The True Cost of the Churchgoing Bust

Derek Thompson at The Atlanticexplores the effect of growing religious disaffiliation on Americans’ relationships and sense of community. More than a quarter of Americans now identify as religiously unaffiliated, according to PRRI’s survey of 5,600 U.S. adults. The poll also found that Americans who still attend services a few times a year say that “experiencing religion in a community” is one of the most important features of religion. Thompson writes giving up attending weekly religious services with a faith community, combined with the emergence of smartphones, has rewired our social relations.

LGBTQ-U and the Myth of the Woke University

In an op-ed published at The Hill, PRRI Public Fellow Kelsy Burke, Ph.D., examines the trend of universities across the countrybanning subjects like sociology and gender studies, noting that Florida was the first to do so earlier this year. Conservative pundits such as Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA have argued that left-wing indoctrination is a dangerous threat. However, Burke writes that PRRI research finds that Gen Z college students reflect both liberal and conservative extremes on LGBTQ rights issues. Further, Gen Z college students who are Republican are actually more conservative than Republicans of other generations.

A Conversation With Sarah McCammon About Her Book “The Exvangelicals”

In a video published at#WhiteTooLong, PRRI President and Founder Robert P. Jones, Ph.D., and NPR journalist Sarah McCammon discuss her new book, The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church. Jones and McCammon talk about the pervasiveness of fear and anxiety in that evangelical world and the cognitive dissonance they experienced when they began to question firmly held evangelical beliefs. As McCammon explained, “This book is partly about Trump, but it’s also not about Trump. It’s partly my story, but it’s also a lot of other people’s stories. It’s about politics, but it’s also about religion.” Watch the conversation here.

Six New York Inmates Will Get to View Solar Eclipse After All

The Associated Press reports that six inmates who sued New York’s corrections department over its decision to lock down prisons during next Monday’s total solar eclipse will be permitted to watch the celestial event. The group filed a federal suit last week on the basis that the lockdown violates their constitutional right in blocking them from taking part in a religiously significant event. The group includes a Baptist, a Muslim, a Seventh-Day Adventist, two practitioners of Santeria, and an atheist. PRRI research finds that a slim majority of Americans (53%) say that religion is the most important (15%) or one among many important things in their lives (38%).