PRRI
@prri.org
PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization conducting research at the intersection of religion, values, and public life. www.prri.org
A growing number of white Christian ministers are running for office as Democrats, as the party seeks to break the GOP's hold on white Christian voters. PRRI finds that 68% of Republicans are white Christians, vs. just 23% of Democrats. Read more:
Inside the Democrats’ Push to Win Back Religious Voters
Iowa’s Sarah Trone Garriott and a growing number of Democratic ministers nationwide are trying to challenge the GOP’s long dominance among white Christians.
wsj.com
There are just a few weeks until @robertpjones.bsky.social's next book, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy, is published. Listen to a preview from the opening chapter, "Future Regret," read by Holter Graham:
Backslide - audiobook clip
Listen to an audiobook clip from BACKSLIDE, read by Holter Graham. “Bracing—Jones presents a vision of America as “fallen into... apostasy.” But he remains hopeful, noting that “backsliding is not ir
soundcloud.com
In a new Spotlight Analysis, PRRI Public Fellows explore how progressive Black Protestant clergy respond to nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people in the Black church, to better understand the diversity of Black American religious life, social worlds, and theological commitments. Read more:
Black Protestant Clergy Responses to LGBTQ+ Nondiscrimination Protections
Drs. Ahmad Greene-Hayes, Darrius Hills, and Shatavia Wynn are 2025-2026 PRRI Public Fellows studying the intersection of politics, religion, LGBTQ rights, and gender. This Spotlight Analysis is the…
prri.org
Around 50% of Michiganders are white Christians, 25% are religiously unaffiliated, less than two in ten are Christians of color, and 7% are non-Christian, including 2% who are Muslim. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed held an interfaith roundtable ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic Primary in Michigan.
As progressives seek to take on inequality, some cite religion as a motivating factor
Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed says his Muslim faith shapes his progressive views.
apnews.com
“Brian Doerksen gave evangelicalism its soundtrack but not its current theology” - Yours Truly on how the “Jesus is my boyfriend” sounds of Doerksen & the Vineyard gave way to the rock ‘em sock ‘em militarism of top-selling worship music today: religionnews.com/2026/07/30/b...
Brian Doerksen gave evangelicalism its soundtrack but not its current theology
(RNS) — Today's evangelical worship culture often reflects a very different vision of God than the one Doerksen’s songs proclaimed.
religionnews.com
PRRI data shows that in 2021, about four in ten Americans (39%) agreed that the virus was developed intentionally by scientists in a lab. In a Senate committee hearing on his handling of COVID-19, Republicans accused Dr. Fauci of helping produce the pandemic by funding research on virus mutations.
Fauci repeatedly invokes the Fifth Amendment in a contentious Senate committee hearing
Dr. Anthony Fauci will face a contempt of Congress vote in a Senate committee next week after he invoked the Fifth Amendment in a hearing about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
apnews.com
In a new Spotlight Analysis, PRRI Public Fellow @profince.bsky.social examines Americans' attitudes toward protest, from views on speaking out against unfair government treatment to reactions to President Trump's pardons for Jan. 6 defendants. Read more:
Views of Protesting the Government During President Trump’s Tenure
Dr. Jelani Ince is a 2025-2026 PRRI Public Fellow focusing on racial justice and white supremacy. He is also an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. Protest has long been…
prri.org
PRRI President and Founder @robertpjones.bsky.social and @joyannreid.bsky.social discuss the implications of speeches given by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House advisor Stephen Miller at a recent counter-terrorism conference. Watch now:
Steven Miller's Chilling Nazi Speech | Countering White Christian Nationalism with Joy Reid [Ep 8]
The echoes are getting louder.
redeemingdemocracy.net
Wrote this report with my @prri.org immigration podmates @ekyleromero.bsky.social and @willmccorkle.bsky.social about how over 65% of Americans support TPS for Haitians. This administration exerts cruelty and calls it policy. Americans don't want it.
