- Right now, churches areclosed across the country,

but many say their faith has grown

during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A quarter of all Americanssay their religious

strength has strengthenedbecause of the outbreak.

That's according to a new study

from the Pew Research Center.

Just 2% of those polled saytheir faith has grown weaker.

Christians are more likelythan any other religious group

to say their faith has grown stronger

during the coronavirus emergency.

- And joining us for more onthe new study is Greg Smith.

He is the associatedirector of research at Pew,

and oversees domestic polling on religion.

Greg, it's great to have you back here.

- Great to be with you.

- Greg, the majority ofAmericans in this poll,

47%, say their faith hasn't changed much

during the pandemic.

Others say they weren'treligious to begin with.

So, Greg, for the quarter of Americans

who claim it's strongernow, would you say they were

already pretty strong in theirsense of faith to begin with?

- Absolutely.

What the study showsis that about a quarter

of American adults say theirfaith has grown stronger

as a result of theoutbreak, and that is really

concentrated among people who were

quite religious to begin with.

We can see, for example, that about half

of people who attendchurch at least once a week

say their faith has grown stronger,

as do about four in 10 people who attend

religious services about once a month.

Among those who attend religious services

less often, or not at all,far fewer say that their

faith has grown strongerduring this period.

- Greg, I know thatdenominational and demographic

differences are at play here, too.

What groups have seen thebiggest surge in religious faith?

- Well, the group thathas the highest number

of people who say theirfaith has grown stronger

are those who belong to churches

in the historically blackProtestant tradition.

More than half of thosein the historically

black Protestant tradition say their faith

has grown stronger.

We also see that about four in 10

evangelical Protestantstell us that their faith

has grown stronger as aresult of this crisis.

Smaller shares of Catholics and those

in mainline Protestantdenominations say the same.

And among those people whosay they have no religion,

very few say that their faith has grown

stronger over the last few weeks.

- Very interesting.

About 3% of the peopleyou polled say they were

gathering in person for worship.

We just talked about attendance earlier.

How are the majority ofAmericans doing church now?

- It's really interesting.

The vast majority of people who attend

religious servicesregularly say that their

congregation is currentlyclosed for public services.

Their congregations are notholding in-person services.

But eight in 10 regularlyattending Americans

tell us that their congregation is holding

virtual services instead.

They tell us their churchis streaming services

or recording services so thecongregants can participate

virtually, even though theycan't gather in person.

- And I gotta ask you this, what was

the most striking thing about the results

that you found in the study?

- I think the number onething that jumped out at me

is just how many more people there are

who say their faith has been strengthened

as a result of the outbreak than there are

who say their faith has been weakened.

Now, it's true that mostpeople say their faith

hasn't changed very much,but the share who say

their faith has been strengthened

is something like 12 timeshigher than the share

who say their faith has been weakened.

So far more strengtheningof faith in American life

as a result of thisoutbreak than weakening.

- Greg, we will be keepingtabs on your future studies.

Greg Smith with the Pew Research Center.

Thank you again for being with us.

- Thank you for having me.