Litigation Update: Legal Developments Surrounding Tithing and Religious Donations

The 2025 Wheatley Institute Seminar on Religion and Politics provided an excellent opportunity for political science and sociology graduate students from around the country to explore the role of religion in society. The seminar explored the history and current landscape of religious identity, influence, pluralism, and its impact on American politics and culture. Students also explored quantitative and qualitative methods and experiential wisdom in studying religion and politics from leading faculty in the field. Learning areas included how to explore data sources for research on religion, how to classify religious groups for more accurate measurements in surveys, how to measure religious behavior and belief, and how to study specific religious traditions.

Wheatley Institute partnered with the BYU International Center for Law and Religion Studies to host the 2025 Religious Freedom Annual Review. This year's theme was Religion, Peace, and Human Flourishing: Understanding the Whys of Religious Freedom. The Annual Review brought a broad array of perspectives to this issue, with religious, media, academic, legal, and thought leaders. These exerts addressed several questions. What role does religion play in building peace and fostering human flourishing? How does religious freedom’s respect for both individual choice as well as the human dignity of all increasingly matter in a fractious world? Experts on religious freedom and peacemaking explored the interconnections.

Mashable explores the modern problem that parents face as they raise children in a digital world in June 2022 article. They use research from the Wheatley Institute report called "Teaching by Example" to explore how parenting styles impact the realtionship that kids have with the technology in their home.

Washington Examiner journalist Heather Hamilton cited Wheatley Institute research in a recent article. The article explores the mental health of adolescents in conjunction with the social media use of their parents. Hamilton uses research from the report "Teaching by Example" which was authored by Sarah Coyne, Emily Weinstein, Spencer James, Megan Gale, and Megan Van Alfen and published by the Wheatley Institute in June of 2022.

Jenet Jacob Erickson, an Associate Professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University and Wheatley Institute Fellow, shared her thoughts on Supreme Court draft leak regarding Roe v. Wade. The draft penned by Justice Samuel Alito seeks to overturn the Roe v. Wade case of 1973 that granted the right to receive an abortion.