Introduction
A new Pew Research Center survey finds that U.S. adults overwhelmingly say houses of worship should be required to follow the same rules about social distancing and large gatherings as other organizations or businesses in their local area. About eight-in-ten Americans (79%) take this position, four times the share who think houses of worship should be allowed more flexibility than other kinds of establishments when it comes to rules about social distancing (19%).
On this question, Americans seem to align with two recent Supreme Court orders, which rejected lawsuits claiming that state restrictions on worship violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom. At the same time, many state and local governments have carved out exemptions for religious institutions from pandemic-related restrictions.
Among U.S. Christians, about three-quarters say churches should be subject to the same rules as other businesses. Evangelical Protestants express the most support for giving houses of worship more flexibility, but even in this group, a 62% majority says houses of worship should be held to the same standards as other businesses and organizations And while Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party are substantially more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say houses of worship should be required to follow the same social distancing rules as other organizations, a two-thirds majority of Republicans also express this view.
In addition, amid reports that some clusters of the virus have been tied to religious gatherings, many Americans who regularly attend religious services express support for instituting a variety of restrictions and modifications at their own places of worship. At the time the survey was conducted (July 13 to 19), only 13% said their house of worship should be open to the public just as it was before the outbreak.1
More than eight-in-ten attenders think their own congregation should either be closed altogether (28%) or open only on a modified basis (57%), with this latter group broadly endorsing precautions such as requiring people to stay 6 feet away from each other (51%), requiring masks (44%), limiting the number of people in attendance at any one time (41%) and limiting communal singing (29%).
These figures are largely in line with what religious attenders say is actually going on at their congregations. Just 6% say their congregation is open to the public in the same way it was before the coronavirus outbreak. A majority (55%) say that the house of worship they attend most often is open to the public for religious services on a modified basis as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, while three-in-ten (31%) say their house of worship is closed altogether.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of religious attenders (79%) say their house of worship is streaming or recording its religious services so people can watch online or on TV.
Among those who attend religious services, mainline Protestants and members of the historically Black Protestant tradition are more likely than Catholics and evangelical Protestants to say they think their congregations should be closed. Most Catholics and evangelicals think their churches should be open, albeit with restrictions in place. Similar patterns are reflected in the current operating status of churches across these Christian traditions. (The survey included too few interviews with members of other religious groups who attend services regularly to permit separate analysis of their answers to these questions.)
Most regular attenders say they are either “very” (34%) or “somewhat” (29%) confident they could safely attend religious services in person right now, without spreading or catching the coronavirus. About one-third are “not too” (19%) or “not at all” (16%) confident they could safely attend in-person services.
Majorities of regularly attending evangelical Protestants (75%) and Catholics (59%), along with 56% of mainline Protestants, say they feel safe attending church right now. Protestants in the historically Black tradition and Hispanic Catholics, meanwhile, are more evenly divided between those who are confident it is safe to return to in-person services and those who are not.
The survey also finds broader racial and ethnic divisions on these and many other coronavirus-related questions. While nearly three-quarters of white Americans say they are confident they could safely attend in-person religious services right now, far fewer Black (49%) and Hispanic (51%) adults say the same. A previous Pew Research Center survey found that health concerns about the coronavirus outbreak are much higher among Black and Hispanic adults than among white adults, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that people from racial and ethnic minority groups are at increased risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19.
But while the survey suggests that many people would feel comfortable going, far fewer Americans – 12% of U.S. adults overall – say they actually have gone to services in person in the last month (meaning the month preceding the survey, which was conducted in mid-July). Even among those who say they attend services at least monthly in more normal times, just one-third report that they attended in person during the month preceding the survey, but a far larger share (72%) say they have watched religious services online or on TV in the last month.2
Taken together, these two questions suggest that about half of U.S. adults who typically attend religious services at least once a month have replaced in-person attendance with virtual participation (at least temporarily); 49% say they have watched religious services online or on TV in the last month, but have not attended in-person religious services during this time. Roughly one-quarter (23%) of people who were regular attenders before the pandemic now say they have participated in both in-person and online or televised services in the last month. One-in-ten say they have only attended services in person and have not recently watched services online or on TV, while one-in-five (19%) have neither attended religious services in person nor have they watched online or on television.
Evangelical Protestants are more likely than members of other Christian traditions to say they recently have attended in-person religious services. But still, among evangelicals who typically attend, fewer than half (44%) say they have gone recently, while far more (80%) are watching services virtually.
