& the Bruce Blakeman Kevin McCaffrey gang have not killed the fighting spirit of the holy church of Nassau otb faithful nor its members who believe in the rights secured by ny const art 1 sec 3
More Americans Left Religion During the Pandemic
Survey shows the percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation rose to 29%, while Christians declined to 63%
Catholics make up 21% of the adult population, up 1 percentage point from 2019.
PHOTO: HANNAH YOON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Religious affiliation in the U.S. has continued to fall during the pandemic, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.
The percentage of Americans who identify as Christians now stands at 63%, down from 65% in 2019 and from 78% in 2007. Meanwhile, 29% of Americans now identify as having no religion, up from 26% in 2019 and 16% in 2007, when Pew began tracking religious identity.
Many places of worship closed during the pandemic—some voluntarily, others as a result of state and local social-distancing rules—and in-person church attendance is roughly 30% to 50% lower than it was before the pandemic, estimates Barna Group, a research firm that studies faith in the U.S. Millions of Americans moved to worshiping online, and questions linger about how many will come back in person.
A previous Pew survey, in January, found that a third of Americans said their faith had grown stronger during the pandemic—the highest share of any developed country. But overall, religious engagement trended downward at roughly the same rate as before the pandemic, according to the new Pew survey.
“A significant minority of the population is saying their faith has been strengthened as a result of the coronavirus outbreak,” said Greg Smith, associate director of research at Pew and author of the religious affiliation study. “But that group, the people who say their faith has been strengthened, is concentrated among those who were already highly religious. There’s not a lot of evidence of people who were not that religious before March 2020 [and] have become so,” he said.
Among the 29% who say they have no religion, 4% say they are theists and 5% agnostics. Both of those figures are unchanged since 2017. The percentage of Americans who identify as “nothing in particular” grew from 16% in 2017 to 20% this year. Though some who identify as “nothing in particular,” may believe in God, Mr. Smith said they are far less likely to pray or attend services than Americans who identify with a religious group.
The share of Americans who pray daily fell to 45% in 2021, compared with 58% in 2007.
“The secularizing trends that have been evident for a long time show no signs of slowing, certainly no signs of reversing,” Mr. Smith said.
Though Protestants remain the largest group, most of the drop in religious affiliation has come from their ranks. Some 40% of Americans now identify as protestant, compared with 43% in 2019 and 52% in 2007.
Other religious groups have remained relatively stable over the past two years. Catholics make up 21% of the adult population, up 1 percentage point from 2019. Non-Christian faiths, including Islam and Judaism, collectively make up about 6% of the adult population, down from 7% two years ago
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
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