Ideas

WASHINGTON — The Pew Research Center published a report on Oct. 28 saying religious practice in the United States has stayed stable since 2020. It found mixed signals among adults under 30. The findings draw on Pew's 2026 National Public Opinion Reference Survey and its 2025 Cross-Sectional Engagement Survey. The youngest Republicans attend services more often than older Republicans, but Pew says they do not alone explain the high attendance among young adults. Younger Democrats also report higher attendance than older ones. Pew also found that the youngest men report more observance than the youngest women, which it says it has not seen in earlier surveys. Gallup data show a larger gap in favor of young men. Pew's combined 2025 and 2026 data show roughly equal shares of young men and women calling religion very important. Pew adds that earlier generations of young adults have often grown less religious with age, so it cannot say whether today's will follow that pattern.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The University of Kentucky has granted David Durman, a research administrator, a religious accommodation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The accommodation excuses him from personally using AI tools in his work. The American Humanist Association says it is the first such exemption for a humanist. Durman says outsourcing his thinking to tools such as Copilot, Claude or ChatGPT would undercut his ability to act as a moral agent. A university equal-opportunity office approved the request in a letter dated Sept. 25. The university found no undue burden on his department. He must still attend meetings and work with colleagues who use AI. A software engineer, Erin Maus, a Unitarian Universalist, received a similar accommodation from her employer in May. The approval was voluntary, and no court has held that humanist beliefs entitle a worker to an AI exemption. Legal experts note that employers may refuse if an accommodation imposes substantial costs, the standard set in Groff v. DeJoy (2023).