These are among the key findings of a new Pew Research Center survey conducted July 13 to 19, 2020, among 10,211 U.S. adults on the Center’s online, nationally representative American Trends Panel. For more information on how the survey was conducted, see the Methodology.
The survey also finds little indication that the coronavirus outbreak will result in large-scale changes in Americans’ religious service habits in the future. More than eight-in-ten U.S. adults say either that when the coronavirus outbreak is over they will attend in-person religious services at about the same rate as they did before the outbreak (42%) or that they did not attend in-person religious services before the outbreak and do not plan to when the pandemic is over (43%). Far fewer say that when the outbreak is over, they plan to attend in-person services more often (10%) or less often (5%) than they did before the outbreak.
Plans to attend religious services more frequently after the pandemic has passed are concentrated among those who attended regularly (at least once a month) to begin with. Among those who did not regularly attend religious services prior to the pandemic, the vast majority indicate that their attendance habits will not change, largely because they did not attend before the outbreak.
The coronavirus outbreak also does not seem primed to usher in a permanent rise in virtual worship. In fact, among U.S. adults who recently watched religious services online or on TV, a larger share say that they intend to watch virtual services less often (28%) rather than more often (19%) after the pandemic passes. About half (53%) say they will watch services online at about the same rate as they did before the pandemic.
Most U.S. adults who recently watched religious services online are satisfied with services
Still, the vast majority of U.S. adults who have watched religious services online or on TV in the last month say they are “very” (54%) or “somewhat” (37%) satisfied with the services they have watched, while just 8% say they are “not too” or “not at all” satisfied.
While most regular attenders say their house of worship is putting its religious services online, the new survey also finds that Americans who are watching services online are not solely watching their own congregations.
In fact, most in this group say they have watched services offered by a house of worship that is not the one they typically attend – whether exclusively (29%) or along with services from their own congregation (30%). Four-in-ten say they have watched only their own house of worship’s services.
While virtual worship has been a new experience for many Americans during the pandemic, nearly half of those who watched religious services online or on TV in the last month (46%) say they also had done so before the outbreak.
Whether hearing sermons in person or online, many have heard about importance of taking steps to limit the virus’ spread, support for Black Lives Matter protests, importance of voting
During a year of great upheaval in the U.S., what are Americans hearing from religious leaders? Three-quarters of U.S. adults who recently attended religious services in person or watched online say that in the past few months they have heard sermons that have expressed the importance of taking steps to limit the spread of the coronavirus. At the same time, about three-in-ten have heard opposition from religious leaders to government orders that prevented houses of worship from holding in-person religious services.
In the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis, about four-in-ten U.S. adults who have recently watched or attended religious services say they have heard sermons that have expressed support for the recent Black Lives Matter protests, while a quarter have heard opposition to the protests. And with a presidential election looming, four-in-ten say they have heard from clergy about the importance of voting, protesting or other forms of political engagement.
Houses of worship also continue to express their views on abortion. About one-third of Americans who have watched or attended services in the last month say they heard sermons that have expressed opposition to abortion (35%), while one-in-ten (11%) heard support for legal abortion.
Judging by their answers to the survey, Democrats and Republicans are not hearing all of the same messages at their congregations. For instance, Democrats and those who lean Democratic are substantially more likely than Republicans and adults who lean toward the GOP to say they have heard sermons that expressed support for the recent Black Lives Matter protests (59% vs. 29%) and the importance of voting (52% vs. 33%). And more Republicans than Democrats say they have heard sermons that express opposition to abortion in the past few months (42% vs. 28%).
While many people who attend religious services say they have heard about social and political issues in sermons recently, fewer say they have heard much positive or negative talk about President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee. The vast majority of Americans who have engaged with religious services recently say they haven’t heard either support for, or opposition to, Trump (72%), and 79% haven’t heard either sentiment about Biden.
Many religious leaders may avoid discussing the candidates directly due to restrictions on involvement in political campaigns by tax-exempt organizations, including religious institutions.
