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Poll: PCUSA Church Members Increasingly Favoring Same-Sex Marriage
Christian Post ^ | 10/05/2012 | By Michael Gryboski

Posted on 10/06/2012 1:15:41 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

According to a recently released survey, support for same-sex marriage among Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) members and pastors has considerably increased since 2005.

In research conducted by Presbyterian Research Services and published in October, the number of PC(USA) members and pastors supporting the denomination redefining marriage grew. In 2005, 23 percent of PC(USA) members supported same-sex marriage; in 2012, the number had increased to 34 percent. Among pastors, support for same-sex marriage in 2005 was at 35 percent; in 2012, it is at 49 percent.

Jack Marcum, coordinator of Research Services at Presbyterian Mission Agency and author of the published findings, framed the issue regarding a recent vote by PC(USA)'s General Assembly to keep their traditional marriage definition in the denomination's constitution.

"This result indicates a broad-based shift in opinions across the church in only a few years. Longer term, the effect of generational change will be felt: 75 percent of young adult advisory delegates at the General Assembly supported the redefinition of marriage," wrote Marcum. "Hence, the next effort to change the marriage definition might well succeed. Indeed, it's possible that this year's effort would have succeeded, save for arguments that such a radical redefinition was too much change in the denomination, too soon."

Dr. Paul E. Detterman, executive director for the conservative group Presbyterians for Renewal, told The Christian Post that he felt the increased support for same-sex marriage in the PC(USA) had less to do with changed minds and more to do with different people. He pointed to the large number of conservative who left or are leaving the denomination.

"There is a substantial number of conservative individuals and congregations … who have disengaged from these debates within the PC(USA) or who are now in the process of departure," said Detterman.

"This survey is probably quite accurate in reflecting the views of people responding in the PC(USA) in 2005 and people responding in the PC(USA) in 2012. As different from the U.S. demographic analysis, however, these are not people who have changed their views – these are simply not the same people."

According to the PC(USA) Constitution, W-4.9001, "Marriage is a civil contract between a woman and a man. For Christians marriage is a covenant through which a man and a woman are called to live out together before God their lives of discipleship."

In the past, there have been efforts on the part of some in the PC(USA) to change W-4.9001 to read "two people" instead of "a man and a woman." The most recent effort came this past summer at the 220th General Assembly of PC(USA). While the proposed redefinition failed in a vote of 338 nays to 308 ayes, Detterman told CP that he felt as Marcum did that soon the church body will approve a redefinition of marriage in their constitution.

"Sadly, I am confident that every effort will be made by the proponents of this change to see to it that 'marriage' is re-defined in the PC(USA)'s constitution at the next General Assembly," said Detterman.

"The great deception is that this change in the church's core theological identity is an act of love and acceptance toward the LGBT community. Ultimately, and at many levels, nothing could be further from the truth."


TOPICS: Current Events; Mainline Protestant; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: abominationtogod; celebratesin; fauxchristians; gaychurch; gaymarriage; homosexualagenda; homosexuality; liewithstatistics; pcusa; pinkjournalism; pissbyterians; playingchurch; presbyterian; samesexmarriage; synagogueofsatan
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1 posted on 10/06/2012 1:15:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I’ll bet same sex “marriage” is all the church members dream about at night.


2 posted on 10/06/2012 1:18:46 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Sorry Algore. It was attitude, NOT altitude.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Statistical sleight of hand. People and entire congregations who oppose sodomite marriage have left the PCUSA in droves, so I’m amazed that there isn’t more acceptance within the remnants of the PCUSA.


3 posted on 10/06/2012 1:22:42 PM PDT by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

I hope people don’t confuse the PCUSA with the PCA.


4 posted on 10/06/2012 1:23:33 PM PDT by Sigurdrifta
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To: SeekAndFind; wagglebee

How many Presbyterians and Presbyterian churches have left PCUSA since 2005?

When Christians abandon the liberal coven that is the pro-abort, pro-homosexual, anti-semite PCUSA, they can hardly claim to be “winning hearts and minds”. Those who remain may not even agree with the positions, just “going along to get along” and continuing to attend the same church their parents brought them to as kids.

I know I walked.


5 posted on 10/06/2012 1:24:29 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Obama likes to claim credit for getting Osama. Why hasn't he tried Khalid Sheikh Mohammed yet?)
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To: Sigurdrifta
From the positions they take, it is easy to mistake PCUSA for CPUSA.
6 posted on 10/06/2012 1:27:21 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Obama likes to claim credit for getting Osama. Why hasn't he tried Khalid Sheikh Mohammed yet?)
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To: Sigurdrifta

RE: I hope people don’t confuse the PCUSA with the PCA.

_________________________-

For those who don’t know, here’s a little history...

The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is an evangelical Protestant Christian denomination in the Reformed tradition. It is the second largest Presbyterian church body in the United States. The church declares its goal to be “faithful to the Scriptures, true to the Reformed faith, and obedient to the Great Commission.”

