Atheism Around the World

Today's map shows data from a worldwide survey which asked respondents if they were a) religious, b) not religious, or c) identified as an atheist.  This map shows the percentages of people in various countries who identify as atheists.  By far the Chinese are the people most likely to self-identify as atheists.  Between 1 in 5 and 1 in 3 people in Japan, France, and the Czech Republic also identify as atheists.  In 2012, 5% of Americans identified as atheists.

This survey was also given in both 2005 and 2012 in some countries including Japan, France, the Czech Republic, and the US.  In all four countries the percentage of people identifying as atheists has risen:  8%, 15%, 10%, and 4% respectively.  In a reverse trend, the percentage of atheists has dropped in Malaysia and Bosnia (-4% and -5% respectively). In fact, in 2012 in the increasingly conservative Muslim country of Malaysia, zero respondents reported being atheists.

(Note:  French Guiana and other overseas French territories are an overseas departments or territories of France and thus appears as the same color as France's European departments.)

I've been on the road this past week, so here is a newly updated marriage map with a number of changes:

a. There are now only three states without a lawsuit seeking same-sex civil marriage:  Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska.

b. Georgia finally came on board the marriage lawsuit train as has South Dakota.

c. The 6th Circuit Court issued a stay on a Tennessee judge's order for the Volunteer State to recognize three same-sex couples as legally married while their lawsuit progresses.

d. One of the handful of out gay Federal judges heard a lawsuit seeking to overturn that state's anti-marriage constitutional amendment and legalize civil marriages there.  The state's attorney general also feels the amendment is unconstitutional and so there is no one defending the law before the court.

e. Alaska's Supreme Court also ruled this week that the state's refusal to give the same tax exemptions to same-sex couples as it gives to opposite-sex couples was discriminatory and unconstitutional.

f. And finally an Idaho cemetery for veterans refused the request of an elderly lesbian veteran to be buried with the ashes of her late partner under the claim that Idaho's state constitution prohibited recognition of the couple as married.  This woman who lived her life serving our country responded that she has spent her life being discriminated against and guess that this would not end with her death.  Sad.

The Typical American's Views on Abortion

The Typical American's Moral Views

According to polling by Gallup, Americans' views on various issues of relationships and morality continue to evolve.  As of 2013 the majority of Americans view same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, divorce, sex outside of marriage, and having a child outside of marriage as morally acceptable.  Adultery remains unpopular.  Polygamy also remains unpopular although the percentage of Americans viewing polygamy as morally acceptable has doubled since 2001.

The Typical American's Religion

Jennifer, our Typical American, is a Christian.

The Rise of Secular America

Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx

At the end of the 20th Century in 1999, 81% of Americans identified as Christians.  Today that percentage has dropped to 76%.  In the past 14 years Protestant churches have lost more than a fifth of their memberships.  Catholic membership has declined by 11% compared to 1999.  Some of these Christians may have simply changed their self-reported affiliation to Christian (non-specific), but a large number of Americans now report they have no religion or no religious affiliation.  In the past 14 years the percentage of Nones has almost doubled.

A Good Ol' Fashioned Sodomy Law

By 2003 most states had repealed their laws against consensual sodomy.  Depending on the old statute, consensual sodomy is oral sex and/or anal sex.  In 2003, nevertheless 13 hardcore states were still policing America's bedrooms.  In that year, however, the US Supreme Court reversed its infamous 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick decision which upheld state sodomy laws without ever discussing that yes, even heterosexuals get blow jobs.  In 2003, however, the US Supreme Court decided it was the 21st century and that it was time to get the government out of the sex lives of consenting adults.

So, that was a full DECADE ago, yet the Baton Rouge police were still charging people with consensual sodomy.  The local prosecutors of course dropped the charges, but Louisiana still has its unconstitutional law on the books.  A Baton Rouge legislator tried to get the archaic law repealed, but after heavy lobbying by the Christian Louisiana Family Forum, the Louisiana House voted Tuesday to KEEP the law on the books.

Louisiana is a strange state.  Home to Mardi Gras and Southern Decadence, Louisiana's conservative voters re-elected Senator David Vitter (R) after it came out he hired prostitutes to allegedly dress him in diapers as part of elaborate sexual fantasies.  Rest assured though.  Thanks to the good people at the Christian Louisiana Family Forum, visitors and citizens alike are protected from the scourges of consensual, adult oral and anal sex by the mere continuing presence of an unenforceable and unconstitutional sodomy law still on the books.

Religion in America

Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx

This week is Passover and Easter, so religion in America seems a good blog topic.  Gallup has been tracking religious affiliation in the US since 1948.  In 2013, Gallup found that 3 out of 4 Americans identify as Christians.  One in 6 reported having no religious affiliation (15%) or didn't answer (2%).  One in 14 Americans belong to various other religions such as Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.