Other key findings from the survey include:
- Partisans hold diverging opinions about whether and how houses of worship should be reopening, if at all. Among religious attenders, more than six-in-ten Republicans and Republican leaners (64%) say their house of worship should be open to the public for in-person services with modifications in place, compared with 48% of Democrats who say this. In fact, Democrats and Democratic leaners are roughly divided between those who think their congregation should be closed entirely (44%) and those who think it should be open with modifications (48%). The survey also shows that Republicans who typically attended worship services before the pandemic are much more likely than Democrats in the same category to have recently gone to in-person services (42% vs. 19%). Because this analysis only looks at the segments of each party that normally engage in regular religious practice, these differences are not just because Republicans in general are more religious than Democrats.
- Although older adults are at a higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19, the survey finds that older religious attenders are no more or less likely than their younger counterparts to say they feel safe attending in-person services right now. And among Americans who said in a 2019 survey that they typically attend religious services at least once a month, older adults are no less likely than their younger counterparts to say they attended in-person religious services during the past month.
- Religious attenders who are living in counties hit hardest by the outbreak (that is, counties with 100 or more COVID-19 deaths) are much less likely than those living in counties that have not been as hard hit (counties where fewer than 10 people have died of the virus) to say they have attended in-person religious services within the last month (26% vs. 47%).
- Most U.S. religious attenders say they have not changed the amount of money they donate to their house of worship since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. More than half (54%) say they have donated the same amount of money they normally would have, and 17% say they do not usually donate. But among those who have changed their behavior, twice as many say they have donated less money than they normally would (18% of all religious attenders) rather than more (8%).
- About four-in-ten U.S. adults say they have helped friends or neighbors by delivering groceries, running errands or caring for their children as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. About three-in-ten say they have volunteered or made a donation through a nonreligious charitable organization, and 18% say they have done the same through a religious organization. By comparison, fewer U.S. adults say they have asked for help from others during the coronavirus outbreak. Nearly one-in-five (17%) say they have turned to family or friends for help with bills, housing or food. About one-in-ten say they have asked for help with bills, housing or food from a nonreligious charitable organization. And 6% report that they have sought help from a religious organization.
- To help cope with the coronavirus outbreak, nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (73%) say they watch TV or movies, and 57% say they spend time outdoors on a daily basis. Smaller shares say they pray (43%), talk on the phone or by videoconference with friends or family (34%), or exercise daily (34%) to help cope with the outbreak. About one-in-six say they read scripture (17%) or meditate (16%), while 2% say they do yoga.
Attending and Watching Religious Services in the Age of Coronavirus
Overview
Most U.S. religious attenders – that is, Americans who said last year that they typically go to religious services at least once or twice a month, plus those who report having gone in person in the past month – said their congregation was open and holding religious services at the time the survey was conducted in mid-July. This includes 55% who say their congregation is open with certain coronavirus-related modifications in place and 6% who say their congregation is open and operating normally, just as it did before the outbreak began. Many houses of worship appear to have opened since April, when 91% of people who said in a 2019 survey that they attend religious services regularly indicated that their congregations were closed entirely.
A majority of attenders also say they feel at least somewhat confident that they could safely attend religious services at their congregation without contracting or spreading the coronavirus. Still, just one-third of respondents who typically attend religious services at least once a month say they have done so in the past month. Far higher numbers say they have watched religious services online or on television.
Looking ahead, however, most people indicate they plan to resume their pre-pandemic religious attendance routines once the outbreak is over. The remainder of this chapter explores Americans’ religious behaviors amid the pandemic in more depth, including congregants’ opinions about the precautions being taken.
How many Americans are attending religious services in person or online?
Roughly one-in-eight U.S. adults (12%) say they attended religious services in person during the last month, and one-in-three say they have watched religious services online or on television. Participation in both activities is most common among those who said prior to the outbreak (as part of a 2019 survey) that they attend religious services at least once a month.
Among those who typically attend religious services at least monthly, one-third say they have done so in person during the last month, and nearly three-quarters (72%) say they have watched religious services online or on TV. Among those who said (prior to the onset of the pandemic) that they do not regularly attend religious services, just 3% say they have attended worship services during the past month and 17% say they have watched virtually.
Evangelical Protestants report having attended in-person religious services during the last month at higher rates than members of other Christian traditions. And white Americans who typically attend worship services have recently gone in person at higher rates than Black and Hispanic attenders. For example, among Catholic Mass-goers, whites are almost twice as likely as Hispanics (42% vs. 22%) to say they have attended in-person Mass recently.
Overall, Black and Hispanic Americans who typically attend religious services on at least a monthly basis are no less likely than their white counterparts to say they have recently watched religious services online or on TV.
