By Phillip Connor, Pew Research Center The U.S. has received 28,957 Muslim refugees so far in fiscal year 2016, or nearly half (46%) of the more than 63,000 refugees who have entered the country since the fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2015, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center. That means that already this year the U.S. has admitted the highest number of Muslim refugees of any year since data on self-reported religious affiliations first became publicly available in 2002. Christians are the second-largest group of refugees to the U.S. so far this fiscal year; 27,556 Christian refugees have entered the country, nearly as many as the number of Muslim refugees. A slightly lower share of 2016’s refugees were Christian (44%) than Muslim, the first time that has happened since fiscal 2006, when a large number of Somali refugees entered the U.S. To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]

By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner LONDON (Christian Examiner) – This year's British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey has yielded a surprising result – Christianity has gained slightly, halting decades of decline, the UK's Telegraph has reported. According to the paper, which has had an advanced look at the unpublished survey's findings, the BSA shows decades of decline in Christianity slowing, or "leveling off" as the paper suggests. The one percent uptick in the number of people claiming to be Christian (from 42 to 43 percent) corresponds with the one percent of people no longer listing themselves as "nones," or British citizens not officially connected with any church or religious denomination. To read the rest of the article, click here. … [Read more...]