Posted on 03/06/2014 12:01:33 PM PST by nickcarraway
It's an oft-repeated message that religion and LGBT bashing go together like santorum and anal sex, but a new survey finds that is not the case, after all.
According to a new national survey by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), titled "A Decade of Change in American Attitudes about Same-Sex Marriage and LGBT Issues," not only have attitudes changed drastically in favor of pro-LGBT rights, but religious bias has also been overstated.
The religiously unaffiliated, unsurprisingly, overwhelmingly support teh gheyz (73 percent), but so do majorities of Jewish Americans (83 percent), white mainline Protestants (62 percent), white Catholics (58 percent) and even Hispanic Catholics (56 percent) currently support same-sex marriage.
While a (sometimes slim) majority of religious folks tend to support LGBT issues, regular churchgoers (those who attend at least once or twice a month), still think that they are in the minority, and that their church takes the opposite viewpoint on things like same-sex marriage. From the findings:
About 6-in-10 (59 percent) white mainline Protestants believe their fellow congregants are mostly opposed to same-sex marriage. However, among white mainline Protestants who attend church regularly, only 36 percent oppose allowing gay and lesbian people to legally marry while a majority (57 percent) actually favor this policy. Roughly three-quarters (73 percent) of Catholics believe that most of their fellow congregants are opposed to same-sex marriage. However, Catholics who regularly attend church are in fact divided on the issue (50 percent favor, 45 percent oppose). Contributing to the misconception that religion takes an anti-gay stance is the mainstream media, which, you've probably noticed, tends to favor evangelical talking heads who think Girl Scout cookies turn people into lesbian witches, among other ridiculous rhetoric. The media ignores more moderate religious viewpoints, pro-LGBT people of faith, and even atheists, who represent 16 percent of Americans, but get less than 1 percent of air time, according to a study by GLAAD and the University of Missouri Center on Religion & the Professions.
This kind of fabricated "religion vs gays" polarizing is having a negative effect, says PRRI CEO Dr. Robert P. Jones. Particularly on the younger generations.
"Nearly one-third of Millennials who left their childhood religion say unfavorable church teachings about or treatment of gay and lesbian people played a significant role in their decision to head for the exit."
Almost 33 percent! That's a pretty staggering number when one considers all the other reasons a millennial might stop going to church, such as hypocrisy, political grandstanding, and, lesbihonest, that it interferes too much with Sunday brunch plans.
How about gay rapists? A close male relative of mine was raped by a gay man who used a sedative placed in a drink to knock the then 15 year old out. The boy woke up to being anally raped on a boat out on the water. I was a Christian, but I found the man and beat his head in with a fire extinguisher I happened to spot on the wall next to his work desk where I decided why hurt my hands when this metal will do nicely. I think I hated him pretty while I was doing it. Did I seek forgiveness afterward? You bet I did.
Are you saying you attacked him as you discovered the crime or later? I don’t think you hated him because he committed a terrible crime, not because he was gay. Also, are you saying you left Christianity because of this?
They also mistake people who admonish sinners — the first listed in many lists of spiritual acts of mercy among the Latins, though I’ve also seen it placed third, and since St. Peter of Mogila among us Orthodox as well, and thus an act of love, not hatred — for “haters”. (Or, as you observe, pretend to.)
When you work with people for a while things come up in conversations you know, like intelligent people do and one thing leads to another, such as, news articles or news stories and then people communicate. Hard to understand that concept I guess from your point of view.
Definition of “hate gays” here = oppose redefinition of marriage to suit latest PC whim
The issue is one of association.
The homosexuals are trying to associate their conduct with those of normal behavior.
The best counter to is to associate homosexual conduct as the same as other sexual fetishes (animal sex, leather, wife swappers, pain/cutting/whathever, criminal acts)
The warnings get kind of hollow when pronounced by people who’ve been wallowing in sex sins — even of other kinds. That is a modern woe. Sincerity counts in effectiveness.
I don’t hate homosexuals. I hate their sin. I hate the damage they do to our society. There is the difference.
I don’t actually HATE anyone. But I do despise some people for their actions and behaviors.
God loves the sinner but hates the sin. Should Christians not try to do the same?
Most religious people don’t hate....
Ah, but the LGBTQ[continue alphabet soup here] types regard the admonition of sinners (when those sinners are homosexuals, at least) as “hate” whether it comes from hypocrites or from pious, chaste monastics.
Sincerity in pursuing the good does not count for much with a crowd that calls evil “good” and good “evil”.
Frankly sexual orientation should never come up in conversation, it is a gay phenomenon. Men and women sodomites MUST let you know that they are homosexual. It is how they view themselves and the world.
It happens and it does. To me it’s no biggie. No more so as I have a tat on my left shoulder about two inches in size of a yellow Star of David with the word “Jude” - the German spelling of Jew that looks just like the yellow star Jews wore in Nazi Germany. This is in your response “should they wear a pink triangle” I don’t think you have any concept of how people intermingle regardless of who or what they are.
You ain’t going to go far with God without the sincerity.
Christians are taught to love all of God’s people, but not the sinful things they do. But the love is not the mushy-gushy kind of love, but rather a unconditional, sacrificial love for God’s creation - to care, but not to condone.
Remember Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, (after admonishing the men stoning her death, he who has no sin cast the first stone.)go and sin no more.
Same thing here.
I have some Mafia friends and I don’t give a rat’s patoot what their personal preferences are when they decide they like to murder people who they don’t like.
When they’re working with me I expect them to do their job like anyone else and leave their personal preferences to themselves. We have no problems.
Isn’t that the moral way of life?
Stupid.
Wait a minute - is the question hating GAYS or hating gay MARRIAGE?
Stop conflating the issues.
Hate the sin not the sinner
Uh huh.
This is called experience.
And I’ve experienced this same stuff for others. It can’t be helped. You are influenced by your observations and experiences of others’ actions.
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