The survey finds only modest differences across regions of the country on these questions. However, people living in counties where the outbreak has had a smaller impact (that is, counties in which fewer than 10 people have died of the virus) are about twice as likely as those living in high-impact counties (counties with 100 or more coronavirus deaths) to say they have attended in-person religious services in the past month (47% vs. 26%).
Among attenders, Republicans and those who lean toward the Republican Party are much more likely than Democrats to say they have recently gone in person to a religious service (42% vs. 19%), but there is no difference between the two parties in the share who say they have recently watched religious services online or on television.
These two questions (about in-person religious attendance and viewership of virtual services) can be combined to provide a rough sense of how many Americans have replaced in-person religious attendance with virtual attendance, at least temporarily. Overall, about half of U.S. adults who typically attended religious services at least once a month in 2019 (49%) appear to have substituted virtual participation for in-person attendance: They have recently watched services online or on television and have not attended in person.
Roughly a quarter of regular worship attenders (23%) appear to be supplementing in-person attendance with virtual participation: They have both attended religious services and watched them online or on TV in the last month. Just one-in-ten regular worship attenders say they are still attending services in person and have not recently watched services virtually, while one-in-five (19%) have neither attended in person nor watched religious services online in recent weeks.
Evangelical Protestant churchgoers are more likely than other Christians to say they have both attended church services and watched them online or on TV in the past month. Churchgoers in the historically Black Protestant tradition, meanwhile, are more likely than others to say they have recently watched religious services online or on TV instead of attending in person. Roughly one-quarter of churchgoing Catholics (26%) and mainline Protestants (22%) say they have neither attended nor watched church services in recent weeks.
Many Americans experiencing virtual services for the first time, experimenting with different congregations
Slightly more than half of U.S. adults who have watched religious services online or on TV in the last month say that this is something they started doing during the coronavirus outbreak (54%), while 46% say they watched virtual services even before the onset of the pandemic.
Among those who have recently watched religious services online or on TV, majorities of Catholics (68%) and mainline Protestants (62%) say watching virtual church services has been a new experience for them as a result of the outbreak, while most people in the historically Black Protestant tradition (59%) and half of evangelical Protestants say they had done this before.
With a wide variety of virtual services available to anyone with an internet connection, many Americans appear to be taking advantage of them and are trying something new.
Fewer than half of those who have watched religious services online or on TV in the past month (40%) say they have watched services offered only by the congregation that they typically attend, while three-in-ten (30%) say they have watched services both from their own congregation and from others. An additional three-in-ten (29%) say they have exclusively watched services offered by congregations or religious organizations other than the one they typically attend.
There are few differences across most Christian groups on this question, although members of the historically Black Protestant tradition are less likely than others to exclusively watch their own congregation.
Overall, nine-in-ten U.S. adults who have recently watched religious services online say they have been satisfied with what they have seen, including 54% who have been “very” satisfied and 37% who have been “somewhat” satisfied.
Though upward of nine-in-ten Christians are at least somewhat satisfied with the religious services they have watched, mainline Protestants are somewhat less likely to be “very” satisfied (46%) than other Christian groups. And those who say they have watched religious services offered only by their own house of worship are somewhat more apt to say they have been very satisfied (60%) than those who have watched services offered by some other congregation (46%) or those who have watched both (52%).
Most say donations to houses of worship have not changed, although more have decreased than increased
As many people have become physically distanced from their religious congregation, how is this affecting houses of worship financially?
About seven-in-ten U.S. religious attenders indicate that the donations they make to their congregation have not changed much since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, including 54% who say they have donated about the same amount of money as they normally would have and 17% who say that they do not make financial donations to their congregation.
Nearly one-in-five (18%) say they have donated less money to their congregation since the start of the pandemic, which is nearly twice the number who say they have donated more than they normally would have (8%). The disparity between those who have increased and decreased their donations is most pronounced among Catholics, 28% of whom have donated less than they otherwise would have, compared with 5% who have donated more.
Most say their religious attendance habits will revert to pre-pandemic norms
While some have wondered whether the pandemic will permanently change the way people practice religion, most U.S. adults say that once the coronavirus outbreak is over, their religious attendance habits will revert to what they were before. This includes 42% who say they will attend in-person religious services about as often as they did before the outbreak, and an additional 43% who say they did not attend religious services before the outbreak and will not do so once it is over.
Among those who expect their religious attendance habits to change, a greater number say they anticipate going in person more often than they did before (10% of all U.S. adults), rather than less often (5%).
