Here’s how the new edition of the important global religious freedom study from the Pew Research Center was announced: “The share of countries with a high or very high level of social hostilities involving religion reached a six-year peak in 2012, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. A third (33%) of the 198 countries and territories included in the study had high religious hostilities in 2012, up from 29% in 2011 and 20% as of mid-2007.”

“Social hostilities” against religion encompass actions by private persons and organizations, such as setting fire to another faith’s worship buildings, killing a person because they converted to a different faith, firing someone because of their beliefs, harassing another person because of their religious garb, etc.

The US ranks in the “moderate” range for such private hostility to religion. And we rank in the “moderate” range also on the “government restrictions” index, which measures laws and government action against people and organizations of faith.

“Moderate” is better than “very high” or “high” government restrictions on religion. When it comes to government action against religion, we are doing better than Egypt, China, Syria, Libya, and Turkey, among many others. But we are doing worse than Canada, Sweden, Chile, Japan, Brazil, South Africa, and Albania!

For the US: Plenty to celebrate; plenty of improvements to make. Read thestudy, the research for which was headed by Brian Grim.