Updated Marriage Map

After the rush of court rulings in the first three months of 2014, April has been relatively a slow news period. The new Federal court rulings on same-sex marriage have created even greater complexity.  Judges in Tennessee and Indiana have ruled those states must recognize civil marriages performed out-of-state...but only for the plaintiffs in the lawsuits involving those cases.  So, this means Indiana must recognize the marriage of a lesbian couple in Evansville where one of the spouses is dying.  In Tennessee the judge ordered the state to recognize the three couples suing the state for recognition of their marriages.

Today an Ohio judge ordered that state to recognize marriages legally performed out-of-state.  He will decide tomorrow whether to stay his decision or not.

As for the number of states with and without a lawsuit seeking recognition of same-sex marriage, it is a challenge knowing which states have such lawsuits.  Lambda Legal put out a press release that to expect a lawsuit in Georgia this week, but there is no news there yet.  So stay tuned.

Updated: Religious Freedom Laws

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (R) today signed into law the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act which allows Mississippians to sue or use as a legal defense the claim that any government policy, law, regulation, or ordinance places a burden on their free exercise of religion.  It also adds "In God We Trust" to the state seal.  The new law does not, however, allow employees to sue their employer by claiming the employer infringes on the employees' religious practices.

As I noted in my earlier post, at least 18 states (16 plus now KY and MS) already have these laws on the books.  A study by Wayne State law professor Christopher Lund also notes that these laws rarely lead to the successful defense of discriminatory acts.  For example, it is difficult to claim your deeply conservative Christian values force you to deny a wedding cake to a lesbian couple when you are willing to make cakes celebrating a Pagan solstice party, divorce, new grant to study cloning, etc. as recently was the case in Oregon.  Apparently to use these laws as a legal defense you would have to show you consistently apply your religious values in your dealings with customers.  Unfortunately, these laws also put the government in the position of differentiating consistent theological principles from discrimination seeking to hide behind religion.  Ironically, these 'religious freedom restoration' laws bring the courts into defining religion.

What is perhaps the true aim of these recent legislative attempts and new statutes is to make a political statement.  This isn't a new phenomenon.  Former Confederate states added the Confederate flag to their state flags to make a statement.  Mississippi amended its state flag in 1894, and in 2001 state residents voted down a proposal to remove the Confederate battle flag widely associated nationally with racists and rednecks.  Similarly, the Catholic organization Knights of Columbus spearheaded the addition in 1954 of the words "under God" into the US Pledge of Allegiance -a previously thoroughly secular pledge.  Symbols matter and are often appropriated by political agendas by groups across the political spectrum.  Take for example the recent debacle in South Carolina where a little girl's suggestion that the state adopt the wooly mammoth as the state fossil unleashed various amendments pushing a Creationist agenda.

These recent religious freedom laws underscore a symbolic resistance to advances in gay rights and a growing pushback to a politicized conservative Christianity.  Yet, as an observer from the South, it is interesting to note the massive media attention and pushback that states like Kansas and Arizona received over their religious freedom bills.  In Kentucky in 2013 and now in Mississippi in 2014 you don't see anything close to the pushback.  Perhaps the relative silence when the KY and MS legislatures beat their Bibles reflects a national attitude that much of the South is like a Confederate reservation where people can continue to live with 19th century values?  I've noticed when there is an anti-gay incident or attack in New York or another urban area, many commentators react against the perpetrators. When a similar anti-gay incident happens in the South, many commentators lash out at the entire state or the South as a whole.  Similarly, I see a number of my fellow Southerners view the diverse populations of cities and urban suburbs where the vast majority of Americans live as not the "real Americans" and erroneously paint Democrats and Democratic-voting areas as "welfare queens" and "takers".  In fact, data shows that most of America's economic production comes from its cities and urban states that in fact tend to vote Democratic.  Thus, the older, poorer, more rural red state areas are generally the "takers" who receive far more in Federal benefits than they pay in via taxes.  

My point here is that laws like the religious freedom bills are more about political theater than policy.  They enhance stereotypes that are not universal in these states, and they highlight the differential treatment and attention given to some states by the national media and social networks.  The Culture Wars continue and while same-sex marriage sweeps the country MS' conservatives can now proudly point to the "In God We Trust" on their state seal.  

Save the Tatas

This quick map shows data from the CDC's 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) broken into standard deviations.  The pale gray states represent states where the percentage of women over the age of 40 reporting they have had the recommended mammogram in the past 2 years.  Gold states have better mammogram percentages.  Purple states have worse.

Massachusetts stands out as having the highest percentage of women over 40 who have had a mammogram. This much higher percentage for the Bay State likely results from the high percentage of women who have health insurance thanks to the program signed into law by Gov. Mitt Romney that has since become the model for the Affordable Care Act.

On the other extreme are the western states of Oklahoma, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana where significantly lower percentages of women have had mammograms.