Both respondents who reported attending religious services regularly before the pandemic (as part of a 2019 survey) and respondents who were not regular attenders mostly project a return or continuation of their normal habits following the crisis. But people who say they attended religious services at least monthly before the pandemic are more likely than those who attended less often to say they anticipate increasing their attendance once the crisis has passed (16% vs. 7%).
Just as most people foresee returning to pre-pandemic rates of in-person attendance once the coronavirus outbreak is over, the survey finds little evidence to predict a large-scale increase in engagement with virtual services.
Overall, 6% of U.S. adults say they anticipate watching religious services online or on TV more often after the pandemic than they did before the pandemic, while 9% say they will watch religious services less often. Nearly one-in-five (18%) envision no change, and 66% were not asked this question because they did not report watching religious services in the last month.
Combining these two questions – about whether respondents anticipate changes to their in-person or virtual religious behavior after the pandemic, compared with before – can shed light on a discussion observers of American religion have raised about the long-term impact of the pandemic on U.S. religious life.
Will the pandemic leave regular religious attenders wary of large gatherings and less likely to attend in-person religious services? Will people appreciate the convenience and safety of “virtual” attendance and seek to continue practicing that way? Or will Americans miss the social connections associated with a religious congregation? Furthermore, could the crisis brought on by the pandemic lead to a revival of religious interest and observance among those who did not regularly attend religious services before the pandemic? Or will the forced separation from religious communities hasten the rise of the religious “nones” in America?
While the outbreak is not over, the survey suggests that the pandemic will not produce widespread, lasting changes in patterns of attendance at religious services. More than nine-in-ten people who were regular religious attenders before the outbreak (92%) say they intend to resume their previous level of religious attendance or plan to attend religious services even more often once the outbreak is over. And within this group, most say they will watch virtual services either at the same rate or less often than they did before the outbreak.
Meanwhile, just 2% of regular religious attenders indicate that they may substitute online or televised religious services for in-person attendance (by saying both that they intend to go to in-person religious services less often than they did before the pandemic and that they plan to watch virtual services more often).
Nor is there much evidence of a renewed desire to attend or watch religious services among those who did not regularly do so before the pandemic. Among those who reported in a 2019 survey that they typically attend religious services a few times a year or less often, 85% foresee no change to their religious attendance or viewing habits after the pandemic has passed, while 8% indicate they will either attend or watch religious services more often and 7% say they will attend or watch less often than they did to begin with.
What people think about modifications to in-person religious attendance, and what their house of worship is doing
Among those who said in a 2019 survey that they attend religious services at least monthly or who say in the current survey that they attended in the last month, eight-in-ten say their congregation is now streaming or recording its services so that they can be viewed online or on TV. Protestants are more likely than Catholics to say this about their congregation. Still, two-thirds of Catholics say their parish now provides this kind of electronic outreach.
More broadly, the survey finds that few U.S. adults who typically attend religious services (6%) say their congregations are open and operating normally, just as they were before the onset of the pandemic. Among religious attenders, 31% say their congregation is closed altogether, while 55% say their house of worship is open and holding religious services, but with modifications as a result of the outbreak.
Among four possible modifications mentioned in the survey, the most common one that congregants encounter is mandatory social distancing: 45% of religious attenders say congregants at their house of worship are required to stay at least 6 feet apart from each other during services. (When limiting the analysis to people who say that their house of worship is open with modifications, 82% say their house of worship requires people to stay at least 6 feet apart.)
Another 36% of attenders say there are restrictions on the number of people who can gather at any one time in their congregation, and 35% say those attending religious services are required to wear masks (in both cases, upward of six-in-ten attenders whose congregations are open but modified say this). Fewer say their congregation has limited or prohibited communal singing (20% of all religious attenders, 37% of all those at open-but-modified congregations).
Mainline Protestants and those in the historically Black Protestant tradition are more likely than those in other Christian groups to say their congregation is currently closed. Evangelical Protestants and Catholics, by contrast, are more likely than other Christians to say that their churches are open in a modified way. Few people in any Christian tradition say their congregations are operating normally.
Four-in-ten religious attenders who reside in the West and 33% of those who live in the South say their congregation is now closed, which is higher than the shares who say this in the Midwest and Northeast (24% each). And those who live in parts of the country where the virus has hit hardest (in terms of death toll) are more likely than those who live in the least severely affected areas to say their places of worship are closed entirely. But across the country, from the Northeast to the West and from the hardest-hit areas to the least affected, fewer than one-in-ten attenders say their congregations are open and functioning normally.