PRRI@prri.org · 2w ago65% of Americans support granting asylum to Haitian families, revealing a significant disconnect between the recent Supreme Court ruling that allows the removal of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants and general public sentiment. Read more in a new Spotlight Analysis:
On @aljazeera.com, PRRI CEO @melissadeckman.bsky.social explains that as Texas moves to make Bible study part of every public school's curriculum, PRRI data show that "over the past two decades, the number of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated has doubled." Watch the conversation:
Faith at the ballot box | This is America
YouTube video by Al Jazeera English
youtu.be
Follow the latest work of @prri.org's Senior Democracy Fellows, leading scholars and thought leaders examining how religion can hinder--but also support--American democracy. prri.substack.com/p/new-commen...
New Commentary and Analysis From PRRI's Senior Democracy Fellows
From the media’s mainstreaming of Doug Wilson to “rigged-election” rhetoric
prri.substack.com
65% of Americans support granting asylum to Haitian families, revealing a significant disconnect between the recent Supreme Court ruling that allows the removal of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants and general public sentiment. Read more in a new Spotlight Analysis:
Americans’ Humanitarian Views on Haitian Migrants
Drs. Will McCorkle, Lina-Maria Murillo, and E. Kyle Romero are 2025-2026 PRRI Public Fellows studying the intersection of politics, religion, and immigration and migration. This Spotlight Analysis is…
prri.org
In a new Spotlight Analysis, @drlmmurillo.bsky.social writes about the anti-immigrant rhetoric that the Trump administration is using to frame its argument for more restrictive voting laws, noting that these negative views are not shared by most Americans. Read more:
The SAVE Act, Birthright Citizenship, and Replacement Theory: The Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality
Dr. Lina-Maria Murillo is a 2025-2026 PRRI Public Fellow and an associate professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She’s the author of Fighting for…
prri.org
The 2026 PRRI American Identity Survey finds that two-thirds of Americans hold unfavorable views of Trump’s handling of the war in Iran (66%), compared with 29% of Americans who hold favorable views. Today, the United States conducted a sixth straight day of military strikes on Iran.
Iran targets military bases as US launches wave of strikes
Explosions were heard across Iran overnight, shortly after neighbouring Gulf states began to report attacks.
bbc.com
@shefali.bsky.social at @19thnews.org is one of the best reporters out there covering abortion politics -- here she cites @prri.org data on how Ken Paxton's extreme views on abortion are deeply out of step with the views of Texans. 19thnews.org/2026/07/ken-...
Why everyone will bring Ken Paxton’s abortion record up in his Senate race
Neither Senate candidate in Texas is emphasizing abortion on the campaign trail. But their staunch stances could influence the close race.
19thnews.org
The majority of Americans (57%) agree that the surge of ICE officers in places like Minnesota is making communities less safe. Trump is pushing back against a DHS decision to temporarily pause vehicle stops made by ICE, following two ICE-involved shootings this month.
Trump blasts DHS decision to pause immigration traffic stops
The president's broadside comes just a day after the Homeland Security Department decided to pause the practice, following two immigration-related shooting deaths.
politico.com
Today's Morning Buzz Newsletter digs into the cyclosporiasis outbreak, Lindsey Graham's foreign policy stance, CAIR's fight for trust after Texas's terrorist designation, and @robertpjones.bsky.social's sneak preview of his forthcoming book "Backslide." More ➡️ prri.substack.com/p/cases-rise...
Cases Rise as Parasite Outbreak Hits More Than Half of U.S. States
The Morning Buzz: July 13, 2026
prri.substack.com
@melissadeckman.bsky.social suggests that some churches’ continued emphasis on “patriarchal religious traditions” and “more traditional gender roles” helps explain Gen Z trends, noting, “I think that kind of perception of American religion has really been off-putting to a lot of young women today.”
Religion’s Longstanding Gender Gap Is Narrowing Among Gen Z
But which gender is narrowing it—and why?
time.com
Congratulations to PRRI Board Chair @ruthbraunstein.bsky.social on this achievement!
Princeton University Press@princetonupress.bsky.social · last mo.Congratulations to @ruthbraunstein.bsky.social, whose book My Tax Dollars is the Winner of the Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book, Culture Section, presented by the American Sociological Association! Read a preview of the book here: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb... @asanews.bsky.social
@terri.bsky.social at the @19thnews.org did a great job on this piece about Gen Z women being the most pessimistic group in America, using analysis @prri.org provided from our recent survey on American identity and patriotism. Check it out! 19thnews.org/2026/07/gen-...
