) The world is faithful and diverse
3.) The unaffiliated are third largest global group, equal with Catholics
4.) Less than 1% of global Christian population resides in the religion’s birthplace
5.) To Pew, this is the definitive study of world religions
Click the link above to read the full article.
The world’s 1.6 billion Muslims are united in their belief in God and the Prophet Muhammad and are bound together by such religious practices as fasting during the holy month of Ramadan and almsgiving to assist people in need. But they have widely differing views about many other aspects of their faith, including how important religion is to their lives, who counts as a Muslim and what practices are acceptable in Islam, according to a new worldwide survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Belief that people are better off in a free market, even if some are rich and some are poor, is a casualty of the Great Recession. Faith in capitalism has fallen since 2007, especially in Europe and Muslim majority countries.
(Source: pewglobal.org)