Conservative pastors and lay leaders became alarmed by the PCUSA’s drift from orthodoxy and historic confessional and biblical standards of the church.

By the 1970s, conservative pastors in the PCUSA began to plan an exit from the denomination.

They sought to reaffirm the Westminster Confession of Faith as the fullest and clearest exposition of biblical faith and to call all pastors and leaders to affirm the inerrancy of Scripture. As a result they also felt the church should disavow the ordination of women.

In December 1973, delegates from 260 congregations (over half of them from Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina) that had left the PCUSA gathered at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in suburban Birmingham, Alabama, and organized the National Presbyterian Church. After protests from a UPCUSA congregation of the same name in Washington, D.C., the denomination at its Second General Assembly (1974) called itself the National Reformed Presbyterian Church, then adopted its present name (Presbyterian Church in America or PCA) the next day.


7 posted on 10/06/2012 1:28:27 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (bOTRT)
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To: SeekAndFind

Politically Correct(USA) has not proclaimed the gospel for a century.


8 posted on 10/06/2012 1:57:42 PM PDT by lurk
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To: SeekAndFind

I think the PCA’s wrong about ordaining women. There I said it.


9 posted on 10/06/2012 2:07:40 PM PDT by Feline_AIDS (A gun in hand is better than a cop on the phone.)
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To: a fool in paradise

LOL! Good one!


10 posted on 10/06/2012 2:10:16 PM PDT by Sigurdrifta
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To: SeekAndFind

the demoralization continues by the anti-America, anti-Christian communists...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fQoGMtE0EY

look at the whole vid before it’s removed again.


11 posted on 10/06/2012 2:17:55 PM PDT by Dick Vomer (democrats are like flies, whatever they don't eat they sh#t on.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Fake poll alert. If 49 percent of pastors favor it — they should be defrocked or whatever they do to Presbyterian ministers. Each and every one of them. They are Satan’s own minions


12 posted on 10/06/2012 2:21:52 PM PDT by WashingtonSource
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To: SeekAndFind

God doesn’t poll the electorate. And Heaven is not a democracy.


13 posted on 10/06/2012 2:26:57 PM PDT by IronJack (=)
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To: SeekAndFind

Satan has taken over (Alinsky style) over these so-called “Christian” Churches. Basically populated by ugly old fat women and hippie style graybeards.


14 posted on 10/06/2012 2:51:44 PM PDT by Steelfish (ui)
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To: SeekAndFind
PCUSA Church Members Increasingly Favoring Same-Sex Marriage

That's a no brainer. The conservatives have left by the busload leaving the lunatics to run the asylum..

It's like saying the Muslims support the Koran.

15 posted on 10/06/2012 2:59:46 PM PDT by Gamecock
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To: SeekAndFind
In research conducted by Presbyterian Research Services and published in October, the number of PC(USA) members and pastors supporting the denomination redefining marriage grew. In 2005, 23 percent of PC(USA) members supported same-sex marriage; in 2012, the number had increased to 34 percent. Among pastors, support for same-sex marriage in 2005 was at 35 percent; in 2012, it is at 49 percent.

In 2005, PC(USA) members=100,000, and pastors=10,000.

Surveying the members and pastors, Presbyterian Research Services (PRS) found that 23,000 of the 100,000 members (23%) supported same-sex marriage, and that 3500 of the pastors (35%) supported same-sex marriage.

Shortly thereafter, the exodus from the PC(USA) of 32,350 Conservative Christian members and 2,860 pastors began.

In 2012, PC(USA) members=67,650, and pastors=7,140.

Surveying the members and pastors of PC(USA), PRS found that 23,000 of the 67,650 members (34%) supported same-sex marriage, and that 3500 of the 7,140 pastors (49%) supported same-sex marriage.

The Presbyterian Research Services report on the 2005 versus 2012 member and pastor support for same-sex marriage within the PC(USA) was praised as a "blessed increase" by the PC(USA) leadership, and as "huge and series increase" by the leftist media.

16 posted on 10/06/2012 4:33:52 PM PDT by Col Freeper (FR: A smorgasbord of Conservative Mindfood - dig in and enjoy it!)
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To: Feline_AIDS

The PCA does not ordain women or practicing homosexuals.


17 posted on 10/06/2012 7:26:46 PM PDT by ReformationFan
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To: Sigurdrifta

Indeed. I’m in the PCA myself and I never want it to be confused with the PCUSA which resembles the CPUSA more than anything John Calvin or John Knox taught.


18 posted on 10/06/2012 7:29:25 PM PDT by ReformationFan
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To: SeekAndFind

sad. The left continues to try to infiltrate and destroy each group of Christians


19 posted on 10/07/2012 5:34:44 AM PDT by Cronos (**Marriage is about commitment, cohabitation is about convenience.**)
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To: ReformationFan
The PCA does not ordain women or practicing homosexuals.

Yes. And they're wrong about ordaining women.

20 posted on 10/07/2012 10:03:58 AM PDT by Feline_AIDS (A gun in hand is better than a cop on the phone.)
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