Prof. Juhem Navarro-Rivera, Research Fellow, Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society & Culture, explains the increase in secularity among U.S. Latinos since 1990.
Related Links:
Category Archives: Americas
Conscientious Objection to Military Service: Secularism Evolves from Religious Freedom in the Seeger Case
by Karl Fleischmann, Captain (ret.) in U.S. Army, Judge Advocate General Corps., graduate of Columbia College (A.B.), Phi Beta Kappa and Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Congress has long seen fit to recognize a right to exemption from active service for those who hold a conscientious objection. This was recognized by the Supreme Court in United States v. Macintosh, 283 U.S. 605, 623 (1931). It continues to apply to the occasional situation in which someone develops a conscientious objection during voluntary military service.
Military Chaplain Support Demographics
Reply
Demographics study of Defense Manpower Data Agency data compiled by Understanding Secularism’s partner organization the Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers (MAAF).
To see slideshow visit MAAF
Public Opinion and Support for the Separation of Church and State in the U.S. and Europe
Featured
by Barry A. Kosmin, Research Professor in the Public Policy & Law Program at Trinity College and Founding Director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture
The idea of separating the institutions of the state, government and public life from the direct involvement and influence of organized religion arose during the Enlightenment. It became a feasible proposition as a result of the two great revolutions of the 18th century. In fact the American and French revolutions produced two intellectual and constitutional traditions of secularism and the secular state – a “soft secularism” and a “hard secularism”. Canadians, of course, rejected both these revolutions and so historically they are heirs to the Lockean tradition of religious toleration rather than of secularism per se.
Public Opinion and Support for the Separation of Church and State in the U.S. and Europe
American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS 2008) Summary Report
by Barry A. Kosmin, Founding Director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC) and Research Professor, Public Policy & Law Program at Trinity College & Ariela Keysar, Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC) and Associate Professor, Public Policy & Law Program at Trinity College
ARIS 2008 is the third in a landmark time series of large, nationally representative surveys that track changes in the religious loyalties of the U.S. adult population within the 48 contiguous states from 1990 to 2008. The 2001 and 2008 surveys are replicas of the 1990 survey, and are led by the same academic research team using an identical methodology of random-digit-dialed telephone interviews (RDD) and the same unprompted, open-ended key question “What is your religion, if any?” Interviewers did not prompt or ofer a suggested list of potential answers. Moreover, the self-description of respondents was not based on whether established religious bodies or institutions considered them to be members. To the contrary, the surveys sought to determine whether the respondents regarded themselves as adherents of a religious community. Te surveys tap subjective rather than objective standards of religious identification. Te value of this unique series of national surveys, which allows scientifc monitoring of change over time, has been recognized by the U.S. Bureau of the Census Te Bureau itself is constitutionally precluded from such an inquiry into religion, and so has incorporated NSRI/ARIS fndings into its officially publication the Statistical Abstract of the United States since 2003.
American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS 2008) Summary Report
American Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population
By Barry A. Kosmin & Ariela Keysar, Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society & Culture with Ryan T. Cragun, University of Tampa & Juhem Navarro-Rivera, University of Connecticut
The aim of this report is to provide detailed evidence and reliable statistics on just who the Nones are, their sentiments, the process by which they have grown, and their place in contemporary American society. Data from 1990 is presented to highlight selected characteristics where change over time is particularly notable. We also try to predict the future trajectory of the Nones and so their likely impact on where society is headed.
One Nation, Losing God
Interview with Barry Kosmin in Free Inquiry (Dec. 31, 2010).
Barry Kosmin is the nation’s leading expert on the “nones,” a group
that he studies through the ARIS, or American Religious Identification Survey. In this episode of Point of Inquiry, he discusses where America is heading with respect to its religious identity, why this change is occurring, and what the implications will be for secular advocacy in the future.
Barry A. Kosmin is Research Professor in the Public Policy & Law Program at Trinity College and Founding Director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture
US Latino Religious Identification 1990-2008: Growth, Diversity & Transformation
by Juhem Navarro-Rivera, Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (Trinity College); Puerto Rican & Latino Studies Institute/Political Science (University of Connecticut), Barry A. Kosmin, Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (Trinity College) & Ariela Keysar Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (Trinity College)
The ARIS Latino Report is the third major report based on the findings of the American Religious Identification Survey, ARIS 2008, and the earlier surveys in the ARIS time series. In this report we focus on three aspects of U.S. Latino religious identification – growth, diversity and transformation. First, we investigate the current demography and profile of Latino religious identification and how they have changed since 1990. The comparison of the patterns of Latino religious identification in 1990 and 2008 is based on a unique data set covering two very large representative national samples. Secondly, we analyze the differences among different religious groups of Latinos, according to national identity and origin and acculturation variables such as language use. The answers to questions regarding language preference and national origin were asked in English or Spanish to a subsample of 959 Latino adults in 2008. Finally, we discuss the impact of the changes in Latino religion on American society at large and for the main religious groups to which Latinos belong.
US Latino Religious Identification 1990-2008: Growth, Diversity & Transformation
Juhem Navarro-Rivera is a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture, Trinity College, Hartford, CT and Adjunct Professor of Latino Studies and Political Science at the University of Connecticut
Barry A. Kosmin is Research Professor in the Public Policy & Law Program at Trinity College and Founding Director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture
Ariela Keysar is Associate Professor, Public Policy & Law Program at Trinity College and the Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture
American Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population
ARIS Report by Barry A. Kosmin & Ariela Keysar with Ryan T. Cragun & Juhem Navarro-Rivera
Who exactly are the Nones? “None” is not a movement, but a label for a diverse group of people who do not identify with any of the myriad of religious options in the American religious marketplace – the irreligious, the unreligious, the anti-religious, and the anti-clerical. Some believe in God; some do not. Some may participate occasionally in religious rituals; others never will.
Secularization and Its Discontents: Courts and Abortion Policy in the United States and Spain
by Adrienne Fulco, Associate Professor and Director of the Public Policy and Law Program at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
Scholars who compare European and American political parties have custom-arily characterized the two major American political parties as distinctly non-ideological coalitions of voters who come together every four years to nominate and elect a president. Nicol C. Rae recently observed that “[i]n the comparative study of political parties in twentieth century advanced democracies, the United States has always been something of a problematic outlier owing to the absence of organized, disciplined, and ideological mass political parties.” Moreover, according to Rae, when compared with other advanced industrial democracies, “American national parties have traditionally been decentralized, loosely organized, and undisciplined, with party cleavages based on cultural or regional factors rather than social class divisions.” But today, according to researchers who have explored the problem of polarization in American politics since the 1980s, there is now “widespread agreement that the Democratic and Republican parties in the electorate have become more sharply divided on ideology and policy issues in recent decades.” Commentators agree that among the factors most responsible for the sharpening of distinctions between the two parties has been the infusion of white, Protestant, conservative, religiously motivated voters into the Republican Party. Thus, not only have American political parties become more ideologically oriented, but they have also come to resemble more closely the European model, in which parties represent distinct religious and secular constituencies.
Secularization and Its Discontents: Courts and Abortion Policy in the United States and Spain