Among religious attenders, Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say their congregation is closed, while Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say their congregation is open in a modified way.
U.S. congregants generally are on board with implementing restrictions at their congregations. Nearly three-in-ten religious attenders (those who said in a 2019 survey that they attend services at least monthly or those who say in the current survey that they attended in person in the last month) say they think their congregation should be fully closed, and 57% think their congregation should be operating on a modified basis. Far fewer people think their congregations should be open and operating as normal. However, there are about twice as many religious attenders who think their congregation should be operating normally (13%) as there are who say their congregation currently is operating normally (6%).
Mainline Protestants, members of the historically Black Protestant tradition and Hispanic Catholics are more likely than other Christian subgroups to say their congregation should be closed. White Catholics are more likely than other Christian groups to say their parishes should be open and holding services, but with various modifications in place. And evangelical Protestants are more inclined than any other group to say their congregation should be open and operating normally, although this is a minority opinion even among evangelicals (18%).
Roughly four-in-ten Black (42%) and Hispanic (37%) religious attenders think their congregations should currently be closed. By comparison, just 21% of white attenders say the same. White respondents are more likely than Black and Hispanic religious attenders to say their congregations should be open on a modified basis.
Democrats who regularly attend religious services (54% of whom are Black or Hispanic) are more than twice as likely as Republican attenders (who are mostly white) to say their congregation should be closed (44% vs. 16%). By contrast, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say their congregations should be open and operating normally (19% vs. 6%). A larger share of Republicans than Democrats also say their congregations should be open with modifications (64% vs. 48%).
Taken together, these questions show that seven-in-ten U.S. religious attenders have preferences that align with the current operating status of their congregation, including 47% who attend congregations that are open with modifications and say that is the proper approach. An additional 21% attend congregations that are fully closed and say they should be, and 4% attend congregations that are operating normally and think this is the right call.
One-in-five religious attenders think their congregation’s current status is too restrictive (for example, their congregation is closed and they think it should be open in some way), while fewer (8%) think their congregation’s current operating status is too lax.
Most attenders say they are confident they could worship without catching virus
Overall, two-thirds of regular religious attenders are “very” or “somewhat” confident they could attend services safely without contracting or spreading the coronavirus. Levels of confidence are highest among evangelical Protestants (75%) and white Catholics (71%), and are lower among other Christian groups.
There also are broad racial and ethnic differences: White Americans have been less affected and are less worried about the effects of the pandemic than are Black and Hispanic Americans.
Not surprisingly, the vast majority of people who say they have attended religious services in person in the last month (89%) say they are confident they can do so without catching or spreading the virus. But even among those who have not attended in person recently, half say they are at least somewhat confident they could safely do so.
Little support for religious exemptions from social distancing requirements
Majorities in all religious, demographic and political groups analyzed in the survey say houses of worship should be required to abide by the same social distancing guidelines and restrictions on large gatherings as other establishments in their local area.
Support for this view is higher among self-described atheists and agnostics and among people who typically attend religious services a few times a year or less than it is among religiously affiliated Americans and those who attend regularly. Still, majorities in all religious groups oppose religious exceptions to regulations designed to slow the spread of the outbreak.
U.S. Adults Regularly Turn to a Variety of Activities to Help Cope with Coronavirus Outbreak
Overview
The coronavirus outbreak has created unprecedented stress and uncertainty in the lives of many Americans. The survey finds that U.S. adults turn to many different activities on a regular basis to help cope with the pandemic. The vast majority of adults say they watch TV or movies on a daily basis (73%), and a smaller majority (57%) spend time outdoors every day to help make it through the crisis. Fewer say they regularly turn to religious activities like prayer and scripture reading to help them cope, although these activities are more common among certain Christian groups.
The survey also included some questions intended to measure whether U.S. adults are volunteering, making donations or reaching out to offer assistance to friends and neighbors during the pandemic. About four-in-ten U.S. adults say they have offered help to friends or neighbors, while fewer say they have volunteered or donated money to a nonreligious charitable organization (29%) or a religious organization (18%). By comparison, far fewer Americans say they have sought financial help from family, friends or charitable organizations.
