Putting PEW in perspective

The PEW study has begun to make the rounds and the interpretations are emerging from the Jewish community. You can read the JTA article by Sue Fishkoff at this link:
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/2008022620080225PEWreport.html
One thing that I wanted clarified was, how did PEW get the percent of intermarriage to be so much lower than NJPS did? So I emailed Dr. Bruce Phillips. Here’s his answer:
They are looking only at Jew by religion. Secular Jews are more likely to marry a non-Jew. The rate reported by NJPS was something like 48%, so these two estimates are probably not all that far off.
For those of us who like to ponder numbers he adds:
The highest possible rate for Protestants, by the way, is 50% since half the country is Protestant. You have to remember the ceiling when comparing religions.