Well, the Public Religion Research Institute released a fascinating survey on the political views of Catholic Americans. One finding getting attention is that Catholics are particularly likely to support marriage equality:
Catholics are more supportive of legal recognitions of same-sex relationships than members of any other Christian tradition and Americans overall. Nearly three-quarters of Catholics favor either allowing gay and lesbian people to marry (43%) or allowing them to form civil unions (31%). Only 22% of Catholics say there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship.
The numbers are promising, particularly for questions that explicitly describe a civil marriage “like you get at city hall”: support jumps 28 points, from 43% to 71%.
This must mean that the Catholic church is evolving and teaching its followers to be more accepting and supportive, right?
Well, not exactly:
To summarize: The less frequently the person goes to church (or reports to, at least) the more likely they are to support the right of gays to marry in a religious sense of the term. Coincidence? Could it possibly be that something that is being taught in these churches is causing people to be intolerant of their fellow humans?
