Ahead of the Trend

Ahead of the Trend Newsletter

Each month, Dr. Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, publishes two columns highlighting the latest news in religion research utilizing data from the ARDA. We are excited to share these Ahead of the Trend articles with you.

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Who Hasn’t Heard About Christian Nationalism?

There’s not a more discussed concept in American religion and politics right now than Christian Nationalism, especially on social media. But, there are concepts that seem to be hot topics for scholars that just don’t seem to jump the fence into the larger discourse.

It's hard to empirically test which ideas get into the larger cultural bloodstream, but a 2022 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute and Brookings sought to determine how widely this term was recognized. The study fielded a pretty simple question: Do you have a favorable or unfavorable view of Christian Nationalism?

Should Pornography Be Completely Banned?

The General Social Survey has been asking about the legality of pornography in nearly every survey they have conducted since 1973. The question is set up this way: Which of these statements comes closest to your feelings about pornography laws?

There should be laws against the distribution of pornography, whatever the age.
There should be laws against the distribution of pornography to persons under 18.
There should be no laws forbidding the distribution of pornography.

Here’s how responses to that question have changed in the last five decades.

Previous Ahead of the Trend Articles:

Is It Better If Women Take Care of the Home and Family? The General Social Survey has a question that is adjacent to the topic of gender roles and gender differences. It’s been asked pretty consistently since 1977, so we can track how the public has viewed gender roles over the course of four and a half decades.

Are Women More Spiritual and Men More Religious? There’s a stereotype that "spiritual, not religious" is a highly female-coded worldview, while atheism is more male-coded. Utilizing data from the Fetzer Institute’s National Religion and Spirituality Survey, Dr. Burge seeks to discern how large the gender gap is in areas like beliefs and spiritual practices.

Are Democrats ‘Spiritual’ and Republicans ‘Religious’? It’s Not That Simple. Take a look at this Ahead of the Trend from 2020. Using a previous version of the National Religion and Spirituality Survey, Dr. Burge posed a similar question, but instead of gender roles, he examined the stereotype of religiosity in political affiliation.

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