The number of Americans in support of parental rights in education and freedom to bring their faith into the public square has increased in the last year, according to The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s 7th annual Religious Freedom Index, released Jan. 16.
The index, which was published on National Religious Freedom Day, is based on online polling of a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults.
“As we celebrate National Religious Freedom Day, it’s encouraging to see that a growing number of Americans reject the idea that faith belongs behind closed doors,” Becket President and CEO Mark Rienzi said in a press release. “The Founders recognized that our nation is stronger when we allow our neighbors to bring their beliefs into the public square without fear, even when those beliefs cut against the grain.”
The index uses a scale of 0 to 100 to track support for religious freedom. This year, it is 71, the highest score since the index was developed.
A majority of those polled, 57%, agreed that Americans should be free to share their faith in public spaces, representing a 5% increase in the last year. Those polled also overwhelmingly believe that parents should be able to opt their children out of material in public schools that they believe to be inappropriate, with 73% agreeing. This represented a 10% rise from the previous year’s index.
The index also shows high levels of support for Supreme Court cases protecting religious freedom. Support for the Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor protecting parents’ right to direct their children’s religious upbringing was at 62%, and 65% supported the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin protecting Catholic Charities’ religious tax exemption.
Despite recent attacks of the seal of Confession in Montana, Washington, and Arizona, the index showed that 61% of respondents believe that the government should not be able to infringe on the confidentiality of things disclosed in Confession.
Polling was conducted by the firm Heart+Mind Strategies.
The index showed that support for religious freedom spanned generations, including members of Gen Z.
“Year after year, the Index has made clear that religious liberty remains one of our most cherished values,” Rienzi said, according to Becket. “Even amid deep divisions, our nation still believes that our first freedom belongs at the heart of our culture; not as a source of conflict, but as a foundation for overcoming it. The work before us is to see that freedom protected for our children and theirs in the years to come.”
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