Federal Funding of Faith-Based Initiatives
(Charitable Choice)

Facts and Figures

Source: Surveying the Religious Landscape: Trends in U.S. Beliefs, George Gallup Jr. and D. Michael Lindsay (Harrisburg: Morehouse Publishing, 1999)

Three in five Americans in 1998 classified religion as "very important" to their lives. This represents a seven percentage -point gain since 1988. (p. 9)

Seven Americans in 10 are members of churches or synagogues. (p. 13)

Two in three believe that religion can answer all or most of today's problems. (p. 20)

Almost two-thirds of Americans confidently affirm God's existence. Ninety-five percent of the American public believes in God or what they term a "Higher Power." Such convictions have changed little in 50 years. (p. 23)

Ninety-five percent of American adults say they pray to a supreme being. (p. 46)

Almost seven in 10 (68%) Americans consider church and religious leaders as the greatest bastion of hope against the further encroachment of moral failure for this nation in the coming millennium. (p. 99)

In 1992, only one in five adults was satisfied with the honesty and standards of behavior in this country, the lowest rating since 1972, the year of the Watergate hearings. (p. 99)

Confidence in American churches runs high. Nearly three out of five adults (59%) place their highest confidence in America's churches among all societal institutions. (p. 120)

The United States leads English-speaking nations in matters of faith, with levels of belief remaining consistently high in recent years, while inhabitants of Canada and the United Kingdom have witnessed significant declines in belief between 1980 and 1995. Nearly all adults in the United States (96%) say they believe in God or a universal spirit, but only seven in ten Canadians and six in ten Britons make similar claims. (pp. 120-21)

Nearly 8 in 10 Americans (79%) support the principle of separation of church and state.

For the past twenty-five years, the church or organized religion has consistently ranked at the top among of the list [of sixteen key institutions] with nearly six of ten Americans (59%) expressing a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the institution. (p. 136)

The Supreme Court garnered 50 percent, Congress 28 percent, and the presidency 53 percent. (p. 137)

With a rating of 59 percent, clergy rank second only to pharmacists on honest and ethical standards. By contrast, local officeholders, state officeholders, senators, and members of congress all ranked below 20 percent. (p. 140)