Posted on 09/13/2004 5:51:23 PM PDT by Land of the Irish
September 10, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life says that the relationship between religious affiliation and political views is more complex than at first appears.
Evangelical Christians, Mainline Protestants and white Roman Catholics were polled for their opinions on a variety of political issues for Pew's Fourth National Survey of Religion and Politics. In general the results show what pro-life activists have known by experience. What are referred to as 'religious traditionalists,' those who adhere closely to the official teachings of their religions, are more likely to hold similar beliefs between religious groups.
Tradition-minded Catholics and Protestants are often found making common cause over abortion and marriage issues, and frequently say they find more in common with each other than with more 'liberal' members of their own faiths. The Pew study found that what it called 'modernists' in the various religions experience the same trend.
The study shows that the two groups, religious traditionalists and religious modernists are sharply divided on the issue of abortion, but a large majority is in agreement over the use of embryos for stem cell research. Among Evangelical Protestants, traditionalists are overwhelmingly pro-life (84%-to-16%), while modernists favor the pro-choice position (63%-to-37%) while Catholics as a whole are more 'pro-choice.' However the same split does not occur over embryo experimentation. This disconnect is perhaps unsurprising since the advance of embryo research, IVF and cloning has been extremely rapid and has been paced by misinformation and confusion in media reporting. Majorities of only two groups, traditionalist Evangelicals and traditionalist Catholics, favoured a ban on embryo research.
The study also shows that there was almost universal support of indeterminate 'gay rights,' but it was when those rights were considered to include 'gay marriage' that differences arose. The biggest supporters of homosexual 'marriage' are atheists and agnostics, Jews, modernist Catholics, modernist Mainline Protestants and modernist Evangelical Protestants. Interestingly, the study showed a decline in support for 'gay rights' among black Protestants, (44%-to-40%), who until as recently as four years ago were 56% in support. "But many black Americans," the study's authors say, "are social conservatives and the recent controversy over same-sex marriage may have reduced their support for gay rights."
Majorities of only two groups, traditionalist Evangelicals and traditionalist Catholics, favoured a ban on embryo research.
Ping
Ping
I keep saying that the ecclesial strife mirrors the secular culture war.
Leftists against the rest of us, and modernists against the rest of us.
We have people right here on FR who are as loathesomely leftist as any leprous scrod on DU, but because they confine it to the Religion Forum, they escape a well-deserved zotting.
Ping
Irish, this fault line was evident in the different attitudes manifested towards Gibson's Passion of the Christ.More traditional Catholics and evangelical Protestants found common ground in their appreciation of the film.
Try telling any neo-Catholic that modernism is a different religion (more different than traditional protestantism) and you'll quickly be labelled "schismatic".
I'm surprised it took so long to reveal what is stunningly obvious.
As a continuing Anglican, I have much more in common with traditional Catholics, confessional Protestants, certain Baptists, Orthodox Jews and Christian Orthodox than I ever will have with the ECUSA, mainline Protestants, or ecumenical Catholics.
It really says something that I share more doctrine with a Hassidic Jew than with a mainline Christian.
I would not agree that Catholics are more pro-choice.
Cathoics are NOT as a whole more pro-choice. It's just tha fallen away Catholics continue to specify their sect, whereas fallen-away Protestants revert to being simply "Christian."
Church-going Catholics voted 68% for George Bush. I'd say 99% of these were pro-life. And of the 32% who voted for Al Gore, I'd bet that the large majority did so in spite of Gore's pro-choice stance, not because of it. For instance, the Catholic Digest, a once fine publication, published a side-by-side comparison wherein Gore claimed to be Pro-Life!
>>As a continuing Anglican, I have much more in common with traditional Catholics, confessional Protestants, certain Baptists, Orthodox Jews and Christian Orthodox...<<
How ecumenical of you!
>> than I ever will have with ... ecumenical Catholics. <<
Oh. nevermind.
Contrariwise, I don't think there exists on Earth more than a roomful of pro-life fallen-away Catholics. (Not counting as fallen-away those who are embracing another conservative sect.)
Traditionalist Catholics have more in common(culturally speaking) with muslims than with liberal catholics.
Link to study in PDF format: http://pewforum.org/publications/surveys/green.pdf
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