To help cope with pandemic, majorities of U.S. adults watch TV or movies and spend time outside every day
Large segments of the public are regularly watching TV or movies and spending time outside to help cope with the coronavirus outbreak. Nine-in-in-ten U.S. adults say they watch TV or movies at least weekly to cope with the outbreak, including roughly three-quarters (73%) who say they do this daily. And more than eight-in-ten say they spend time outdoors on a daily (57%) or weekly (27%) basis to help get through the pandemic.
Smaller majorities are spending time at least weekly talking on the phone or by videoconference with friends and family (70%) or exercising (64%), with roughly one-third of U.S. adults saying they engage in these activities every day. And 55% of Americans say they pray either daily (43%) or weekly (12%) to help cope with the coronavirus outbreak.
Less common coping activities include reading scripture, meditating and yoga. Three-in-ten U.S. adults say they read scripture at least weekly, and a quarter meditate each week to cope with the pandemic. Smaller numbers are practicing yoga amid the pandemic, with 8% saying they do this at least weekly and about eight-in-ten (79%) saying they never do yoga to help cope with the outbreak.
Many Christian adults pray and read scripture to help with the stresses of the pandemic, although regular prayer is more common than scripture reading across the board. More than eight-in-ten Protestants in the evangelical (83%) and historically Black (88%) traditions say they pray at least weekly, as do smaller majorities of Catholics (66%) and mainline Protestants (65%). Most members of the historically Black Protestant tradition (59%) and evangelicals (57%) say they read scripture at least weekly to help cope with the pandemic, but far fewer mainline Protestants (29%) or Catholics (27%) say this.
U.S. Jews are less likely than Christians to say they pray (36%) or read scripture (20%) at least weekly to help get by during the outbreak.
Women are more likely than men, Black and Hispanic adults are more likely than white adults, and those over 50 are more likely than their younger counterparts to say they pray or read scripture at least weekly to help them cope with the pandemic.
Fewer than half across religious and demographic groups say they meditate regularly to help cope with the outbreak, although Protestants in the historically Black tradition (and Black Americans more broadly) are more likely than other groups to say they do this.
Across all religious and demographic groups analyzed, majorities say they watch TV or movies, spend time outdoors, talk on the phone or by videoconference with family or friends, and exercise regularly to help cope with the coronavirus outbreak.
Many U.S. adults have volunteered to help others amid pandemic; fewer say they have asked for help
U.S. adults have spent time or money helping others during the pandemic in a variety of ways. Four-in-ten say they have helped friends or neighbors by delivering groceries, running errands or helping with childcare. Three-in-ten report having volunteered or donated money through a nonreligious charitable organization, and 18% have done the same through a religious organization.
Americans who said in a 2019 survey that they typically attend religious services at least once or twice a month are more likely than those who attend less often to say they have helped out friends or neighbors (44% vs. 36%). And not only are these religious attenders about six times more likely to say they have volunteered or made a donation through a religious organization (43% vs. 7%), they are no less likely to have contributed to a secular charity.
While U.S. adults overall are more likely to have volunteered or donated through a secular charity than to have done so through a religious one, Christians are equally likely to have given money or time to religious and nonreligious organizations (26% each). Protestants in the evangelical and historically Black traditions are the only Christian subgroups that are more likely to engage with religious charities (rather than nonreligious ones). Mainline Protestants and Catholics, along with Jews and religiously unaffiliated Americans, all have contributed to secular organizations at higher rates than religious ones.
Adults with a household income of at least $75,000 are more likely than those with lower incomes to say they have donated or volunteered through nonreligious charitable organizations, although they are no more likely than others to say they have helped friends and neighbors and only modestly more likely to say they have donated or volunteered through religious charitable organizations.
By comparison, far fewer U.S. adults say they have turned to other people or organizations for help with essential expenses like housing, bills or food as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Nearly one-in-five (17%) say they have turned to family, friends or neighbors for help with these expenses, while 9% say they have turned to a nonreligious charitable organization and 6% have sought help from a religious organization.
Three-in-ten adults under 30 have turned to family, friends or neighbors for help during the coronavirus outbreak, while fewer adults over 30 say they have done this.
Americans with household incomes of less than $30,000 are more likely than those with higher incomes to say they have gotten help during the pandemic from people they know personally and from both religious and nonreligious charitable organizations. And Black and Hispanic adults are more likely than white adults to say they have turned to all three sources for assistance with housing, bills or food.