Gen Z women are the most pessimistic about the American dream
A new analysis of polling data from PRRI also shows they’re the only group in which fewer than half agree there’s no place they’d rather live than the United States.
19thnews.org
Important piece from PRRI Public Fellow @mccraryc.bsky.social "Religious liberty is a banner under which the administration and its allies will continue to undermine other civil rights, dismantle public goods, and insulate certain favored citizens from public accountability."
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 4w agoThe era of “high separation” between church and state is over. trib.al/gTOnBgR
PRRI Senior Democracy Fellow @katherinestewart.bsky.social writes that a video produced by the Trump administration and Hillsdale College uses debunked myths & deliberate decontextualizations to twist the Founders’ ideals into pro-religious nationalist messaging newrepublic.com/article/2125...
Trump’s 250th Is a Festival of Slop History
Amid our semiquincentennial celebration, the religious right is promoting its own revisionist version of the nation’s founding.
newrepublic.com
House Speaker Mike Johnson has called for Congress to curtail birthright citizenship in wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down President Trump’s executive order that sought to end birthright citizenship www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...
Congress should restrict birthright citizenship, House speaker says
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said that Congress should consider a bill to limit birthright citizenship and that it would advance "immediately."
usatoday.com
A slight majority of Americans (57%) say believing in God is important to being truly American, and 43% say being Christian is important to being truly American. A new curriculum has been proposed for Texas public schools to include biblical references, passages, and stories.
As some praise Texas’ proposed ‘Judeo-Christian’ curriculum, rabbis say it dismisses Judaism
AUSTIN, Texas (RNS) — The phrase ‘Judeo-Christian’ was frequently heard this week in support of Texas’ revised public school curriculum, even as many Jewish testifiers distanced themselves from the te...
religionnews.com
71% of Americans agree that “transgender people deserve the same rights and protections as other Americans.” The Supreme Court has allowed states to keep their bans on transgender female athletes from competing in women's and girls’ sports. Read more from PRRI Public Fellow Shatavia Wynn:
Transgender Athletes and the State of Legal Challenges
Dr. Shatavia Wynn is a 2025-2026 PRRI Public Fellow focusing on LGBTQ rights and gender and an Assistant Professor of Africana and Religious Studies at Rhodes College. The year 2027 will mark the 55th...
prri.org
Amid a raft of terrible decisions, SCOTUS upholds birthright citizenship. @prri.org finds 67% favor Constitution’s "guarantee that all children who are born in the United States are automatically granted U.S. citizenship, regardless of their parents’ citizenship status.” prri.org/research/tru...
Trump’s Unprecedented Actions Deepen Asymmetric Divides
The 16th annual PRRI American Values Survey examines Americans’ opinions on how democracy is working, what it means to be “truly American,” concerns about the economy, and belief in the American Dream...
prri.org
“Many people within the MAGA movement, within the GOP, envision… that the U.S. should be identified more as a Christian nation with conservative Christian goals,” explains PRRI CEO @melissadeckman.bsky.social. Read more:
In Trump’s America, two very different views of Christianity in politics emerge | CNN Politics
Adherence to organized religion is falling in the United States, but defenders of the religious right are ascendant in positions of power in the Trump administration.
cnn.com
Today is the 11th anniversary of Obergefell v. Hodges. PRRI finds that support for same-sex marriage remains higher today (65%) than in 2015 (53%). Today, Republicans (49%) are notably less likely than Democrats (83%) and independents (69%) to support same-sex marriage. Read more about LGBTQ rights:
Mapping Support for LGBTQ Rights Across the 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas
To view a replay of PRRI’s March 19, 2026, webinar on this topic or the slides presented during the webinar, please click here.
prri.org
On this 4th anniversary of the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court, an important reminder that most people of faith support abortion legality in all or most cases. prri.org/research/map...
Mapping Abortion Views Across the 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas
Six in ten Americans (61%) say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to a new survey report published by PRRI…
prri.org
@melissadeckman.bsky.social is on Axis Live to discuss the state of religion and democracy in the United States, drawing on findings from the 2025 PRRI Census of American Religion and PRRI’s latest report, Competing Visions of America at 250. Watch now:
JD Vance's Christendom, Christian Terror at UFC, and PRRI Data on Religion in the USA
YouTube video by Axis Mundi Network | SWAJ
youtube.com