Views about Christian prayers in public school, by state

A map about people who paid attention in history and government class vs those who didn’t.

Exactly. Grew up Christian and it convinced me to be agnostic. Even then, I still would never add religious beliefs to the teaching of children early in life, when they clearly lack intelligent decision making skills.
- I think teaching about religion is fine and actually good for interacting with people outside your culture. Teaching of a specific religion is where you run into trouble.
  I had a unit early on in school and another one in my early teens where we basically learned about the origins of a bunch of different religions and cultures surrounding them. Learned a lot about people that otherwise would seem unapproachable to me.
- Yeah, are you ever convinced as an agnostic? I thought, that was the point.
I didn't need those classes to know forcing religion onto others is the exact opposite of what Jesus wanted

I thought that the deeply religious states were more of a minority. Yikes.

They are. Those areas are thinly populated.
- Unfortunately it's land that votes, not people.
- Ohio and Florida are thinly populated? Texas has a large area but also population.
- Just over half of U.S. adults (52%) say they favor allowing public school teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus
  Nationwide, a slightly larger share of Americans say they favor allowing teacher-led prayers referencing God (57%)
  It's right there in OP.
To learn anything about American politics you need a county level map.
- With size adjusted to account for population! It becomes useless as a map, but significantly more illustrative of the political realities.
  The US 2020 Presidential Election Cartogram:
  Oh, and here's 2024
- just look tht gerrymandered maps.
Maine is the least religious state but for some reason is gray on the chart. I'm curious about how the question was asked in the study
Relative to the US average. But the US is a very deeply religious nation compared to other developed nations.
I grew up in one of those states and it's part of why I'm a certified America Hater today. I genuinely don't think people who haven't been exposed to it, even within the country, but especially outside of it, really have a grasp on how prominent and powerful religion is in the US. Hell, I didn't fully understand it myself until I lived outside of the country for a time and saw what normal is like. This country is a madhouse.

That's a lot of stupid morons who pretend to care about the constitution but don't.

That's a lot of stupid morons who pretend to care about the ~~constitution~~ bible but don't.
- Pretty much.
"You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons."
- I love blazing saddles

The point of the establishment clause is that it shouldn't matter what the majority says about religion. It should mean exactly nothing. Tyranny of the majority shouldn't be allowed to make non-Christians into second class citizens.

I'm saving this for when the civil war is about to break out and I need a rough estimate of where the front lines will be.

If there's a civil war, Michigan will quickly be appropriated to Canada.
- Keep it, not interested.
- The only states id maybe be interested in as a Canadian is California, New York and Washington (also Maine because why do they even extend so far into Québec?).
  For real though, with the Democrats response to Trump, I don’t really want them anywhere near Canadian politics. They’d make our Liberals look socialist
- If it were all purely based on this map, all states in grey and brown could join canada and still be a country with a single (ok very long and hard to defend) border to the remaining US states.
Also factor
Military, national & state guard, and LE bases project a zone of control
100 miles from any border is a zone of control

As culture wars continue to brew in schools across the United States, one unconventional group is pushing for more representation in the classroom: Satanists. This has particularly caused controversy in states like Tennessee, where an elementary school formed a program for children called the "After School Satan Club."

This program was created by an organization called the Satanic Temple, a relatively new religious movement that purports to teach "compassion and empathy toward all creatures." However, the introduction of these clubs has unsurprisingly made parents upset, while supporters of the Satanic Temple say they are working to improve the lives of children.

https://theweek.com/education/satanists-school-representation-after-school-satan-club

The Satanic Temple really is great. For those that haven't heard of them, check it out. Donate. Join. They use religious laws for the promotion of logic, reason, and empathy.

What the fuck

What the fuck Michigan

Horrifying

Lookit that. The states with religious indoctrination vs states with educational “indoctrination.”

There's your problem in a nutshell, America.

This person does not understand how America got to this point.

Interesting, places that many cultures and beliefs are coming led heavily oppose it, while states that are majority WASPs are for it.

Interesting that simply being around people of other beliefs can change your way of thinking.

Tax the church!

There is no way utah and idaho are neutral here

You’d be surprised. The non-Christian/Non-Mormon population of those states is extremely convinced of the need for separation of church and state.
- The Mormons know what would happen to them if a true Christian theocracy arose at the federal level.
- Nothing like proximity to religious zealots to convince you that they shouldn't be anywhere near power (or children).

If they want there is nothing stopping them from praying in school if they want, they just can't compel others to do it with them.

That's the thing. It's not enough that they're free to follow their religion, they need to force everyone else to follow it too.

How was the research conducted? Their website talks about the sample size, but I didn't see how respondents were selected. They claim it's representative of the national population, but if they're cold-calling random people to ask the questions, I can almost guarantee there are going to be more older people responding because younger people tend not to answer unknown phone calls.

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/religious-landscape-study-methodology/
A total of 205,100 sampled addresses were mailed survey invitations. Respondents were given a choice to complete the survey online, by mail, or by calling a toll-free number and completing the survey over the phone with an interviewer. Of the 36,908 U.S. adults who completed the survey, 25,250 did so online, 10,733 did so by mail, and 925 did so by phone.
It goes on to say the results were then weighted to get a representative demographic sample, e.g. if more older people answered, younger responders would count for more.
- I can tell you right now that there is a vast majority of people that are too poor or too scared to participate for any of this to be accurate.

The United States had a good run. I hope I see the entire West Coast secede in my lifetime.

Jesus Christ.

And I say that without a hint of irony.

Why just Christian prayers? Why not prayer in general?

Use a generic "what do you think about prayer in public schools?" survey, and then where states vote YES create campaigns to make satanic and Muslim prayer programs at schools in the states that were all for prayer lol

Because most of these places have <1% non Christians in their communities. Anything else is scary

I live in Michigan, and it's anecdotal because I tend to surround myself with secular people, but I find this hard to believe.

Agreed, also live in Michigan, and not that I know EVERYONE in this state, I find it really hard to believe that the state as a whole would go for this.
Michigan went to Trump in both 2016 and 2024.
- Trumpers are not always religious.

WTF RI?

That is not surprising.

I love maps that are basically just population density maps

Is it though? Florida is quite dense in US terms and states like Idaho and Montana are about as far from dense as you can get.
- More importantly in terms of net domestic migration the overwhelming majority of people are going to the states in blue. Particularly Florida andTexas.

Funny part is .... it has absolutely no indication of how religious or moral any of these regions are

I feel bad for Colorado, always stuck in the middle.

Idaho….? Utah? Neutral, really?

Utah has been getting a ton of Californians moving in. Also, Mormons seem to believe the whole separation of church and school thing.

Repeal the 1st. It's clear you can't have religious freedom without it just allowing a theocracy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

We shouldn't ban religion, though--just institution.

Just make them pay taxes every time they get even close to talking about electoral politics.