In For Goodness' Sake, sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts, Public Agenda set out to better understand what Americans think about religion, its role in the United States today, and how it intersects with public life.

One message arrived loud and clear: Americans strongly equate religion with personal ethics and behavior, considering it an antidote to the moral decline they perceive in our nation today. Crime, greed, uncaring parents, materialism--Americans believe that all these problems would be mitigated if people were more religious. And to most citizens, it doesn't matter which religion is involved.

However, alongside this conviction is an equally strong respect for religious diversity that translates into a strong tolerance of other people's beliefs. Americans seem to expect that they will encounter people of different faiths in their daily lives, and have absorbed the idea of respect into their social conduct. This recognition of the importance of both religious faith and religious diversity is underscored repeatedly in the study.

School prayer is a good example. While many Americans seem to feel the nation has gone too far in removing religion from public schools, only 6 percent call for a school prayer tailored to the Christian majority. Most are reluctant to isolate students whose beliefs are different, and voice concern that school prayers may infringe on the rights of parents. Reaching for balance, the public favors a moment of silence over a spoken prayer. But at the same time, most Americans see persuasive arguments on both sides of the issue.

This attitude extends to public views on the role of religion in politics and government. Many Americans would like their political leaders to be more religious as individuals because they believe it speaks to their character. But most don't consider a candidate's religious affiliation when voting - in fact, 58 percent say it would be wrong to do so. What's more, they are suspicious of politicians who wear their religion on their sleeve. The public says that on volatile issues like gay rights, abortion and the death penalty, even a devout politician may need to make pragmatic compromises.

If these same questions are put to specific religious groups and those who profess no religion, however, opinions can differ markedly. Jewish and nonreligious Americans are much more unnerved by the prospect of mixing religion and politics, and 80 percent of Jews say they still have to be vigilant against anti-Semitism.

Evangelical Christians also have a distinct perspective. More than two-thirds of evangelicals say there's "a lot of prejudice" against them. Though hardly a monolithic group, evangelicals are much more likely to believe devout politicians would craft better policies and to believe religious elected officials should be less willing to compromise on key issues.

Many readers may wonder why this study does not report the views of Muslims, Buddhists or other major faiths. Individuals of every persuasion are included in the general random sample to the extent that they are represented in the national population. The reality is that authoritative research comparing multiple subgroups comes at a stunningly high cost, which has limited the scope of this study. We certainly recognize the increasing importance of Islam and other faiths in the U.S., and we hope to conduct similar research with other groups at a later time.

Often Public Agenda research uncovers the broad outlines of policy proposals likely to win far-reaching support or public concerns that cry out for response. For Goodness' Sake is quite different. We present our findings not so much as a portrait of what people want as a portrayal of how they think. Our goal is to illuminate the expectations and individual reasoning that people bring to voting, to the schools, to family matters, even to their social interactions at work and in the neighborhood. We trust that For Goodness' Sake will open the door to more perceptive and empathetic discussions of these issues among Americans of different faiths and viewpoints.

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