National

Pastors and priests seeking to fill their pews with young churchgoers have a tough task ahead. According to a newly released survey, even before they move out of their childhood homes, many younger Millennials have already moved away from the religion in which they were raised, mostly joining the growing ranks of the religiously unaffiliated.

The 2012 Millennial Values Survey, conducted jointly by Public Religion Research Institute and Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, shows that college-age Millennials (ages 18-24) are more likely than the general population to be religiously unaffiliated (25 percent vs. 19 percent in the general population). Moreover, they report significant movement from the religious affiliation of their childhood: Only 11 percent of Millennials were raised religiously unaffiliated, but one-quarter (25 percent) identify as religiously unaffiliated today, an increase of 14 points.

More than two-thirds (68 percent) of Jewish Americans say they will participate in a Passover Seder this year, a ritual feast that commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the Israelites were emancipated from slavery in ancient Egypt. This Friday night after sundown, as they move through the Haggadah, the text that sets forth the order of the Seder, celebrants will read aloud the classic line: “Let all who are hungry come and eat; let all who are needy come and celebrate the Passover.”

The past six weeks of political sparring over the White House’s contraception mandate have brought the issue of religious liberty-and debates about its scope and relationship to other rights-to the fore of national consciousness. Over the past month, American Catholic bishops, alongside prominent politicians (including presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich), have declared that the White House regulation which requires religiously affiliated organizations like hospitals, schools, and social service agencies to provide birth control to their employees at no cost, violates these organizations’ religious liberty.

President Obama, with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, announces changes to the insurance policy on contraception on Feb. 10. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)

Earlier this month, before the furor over several proposed abortion bills threw Virginia into the national spotlight, another controversial bill began moving in the House of Delegates.

Last week, religious leaders, pundits and politicians alike found themselves tangled in a controversy with an unusual number of moving parts.

Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, gestures during an interview at the North American College in Rome, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. (Gregorio Borgia - AP) Opposition led by the American Catholic bishops sparked a wider protest after the Obama administration announced its new requirement that employers provide no-cost birth control to employees through their insurance plans. The White House excused churches and other places of worship from the rule, but refused to grant a similar exemption to religiously affiliated organizations like colleges, hospitals, and social agencies. The ensuing firestorm over whether this was an issue of religious liberty or women’s health resulted in a quicker-than-anticipated compromise. By weeks end, the Obama administration modified the ruling to require insurers rather than objecting religious institutions to pick up the tab, while still upholding the principle of making no-cost birth control available to all women regardless of their employer.