Moral Divisions that We Are Especially Called to Explore 

EDITOR’s NOTE: Sponsored by the Communications Committee of the International Association of Religion Journalists (IARJ), these columns are designed as brainstorming opportunities. 

This month’s “Story Ideas” column was delayed from our usual 1st-of-each-month publication schedule so that we could share with you a new (March 5, 2026) Pew Research report, based on data from 25 nations around the world. It’s the first time Pew has tried to assess the perceptions of people around the world about the morality of their neighbors—data that’s custom-made for religion journalists to dig into.

This report reveals deep national divisions over issues that religion journalists are uniquely equipped to explore in our reporting. Pew is revealing perceived lines of conflict that we are especially called to potentially bridge as reporters. This is why I often say to other religion-reporting colleagues: “Good media builds healthy communities.”

In short: This is timely news that’s ideal for us to address.

I have to admit, as well, that I am writing this in sincere astonishment that Pew found there was only one country in the world where the majority of people were suspicious of the immorality of “others”—the United States! Having covered religious and cultural diversity around the world for more than 50 years, this explains a whole lot to me about the  rise of extremism within our nation since the Christian Right strongly emerged in the 1990s. That rise paralleled the growing diversity of our nation and often took the form of a rejection of that diversity. Now, Americans are witnessing some of the most savage in-fighting we’ve ever seen over perceptions of morality. What I did not realize until I saw this March 5, 2026, Pew report was that we stand alone in this lop-sided level of suspicion of our neighbors.

As a religion journalist myself, I am writing this month for my readers about ways that we can help to alleviate such distrust with accurate, balanced information about our neighbors and our growing diversity.

Then—please, take a look at your nation (if it’s among the 25 Pew studied) and see where you stand. Talk to religious leaders as well as community leaders about why your cultural balance on these issues ranks the way it does in Pew’s list.

The researchers explain:

All surveys were conducted over the phone with adults in Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Surveys were conducted face-to-face in Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa and Turkey. In Australia, we used a mixed-mode probability-based online panel.

Here’s the link to Pew’s overview story about this study.

Then, here’s a direct link to download the entire 31-page report in a PDF format.

Finally, if you want to dive deeper into individual “tables,” Pew provides this link.

One more story idea “tip”: Explore the diversity of Easter this year.

Most news media professionals in the U.S. assume there is one, single Easter. And, that’s true for the majority population of Christians who will celebrate on Sunday, April 5. However, Eastern Orthodox Easter, or Pascha, is Sunday, April 12, in 2026. If you have never covered an Orthodox Pascha liturgy, I can guarantee that it’s a dramatic and visually impressive occasion.

But that’s not all! Various Christian denominations around the world have other distinctive Lenten-and-Easter customs. If you are reporting in India, for example, consider reporting a story on the distinctive practices of the 2,000-year-old Mar Thoma church.

Share with us

Let’s make this as easy as possible: David Crumm, a veteran religion writer, magazine editor and publisher based in Michigan in the U.S., writes this column on behalf of the IARJ Communications Committee. If you’ve got further ideas to share about any item in this column, email David directly at [email protected]

Or, if you’ve reported these kinds of stories, send David a link that we can include in a future column.

The IARJ is dedicated to assisting religion journalists around the world to help each other find ever more meaningful ways to report on the significant impact of religion in communities around the world.