A Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study released today reports the following:

Compared with other racial and ethnic groups, African-Americans are among the most likely to report a formal religious affiliation, with fully 87% of African-Americans describing themselves as belonging to one religious group or another. The analysis also finds that nearly eight-in-ten African-Americans (79%) say religion is very important in their lives, compared with 56% among all U.S. adults.

These are among many findings of the new Pew Forum analysis detailing the unique nature of religion in the African-American community. Other highlights include:

· A large majority of African-Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular faith (72%) say religion plays at least a somewhat important role in their lives; nearly half (45%) of unaffiliated African-Americans say religion is very important in their lives, roughly three times the percentage who says this among the religiously unaffiliated population overall (16%).

· African-Americans express a…

Photo from Resman Associates

David Briggs at the Cleveland Plain Dealer has a fascinating story about black churches leaving lower-income neighborhoods. Oddly, this has been a centuries old practice among whites but it has rarely uttered an objection. What we find, in fact, is not that the “black church” is simply moving out of low income areas but the second large wave of black middle-class folks are now moving to the suburbs–a trend that began in the 1960s when blacks were given more freedom to let the market inform our living preferences.

There are still black churches in black communities. For example, if you drive up and down Page Avenue between Vinita Park and downtown, you cannot drive half a mile without seeing a black church. However, Briggs writes,

[T]he black church is at a crossroads. Longtime congregations like are critical to struggling neighborhoods, providing safety, social services and an anchor for revitalization plans.

In…