Logo

Sign up for our special edition newsletter to get a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic.

The majority of Americans want curbs on in-person church services and are not worried about restrictions on their religious freedoms as states begin to ease coronavirus lockdowns, a new poll has found.

Just 9% of Americans want no restrictions on religious services, while 48% said they should not be allowed at all, according to a recent poll by the University of Chicago’s Divinity School and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. Even for those Americans who strongly identify with a religion, 45% of those polled said they did not want to see a return to in-person services at churches, synagogues and mosques.

Among those polled, white evangelical Protestants embraced a return to in-person worship, and 46% of the group said that barring them from churches violates their freedom of religion.

The results of the poll come a week after President Trump said he was consulting with religious leaders on a gradual return to in-person worship as lockdowns are eased in some states over the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s wonderful to watch people over a laptop, but it’s not like being at a church,” Trump said during a Fox News town hall on Sunday. “And we have to get our people back to churches, and we’re going to start doing it soon.”

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy