by Amelia Metz, First Liberty Institute • 2 minutes
As states move to restore voluntary prayer, religious expression and the Ten Commandments in public schools, a new Pew Research Center survey suggests these efforts have broad public support.
The survey of nearly 3,600 U.S. adults found broad support for religious expression in schools. 78% of adults favor allowing students to voluntarily pray in student-led groups. 57% favor allowing coaches to lead their teams in prayer. 50% favor displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
The message behind these numbers is clear: most Americans want students, coaches, and teachers to have the freedom to express their faith openly, without fear of censorship.
That is exactly the freedom that the First Amendment was written to protect. The Free Exercise Clause guarantees Americans the right to practice religion in every part of life—not just at home, and not just on Sundays.
It’s important to note that public opinion doesn’t settle constitutional questions. But public support can help bust the myth that people don’t want religion active in public life.
The Pew study revealed that the majority of Americans actually do want that freedom to express their closely held values and convictions—and they want others to have that freedom too.
And that support holds up across all generations. While adults 50-and-older are more likely to favor displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms, a strong percentage of younger Americans back it, too. This position isn’t confined to one age group. Americans see room for faith in public education, and they want it protected.
The takeaway? This shift in cultural attitude and public opinion is no coincidence. It has a lot to do with a seismic shift in religious freedom law over the past decade. And as the laws and precedents have become more favorable for religious freedom, it’s also being reflected in positive public sentiment for religious expression.
That change in the legal landscape is being driven by First Liberty’s major Supreme Court victories, including our Coach Kennedy and Bladensburg Peace Cross cases, which affirmed that government cannot eliminate religion from public life.
In our Coach Kennedy case, the Supreme Court held that a public high school football coach could not be disciplined for offering a prayer on the field after games. The Court rejected the idea that government neutrality requires the elimination of religious expression from public life.
This is exactly the principle that First Liberty has defended: the right of students to pray, the right of coaches to express their own faith without fear of punishment, the right of communities to publicly acknowledge the history and tradition of religion in American life.
As more states, counties, cities and local governments consider bringing prayer, religious expression, and the Ten Commandments back to schools and the public square more broadly, these findings send a clear message: Americans are ready for it.