Online or In Person, Many Americans Have Heard Sermons Addressing Timely Political and Social Events
The social and political issues that have gripped the country over the past few months also have made their way to the pulpit – both the physical and digital. Among Americans who say they attended or watched religious services in person or online in the month prior to when the survey was conducted in mid-July, three-quarters report having heard sermons that expressed the importance of taking steps to limit the spread of the coronavirus, and a majority of Protestants in the historically Black tradition (68%) heard messages of support for the recent Black Lives Matter protests.
While four-in-ten Americans have heard sermons expressing the importance of voting, protesting and other forms of political engagement, messages of support for – or opposition to – either of the major presidential candidates have been far less common.
Of the specific social and political issues asked about in the survey, mentions of the importance of taking steps to limit the spread of the coronavirus are most prevalent in sermons. Among U.S. adults who say that they have either attended worship services in person or watched services on TV or online in the last month, 76% say that they have heard sermons that expressed the importance of taking steps to limit the outbreak. By comparison, about three-in-ten say they have heard sermons expressing opposition to government orders that prevented houses of worship from holding in-person services.
Large majorities across Christian traditions say that they have heard sermons touching on the importance of limiting the outbreak. Among those who have attended or watched religious services, Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party are somewhat more likely than Republicans and their leaners to say that they have heard content expressing the importance of limiting the virus, and Black and Hispanic respondents are more likely than white respondents to say that they have heard this sentiment expressed. But large majorities of all of these groups have received a similar message of caution about the pandemic.
Respondents also were asked whether they have heard sermons that touched on the recent Black Lives Matter protests that followed the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Four-in-ten U.S. adults who attended religious services in person or watched services online or on TV in the last month (41%) say that they heard sermons that expressed support for the protests. On the other hand, a quarter say that they heard sermons that have expressed opposition to the Black Lives Matter protests.
Protestants in the historically Black tradition are especially likely to say they have heard sermons in support of the protests (68%), although they also are more likely than most other Christian groups to report hearing opposition (38%). Meanwhile, Democrats are roughly twice as likely as Republicans to have heard sermons that express support for the protests (59% vs. 29%).
A Pew Research Center survey conducted in June posed a related question: Had respondents heard any sermons condemning police violence against Black people? Overall, 37% of U.S. regular attenders (that is, those who said in a 2019 survey that they typically attend religious services at least monthly) reported hearing sermons condemning such violence. Within this group, about half of Black adults (53%) and roughly four-in-ten Hispanics (43%) said that they had heard sermons condemning police violence, while fewer white adults (31%) said the same.
The new survey, conducted in mid-July, also finds large racial and ethnic gaps on the question about Black Lives Matter: 67% of Black worshippers say they have heard support for the protests in sermons, compared with 43% among Hispanics and 32% among whites.
Four-in-ten adults who attended services in person or watched them virtually in the last month say that they have heard sermons that discussed the importance of voting, protesting and other forms of political engagement. Again, Protestants in the historically Black tradition are the only Christian group in which a majority (61%) say they have heard sermons on this topic. In addition, roughly half of Democrats (52%) have heard sermons expressing the importance of political engagement, while just 33% of Republicans say the same.
Respondents also were asked whether they have heard sermons about abortion in the last month. About a third of adults who have attended services in person or watched them online or on TV in the last month say that they have heard sermons opposing abortion, with Republicans more likely than Democrats to have heard such messages (42% vs. 28%). A smaller share of adults who have attended or watched services in the last month say that they have heard sermons expressing support for legal abortion (11%).
Though sermons have contained content on salient political and social issues, specific mentions of the two candidates in the upcoming presidential election are much less common. (There are restrictions on involvement in political campaigns by tax-exempt organizations, including religious institutions.)
About one-in-ten U.S. adults who have attended religious services in person or watched them digitally in the last month (9%) say that they have heard sermons that expressed support for incumbent President Donald Trump, while a similar share (7%) say that they have heard opposition to the president. About one-in-ten (11%) report hearing both sentiments in sermons.
Sermons that expressed support for (6%) or opposition to (4%) the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, also are relatively uncommon, although again, one-in-ten (9%) say they have heard multiple perspectives on Biden in sermons. However, Protestants in the historically Black tradition are more likely than other Christians to report having heard sermons that expressed opposition to Trump or support for Biden.
Originally published by Pew Research Center, 08.07.2020, reprinted with permission for non-commercial, educational purposes.