Ahead of the Trend — September 2024

Ahead of the Trend Newsletter

Each month, Dr. Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, publishes two columns highlighting the latest news in religion research utilizing data from the ARDA. We are excited to share these Ahead of the Trend articles with you.

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How Does Religion Influence Decisions About Marriage and Family?

As social scientists, we are not just concerned with whether an individual identifies with a religious tradition, but we are also interested in whether that religion has a measurable impact on the way that they go about their daily lives. Does it change the way they make decisions? Does it generate a different set of values?

One area in which religiosity is highly likely to have a measurable impact is marriage and family. This topic can be viewed through data from the National Survey of Family Growth provides data from more than 10,000 respondents and asks questions related to marriage and family. It also includes a question about the respondent's religious tradition.

What Americans Believe About Violence Against the Government

In January 2021—just after the events of January 6—Dr. Burge explored data from the Baylor Religion Survey that asked respondents if they believed it was ever justified to take violent action against the government.

The answers to this question don’t seem to cleanly align with partisan or religious identities, but within this puzzle there’s some sense the Christian nationalism on display was more nationalist than it was Christian.

In Baylor’s entire sample, 27.9% of respondents said violent action against the government would be justified. In analyzing church attendance among those who do support it, we might start to understand the role religion did or did not play on January 6, 2021.

Previous Ahead of the Trend Articles:

Who Hasn’t Heard About Christian Nationalism? There’s not a more discussed concept in American religion and politics right now than Christian Nationalism, especially on social media. But is this concepts that has jumped into the larger discourse?

Should Pornography Be Completely Banned? The General Social Survey has been asking about the legality of pornography in nearly every survey they have conducted since 1973. The question is set up this way: Which of these statements comes closest to your feelings about pornography laws?

The Association of Religion Data Archives | Website