The following is excerpted from the Deseret News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Most Americans agree that Christians are treated worse today than they were in the past. Still, a sizable minority thinks they complain too much.
Those are among the findings included in a new report on religious tolerance from Lifeway Research, which regularly fields surveys on American religious life. The data showed that even non-Christians sense rising anti-Christian intolerance, said Scott McConnell, the organization’s executive director.
“Members of other religions are noticing it,” he said. “They’re minorities in America, and they’re saying, ‘Wow. American culture is not tolerating the Christian faith.’”
The report also highlighted concern about the state of religious liberty, a phrase that refers to laws protecting people of faith’s ability to freely live out their beliefs. More than half of U.S. adults (54%) said religious liberty is declining in America today, including 40% of those who don’t identify as a member of a faith group.
Because the survey featured in the report was fielded in September 2021, it doesn’t account for how the Supreme Court’s recently concluded term might have shifted public opinion. It’s possible that the court’s decisions to overturn Roe v. Wade and protect a football coach’s right to pray at school, among other rulings, could have “turned the tide a little bit,” McConnell said.
But he believes the numbers would have held pretty steady, since respondents were likely considering much more than how Christians are faring in the courts. “Religious liberty” may call to mind legal rulings, but “tolerance” is more about how people are treated in everyday life, McConnell said.
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